Two weeks ago, Queerty received the following email from an anonymous internet troll:
As you know, Lady Gaga will be releasing a new single called “Perfect Illusion” in another week or two. We expect you guys to not only make several posts about it but to delete any negative comments made about the song. If you don’t oblige then everybody at your site will be murdered. Your families will die too. And we won’t forget your pets.
Well, “Perfect Illusion” dropped last night and, we’re sorry troll, but we simply can’t abide by your demands.
Related: Lady Gaga Has Finally Realized She Doesn’t Need The Outrageous Antics To Be A Success
Despite reaching #1 in a total of 60 countries, the song seems to be having a polarizing effect on people. Some love it. Others hate it. And very few appear to be indifferent towards it.
Pitchfork writes:
One listen. Another listen. The creeping dread of having wanted a song to be good—because Gaga’s highs have been high—and realizing it isn’t.
Meanwhile, The Telegraph says:
It delights me to write that this is a return to Just Dance-era Gaga: a simple, infectiously catchy slice of floor-filling, stadium-cheering pop. … Her vocals hint at Gaga’s signature brand of weird, but mostly they just show what many people don’t realise: that she’s an excellent singer.
Exactly 30 seconds in, the first chorus turns the volume up to 11 and the song never relents. There’s barely room to breathe, for the singer or the listener. When the song runs out of choruses less than two minutes in, it even resorts to the dreaded truck driver’s key change. Gaga belts the title over and over like a mantra but it never becomes any more profound.
This is a Lady Gaga banger that’s been undressed – both in sound and image. The disco-rock refrain pretty much blasts you at full volume from the 30-second point onwards, but compared to the star’s last few releases, it doesn’t feel overly cluttered. It has a decent melody, and a surging, stadium-worthy build-up that echoes Bruce Springsteen.
Our feelings?
Let’s just say we’re grateful that the song is only three minutes long.
Listen to “Perfect Illusion” below, and let us know your thoughts on it in the comments…
Tim Winfred
I love this song! 😀
Ari Gold
Not saying I hate it, but I won’t be adding it to my Apple Music library. #sorryNOTsorry
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Wow. Death Grips u r now dead to me. This girl is the future of music >>>>>>>
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Frank Ocean Blonde is now on Spotify
JonsieRue
Love it! It’s tied with Bad Romance as my favorite lead Gaga single! I hope the rest of the album showcases her voice like this!
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
She’s the new Bowie but, like, if Bowie was better…cuz she’s a *real* intellectual who knows about Art & Culture
Brian
Lady Gaga is a try-hard. I have never believed anything she says.
IanHunter
I think it great. She is going in the right direction!!!
jake_samples
I am a perfectly objective Lady Gaga fan…and I must say, this is the worst lead single she has ever released. I hope the album is better than this…=/
michael
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: Hmmm, don’t know if you are too young and missed Bowie at his 7 yr (1972-1979) peak, or just didn’t get it…
…but Bowie was a borderline genius, particularly musically. I say borderline because he had a lot of outstanding support (Mick Ronson on guitar on Ziggy Stardust, David Sanborn on saxophone on Young Americans, collaborating on the Berlin Trilogy with Brian Eno and Robert Fripp.)
“Suffragette City” (from Ziggy Stardust) is one of the best rockers ever – gives me chills to this day.
“Heroes” (from Heroes) is still MY gay anthem.
Xzamilio
Not her best… not her best at all. The Fame Monster seems like it was her peak creative moment.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@michael: Oh Jesus. Note to self: do not attempt irony ever again, you’re not clever enough, and risk coming off as genuine stan of a semi-competant cabaret singer cum artistic-vacuum with extremely creative PR team.
Co-sign all the way on Bowie
BGinBigD
I thought it was really good.
Rob91316
I like “Perfect Illusion” — it doesn’t knock my socks off, but it will be in heavy rotation on my iPod for a while. To each his own, as they say. I’m probably the only person on the planet who thinks “Art Pop” is Gaga’s best album. Just my subjective opinion, of course. I say, if you don’t like the new single, you don’t have to buy (or listen) to it! It really is just that simple.
michael
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: Oh man… jejeje… NOW I get it. The ** should have been the giveaway, but guess I’m not all that literate on internet symbology. When they pulled you out of the oxygen tent, you asked for the latest party.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Know that every fucking note of that has been committee’d, focus grouped and put through sundry music industry algorithms designed to formulate earwormy-ness. And a lot of people will inevitably be tricked into thinking the catchiness is somehow indicative of intrinsic artistic merit rather than a cynical marketing exercise in repackaging retreads of the work and style of superior artists of (predictably) the 80s.
zaneymcbanes
Love love love it!
hithere2
This song really does nothing new – it sounds like something I’ve already heard numerous times since the 80s. If it were doing something new with the formula I might find it interesting, but I’m sorry…..no, just no.
jasentylar
This song is bad or annoying or both. I don’t get it. I loved Applause and Do What U Want. This song is just too much.
lykeitiz
And to think people used to think she was a Madonna knockoff. Turns out she’s Cher…..Either really great or really horrible, with no in-between. This would be the latter.
