Joanne

"Lady Gaga's album, Joanne, which is named after her late aunt — a sexual assault survivor who died of lupus at nineteen — experiments with rootsier idioms like country and folk, maybe as a kind of goofy gesture toward authenticity, or maybe just to distance herself further from 2013’s overblown and gloppy ARTPOP. Gaga has always sounded most comfortable belting out rich, brawny pop songs while wiggling around a piano bench, and her best tracks, like the deeply irresistible "Yoü and I," from 2011’s Born This Way, are reminiscent of the more virtuosic fringes of glam-rock ("You and I" features inimitable Queen guitarist Brian May, a drumbeat that nods directly to "We Will Rock You," and harmonies that very nearly recall "Bohemian Rhapsody").
"Glam — its blatant preoccupation with fame and stardom, its mischievous and inelegant tendencies, its emphasis on the theatrical, the visual, the decadent, the garish — made sense for Gaga, both for her voice... and for her fantastical, psychedelic-leaning visual taste. A move toward singer-songwriter earnestness now — especially following Cheek to Cheek, the collection of jazz standards she recorded with Tony Bennett, itself a purposeful expression of seriousness, maturity — feels unnecessary...
"Joanne is rife with visitors, though none make themselves especially known: Mark Ronson (who co-produces), Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age."

- Pitchfork.com