One year you’re playing sold out shows, stadiums spanning the globe full to the brim with thousands of devoted fans. Now you’re playing a dive bar in Nashville to just a few hundred – though they’re no less devoted. The set list may have shrunk and the sound turned a little more acoustic but it’s not a sign of a career drying up, far from it. It’s a sign that new things are on the horizon and one of those things is called Joanne.
Joanne is the fifth studio album from pop superstar Lady Gaga and it’s only got two weeks left until it’s released to the world. The highly anticipated album, one that millions of Gaga’s Monsters are salivating over, is being teased in a variety of ways. The lead single, Perfect Illusion, hit radios just a short three weeks ago and it’s proven popular. With Born This Way vibes and a solid rock-pop foundation, it’s a song that’s caused speculation about Gaga’s recent split from fiancé Taylor Kinney. It’s an extremely catchy track, and it makes a fantastic driving song, but according to the woman herself, it doesn’t reflect Joanne’s sound.
Debuting at Gaga’s first stop on her unusual ‘dive bar tour’, sponsored by Bud-Light, are three new tracks: Sinner’s Prayer, A-yo and Million Reasons. The latter was released on iTunes as a preview track.
Simply put, it’s beautiful. It’s a slow ballad with country charm, Gaga’s vocals pairing flawlessly with those of her co-writer’s, Hillary Lindsay. The lyrics sing of a relationship that isn’t perhaps working, one where Gaga’s gut is telling her to leave but she just needs that one reason to keep trying.
"I bow down to pray / I try to make the worst seem better / Lord, show me the way / To go through all his worn out leather / I've got a hundred million reasons to walk away / But baby, I just need one good one to stay,"
In an interview with US radio, she said: "This is a song about wanting to give up, but you don't,” before telling the listeners about how she came to be sat at her piano with Hillary behind her: “I was just like 'It's just like all the men in my life, I tell you, they give me a million reasons to take a hike and I just need one good one to stick around. I just need one' and she was like 'That's a song.' And I sat down and I started playing."
The dive-bar tour, while only short, is fuelling the hype for Joanne. Streamed online, Gaga pours her soul into her new tracks, showing off her much-approved acoustic guitar abilities, before throwing herself into a frenzied Perfect Illusion to finish, complete with launching herself into the crowd who just wrap their arms around her and jump.
It’s like she’s never been away. While we’ve only heard the acoustic/paired-down renditions of Sinner’s Prayer and A-yo, there’s no doubting that Joanne is going to be something special when it’s released on October 21st.
Welcome back Gaga.
Listen to Million Reasons below:
Watch Gaga's Nashville Dive-Bar Performance here:
