Lady Gaga season is approaching
Lady Gaga’s army of Little Monsters have been twiddling their thumbs for ages now waiting on the pop star’s long-anticipated sixth studio album, colloquially known as LG6. Her last solo endeavor was 2016’s Joanne, nearly four years ago, but as Gaga revealed on Twitter Tuesday, new music is finally coming this week. “Stupid Love,” the lead single off her as-of-yet unnamed forthcoming album, drops this Friday, Feb. 28, at midnight ET.
Naturally, the announcement has fueled enthusiastic snooping on the part of her fans. One theory that seems to hold water is that the album is titled Chromatica. If you look closely, you'll find the word stylized and semi-hidden in the single art for “Stupid Love.” If the name of LG6 is indeed Chromatica, that’d track with Gaga’s current aesthetic. The word “chromatic” has both musical and visual connotations, and Gaga has recently spoken about the importance of color in her work.
The star spent much of 2019 promoting the launch of her cosmetics line, Haus Laboratories. “Haus Laboratories is a very colorful place and so is my music,” Gaga said in conversation with her personal makeup artist and brand co-creator, Sarah Tanno-Stewart, last December. “There will be color, it’ll just come out in ways you might not expect,” she added.
Cosmetics were instrumental to Gaga’s artistic development. In the same video, she told Tanno-Stewart that she “discovered herself through makeup,” which led to the creation of her stage persona. “I looked in the mirror and I was like, ‘I don’t like what I see, and I don’t feel good on the inside, so I’m just gonna start painting now. I’m gonna make something that I like,’” Gaga said.
The art for “Stupid Love” echoes a lot of the photos Gaga has been posting to promote Haus Laboratories. The design for the single features a huge, glossy, hot pink pair of lips — which look a lot like Gaga’s own lacquered pout in recent selfies.
One thing we know for sure: LG6 is Grimes-approved! Back in September, the musician posted pictures on her Instagram story of a CD case with Gaga’s photo on it, fueling speculation she’s featured on a track. Grimes gave LG6 a listen, and evidently she’s a big fan: “LG6 is very good. LG6 is a great record!” she said in a video last week.
Grimes’s own highly-anticipated album, Miss Anthropocene, dropped last week to widespread acclaim. Getting new Gaga just a few days later is a veritable musical feast. “Stupid Love” apparently already leaked online (which Gaga seemed to humorously confirm on social media). Still, Friday can’t come soon enough.