JessPH
I love it. Not hee best but certainly one of her catchiest songs along with Just Dance and Born this Way.
drelocks15
Enh…it’s alright.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
She’s scraped the scum from the barrel that is Madonna and so now she’s plundering the even lower bowels of the 80s with the Pat Benatars & Laura Branigans
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Damn. Kevin Parker from Tampe Impala was partly responsible for this..whatever *this* is. Dude whyyyyyyy? That key change is worse than Hitler. if Hitler was duetting wirh Susan Boyle on a power ballad for Simon Cowell’s personal record label.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
*Tame Impala
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: correction: I was wrong she hasn’t finished with Madonna. Because is catchy. as I predicted. why is it that the only part that’s going round and round in my head the refrain, “I’m gonna keep my babyyyyy” [papa don’t preach]
This bitch is a the biggest fraud pertoetrated on “the gays”.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
^Typoapocalypse
desertboy
I hadn’t heard it. But the review in this morning’s Los Angeles Times was so epic, that I went to You Tube to check it out. If you like dance music, you’ll love it. Lady Gaga is such a powerful singer. The real deal. No Auto Tune for Lady Gaga.
thefrogger
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: Right! Tame Impala and Mark Ronson. I was expecting something better.
Mkiel
it is a just another ordinary pop song no desire to ever hear again.
cabe
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID:
She is one of the few pop artists around who can play multiple instruments, write and produce songs and sing in tune (take that Madonna). This song may not be one of her best but her catalog of work shows how talented she is and she is an incredible live performer
Realitycheck
50/50 the more I listen to it the more i like it, but this is not the kind of song we are going to play again 2 months from now, it did open at #1 on iTunes just to drop at #2 on the second day, not a good sign, but she
remains at second place on the third day, that means the songs might have some staying power.
I love Gaga but she is definitely not hitting the same hight she did with her first hit album.
The album will be the make it or break it, Gaga already flopped with ARTPOP, a second flop would be the end of her career.
Pistolo
This isn’t something a whole lot of people *want* to hear but Gaga as a songwriter is just as much a manufactured product as the rest of her image. If you look at what she has produced both before and after the Fame Monster, it’s clear that the studio influence is primarily responsible for the catchiness of her lyrics. She was the subject of a lawsuit for years regarding her actual input into the Fame Monster and even had court documents sealed because the evidence brought into the trial were too “damaging”. She’s a shady person who has relied on curating the talents of other which, quite frankly, isn’t all that uncommon amongst popstars- what distinguishes her and makes her less-than-admirable is that she tries to push the polar opposite premise of that very real truth. She acts as though everything she presents as is exceptionally organic and authentic when it really isn’t.
Sorry, I’m just not taken with a person who has such an intangible sense of artistic integrity. You can be commercial, mainstream, and even consumerist but still retain a level of integrity or authenticity that is, more or less, outweighing of all the insincerity this business breeds. Gaga always fails to reflect that sensibility yet still always wants to collect all the rewards and praise, still wants to be a legend just shy of her 3rd major album- this is *surpassing* entitlement that will just never integrate.
I would seriously question a lot of her public sentiments. She sings about the horrors of rape not even 2 years after trying to revive R. Kelly’s career with a music video which very much trivialized rape. I sense a very fragile sense of business ethics which is a very dangerous practice when you’re claiming to have this deep, personal connection with fans.
In short, I really think Lady Gaga sucks.
David Bolton
Meh. As with most of her more recent songs, Lady Gaga has fallen in love with a phrase—in this case “… it was a perfect illusion”—and decides to repeat that phrase 30 or so times.
I don’t see anything whatsoever about the song being #1 in 60 countries. It was only released 2 days ago.
oasdeip
I don’t think it’s a bad song, but it’s definitely not great.
On the plus side, now Britney’s Glory can shine without competition.
codymurp
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: you make me hate my community. Congrats. People like you are THE WORST. I bet you wear fake glasses because it makes you look “smart”…….