Lady Gaga goes retro in more than one way on new single ‘Stupid Love’
Lady Gaga has been an established pop star for over ten years now and she has experienced her ups and downs. After her massive break with her debut era, she stayed on top for long, although critics were quick to point out a decline in sales (although still selling millions) with the albums ARTPOP (2013) and Joanne (2016). While some people were ready to say her days at the top were behind her, she proved the opposite was true and had one of the biggest hits of her career with ‘Shallow’ in 2018 and 2019. The soundtrack of the critically acclaimed A Star Is Born, in which she starred with director Bradley Cooper, received an Oscar, made her reach new audiences and made her enjoy word domination once more. Now Gaga is ready to move on with the brand new single ‘Stupid Love’, the first taken from her upcoming sixth album.
Unfortunately for Gaga, the new single already leaked over a month ago, just like her last album Joanne did (her devastated reaction to that was seen in Netflix documentary Five Foot Two). She persisted on releasing it as the lead single though and recorded a proper music video for it. ‘Stupid Love’ could be seen as a departure from the more acoustic country and rock inspired sound of Joanne and more of a return to the heavily electronic pop music she did on Born This Way. ‘Stupid Love’ does not only throw back to her own discography though, as it also incorporates influences from eighties synth pop, as well as the disco from the seventies.
The production is spot on and keeps drawing you in with every turn the song makes. Although there are some catchy hooks to be found, ‘Stupid Love’ does not really have the big chorus an eighties inspired tune like this deserves. The chorus drop is mostly instrumental and certainly goes off, but it could have done with some more vocal melodies too. ‘Stupid Love’ is certainly not going to reach ‘Shallow’ levels of success (or ‘Bad Romance’ for that matter), but it is good to hear Gaga return to the more unapologetic and straight forward uptempo pop again. The style of ‘Stupid Love’ is certainly what Gaga does best, but in terms of composition, we know she can do even better.
In the music video we see Gaga in a couple of futuristic pink outfits in an out-in-space setting. She seems to be the peace keeper of the community, taking on fighting dudes. There’s eye-catching outfits, some proper choreography and Gaga who seems to have a lot of fun while doing the dance moves. Not nearly her best video, but it certainly serves it purpose.