and it healed my heart heard a sine! si-sine *cars honking, explosions going off, samples from the Mario Party 64 soundtrack, a random saxophone solo, Lady Starlight's DJ Set from the Monster Ball playing in reverse at 2.0 speed*
It's interesting that the Free Woman remix sounds like Free Woman if it was produced in the Born this Way era complete with the hair flowing in the wind while we ride down the highway adlibs in the end.
I love the chaotic energy of this collection, but ultimately neither versions of the album totally hit the mark for me. There’s a great album in there if you combine some of the production on ‘Dawn Of…’ with some of the pop sensibilities of ‘Chromatica’. The remixes of ‘Free Woman’, ‘Plastic Doll’ and ‘Replay’ totally elevate the source compositions without sacrificing song structure in a typically “remix” way. Many of the other remixes have great production but either don’t have enough of the song present to cling onto or have the classic remix of trait of lingering around a particular motif for too long (which is great for poppers o clock but doesn’t hold my interest for a more casual listen). Both versions of ‘911’ are great. I kind of still live for the “ba-beh ba-beh” of the Haus Labs ‘Babylon’ but the sheer lack of effort from BloodPop to add more meat to its bones for this release just prove that he’s a disposable collaborator for her. I’m also kind of intrigued to hear what a Chester Lockheart produced Gaga album would sound like…
I was always quite meh on the album so wasn't expecting much from this, but Free Woman, 911 and Babylon (Bree version) are all brilliant and really elevate the songs. I'll be keeping those three.
This is definitely an improvement. There are still several songs that won't give me much replay value, but they're at least infinitely more intriguing than the middling plink-plonks of their original incarnations. Free Woman is literally what a follow-up to the Born This Way album should sound like in 2021 – there was always a great melody that felt unrealized, but this remix and production gives it all the zhuzh it needs. Rina sounds amazing. Shoutout to Pabllo Vittar and Ashnikko for substantially elevating my two least favorites dd. Bree's Babylon is great as well.
I still really love the Plastic Doll remix, It does a great job of turning a great gaga song into a very great Ashnikko song. It's definitely one of the tracks I will grab for regular rotation from this project. It also feels like the most likely to be playlisted or turned into a Tiktok out of batch.
The absolute chokehold the Replay remix is having on me. The multiple drops are different but all delightfully unhinged and work so well together. It’s like the 2021 version of the Blow remix by Cirkut.
Dawn of Chromatica feels more correct. Not only does it capture the harder club vibes the original falls short of doing, but it's world-building in a way that aligns with the original concept. The featured artists are part of the tribes she never fleshed out and bring their own style to the foundation she laid on the original tracks. Everything feels more colorful and chaotic.
