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‘Mother Monster’ is gone, call her Joanne

> ‘Joanne’ album review

Carlos Bilan
Staff Writer

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ady Gaga has finally released Joanne,

her first album in three years. You
may remember reading the pop diva’s
name in the headlines years ago for her
eccentric fashion and bizarre theatrics.
She called herself “Mother Monster” in
reference to her EP The Fame Monster
(2009), and addressed her legion of
fans as “little monsters” to convey the
sentiment that being weird is good.

In 2013, Gaga tried to level up this
eccentricity with ARTPOP, but it turned
out to be a catastrophic EDM mess that
ultimately bombed in sales. It was clear
that Gaga had to revamp her image to
become likeable to the public eye. The
following year, she tapped into the jazz
industry by collaborating with Tony
Bennett in Cheek to Cheek. While the
album won a Grammy Award, many of
her devoted fans wished for a return to
pop. People have been predicting that
Gaga has been going through a process
of reinvention, and her followers have
been eagerly awaiting the result.

In Joanne, released on October 21,
Gaga has incorporated country, classic
rock, and blues elements, while still
offering some dance-floor tunes. In the
edgy “John Wayne,” she fantasizes about
having a cowboy lover since she is sick
of the “Johns” of New York. “Dancin”
in Circles” stands out as one of the

 

 

album’s deep cuts. Co-written by Beck,
the track contains the innuendo “Let’s
funk downtown” in the chorus. Gaga
delivers this hook in a flirty, whispering
tone, a singing style executed in many
songs from The Fame Monster. “Danci’
in Circles” is also reminiscent of The
Fame Monster's “Alejandro” thanks to
its Latin flourishes. Another highlight
of Joanne is the potential women
empowerment anthem, “Hey Girl” with
Florence Welch, all about lifting other
women up instead of competing with
them. The pair’s powerful vocals shine

A secret path to home

> ‘The Secret Path’ album and film review

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

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efore The Tragically Hip made their
last album Man Machine Poem,
frontman Gord Downie’s brother Mike
showed him a story from Maclean's about
Chanie Wenjack, who was a victim of the
residential school system. Downie was
inspired to do a project about it, so he
made an album to tell Chanie’s story, and
it led to a graphic novel and an animated
TV movie. The Secret Path, which was
broadcast recently on CBC commercial-
free, shows how indigenous people
were impacted by residential schools.
The movie follows Chanie as he
escapes from his residential school
and walks along a railroad track to try
to get back to his home in Ogoki Post.
We see flashbacks of him before he was
put into a residential school, as well
as his experiences in the school. The

 

film is split into 10 chapters, and each
chapter is accompanied by a song that
explores Chanie’s life and his journey to
Ogoki Post. There’s also a prologue and
an epilogue that
show Downie as

he sees Chanie’s
relatives in Ogoki
Post, and explains
why he wanted to
do the project.

The Secret Path

is a collaborative
project, with music
by Downie and

the graphic novel
illustrated by Jeff
Lemire. Some of the songs are similar in
style to Arcade Fire, especially the song
Swing Set. Other songs seem to bear
influence from the rest of The Tragically
Hip, and some are more clearly the work
of Downie himself: Most of the film has
blue and white colours to show how

 

Photo via wikimedia

throughout and complement each
other beautifully in this soulful duet.
Gaga is undeniably talented and
was actively part of the production
process, but Joanne has noticeable
flaws. The album’s lead single, “Perfect
Illusion,” isa monumental mistake,
and placing it as the centre track drags
the entire album down. “It wasn’t love,
it wasn't love, it was a perfect illusion,”
Gaga wails repeatedly, and this verse
is stretched out through the whole
track to the point of intolerability. The
vocals and instrumentals are oddly

dark Chanie’s journey is, and there is
more colour in some of the flashbacks to
show happier moments, The animation
in it is beautiful because it shows the
cold, wintery
environment of
Northern Ontario.
One of my favourite
chapters in the
movie is Swing Set,
because of how the
scene is structured
and how it fits
with the song.
Chanie’s
story ends sadly.
After suffering
the horrors of residential school, he
passed away while attempting to get
back to his home. I learned about
the residential schools when I was in
secondary school, and I found out that
the students in them lived in terrible
conditions. Their long hair was cut off,

Image via youtube

discordant, considering this single
was produced by a star-studded team,
including Mark Ronson, Kevin Parker
from Tame Impala, and Bloodpop. The
supposed-to-be club-ready breakup
song sounds like an unfinished demo,
and is noticeably all over the place. Her
ballads, such as “Million Reasons” and
“Angel Down,” are audibly lacklustre
despite their personal and social themes.
The sentiment is there, but the results
are weak. Even songs penned by Father
John Misty Joshua Tillman)—whose
album last year received widespread
acclaim—are unremarkable and sound
like fillers. “Sinner’s Prayer” seems
bland, and “Come to Mama,” with its
message about charity, feels cheesy.
Gaga mentioned in recent
interviews that she made Joanne because
she wanted to release something
authentic—but this implies that
everything she released prior to this
was insincere, when she has always said
that she makes music as an outlet of
her artistry and integrity. The truth is
that Gaga has been—and will always
be—a pop artist, so using rock and blues
as means to be musically authentic is
naive. Earlier in her career, Gaga was
considered a pioneer in the industry,
inspiring many of her peers to follow
in her footsteps in being visually
provocative. Unfortunately, with Joanne,
she arrives at a level of modesty and
does not change the game. However,
if this album does manage to fix her
image, then maybe she has succeeded.

they were forced to wear clothes very
different from their own, and they had
to forget about their culture and convert
to Christianity. In the chapter Don’t Let
This Touch You, a priest in the school
goes inside Chanie’s bedroom, and while
the film does not show what the priest
does to him, it is implied that Chanie
was sexually abused, like many young
people placed into residential schools.
Gord feels that Chanie’s story is
Canada’s story, because the residential
schools were an aspect of national
history very unlike what Canada is
supposed to be. Despite the fact that
there was an inquiry on residential
schools, he thinks that it will take
avery long time for the country to
recover. The Secret Path has a big
message about raising awareness,
especially for anyone who did not know
about the residential schools. If you
missed The Secret Path on TV, you can
watch it for free on CBC’s website.