Lady Gaga flirted with electronic music in the past, working with the likes of Zedd, DJ Snake, Madeon and Infected Mushroom on her previous albums. Aside from a major starring role on the fifth season of American Horror Story, a collaborative album with Tony Bennett and performances at the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards ceremony and other live events, Gaga’s been relatively quiet on promoting or releasing her own solo music.
However, late into Thursday, September 8, Lady Gaga released her new single “Perfect Illusion.” Produced and written by Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker, Mark Ronson and Justin Bieber collaborator BloodPop and featuring guitar work from Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, “Perfect Illusion” is the lead single from Gaga’s as-of-yet unnamed, upcoming album. Gaga also revealed that Beck, Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine and Father John Misty would all appear on the album.
While “Perfect Illusion” assembles a star-studded cast of collaborators, it comes off as a “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario. Parker, Ronson, BloodPop and Homme are all muddled, with normally exciting electronic production work and guitar playing lost behind Gaga’s dominating voice. The melody and hook themselves also sound a bit dated, but we wonder if the retro aesthetic may crossover into chart success given the world’s recent, nostalgic obsession with the 80s.
Listen to Lady Gaga’s new single “Perfect Illusion” below: