Remix This!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Life was slowly returning to some sense of normal in 2021, and although the club scene hadn’t returned to stride, vaccines were showing promise that the horror of COVID might soon be contained. Tony Bennett announced his well-deserved retirement after performing a series of sold-out shows alongside Lady Gaga at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, and Gaga reclaimed her Las Vegas residency for a short series to run in support of their album Love For Sale (which will be available wide on October 1). Determined to keep her dance-relevancy on high, Gaga promised to dust off of Chromatica.

The result: Dawn Of CHROMATICA The Remix Album which revisits the setlist and enlists a cadre of talent to give their new spin and polish on Chromatica. Promoted as a “reinvention” of her sixth consecutive #1 studio album, the remix package was curated and produced by Lady Gaga and BloodPop® (released via Interscope Records) and astonishingly isn’t as vibrant or elegant as its predecessor but is a promising amalgamation of the developing new wave of dance producers and artists on the scene.

Assembling a mix of still emerging producers and collaborations that open the scope of the original songs, Dawn Of Chromatica includes reworks of “Free Woman” by Rina Sawayama & Clarence Clarity that give the track rock credibility it didn’t have before. “Rain On Me” with Ariana Grande is also featured in a remix by Arca that leaves a little to be desired; a lot of the track’s original depth is stripped back for a less profound impact. “Fun Tonight” is given a whole new vibrance by Pablo Vittar which has arranged the track to perfectly suit tropical calypso escapism.

Perhaps the most interesting remix in the package is “Sour Candy”. The collaboration with K-Pop sensation BLACKPINK is expanded upon to include Shygirl & Mura Masa giving the darkly trance-intoxicating arrangement an after-hours deep base feel, without really extrapolating much of the original. The Doss Remix of “Enigma” and Dorian Electra on “Replay” really help to elevate these tracks to the dance floor, and the two remixes of “Babylon” are easily among the setlist’s best. What’s missing from this album is the innovation that was apparent and all over Chromatica.

It must not have been an easy task for Gaga and BloodPop® to whittle their choices down to these 14 tracks, but rather than seamlessly tie these tracks into a non-stop party album, or break it up with interludes which were effectively used on Chromatica the Dawn Of Chromatica moves from one track to another and is sometimes jarring or in some instances, the remixes are little more than transitions themselves. The album opens with a reworking of “Alice” by LSDXOXO but rather than ease the listener in like the original, it’s a cacophony of beats and bumps that would have been a more likely conclusion.

You can expect that the most loyal among her fanbase will be thrilled by this (re)examination of Chromatica but for the real dance floor experience, the original is still far more motivating and inspiring. Dawn Of Chromatica is not easy to digest as an homage to that album’s more spritely evocative rhythms but at least it’s a new color on the spectrum of an interesting career and creative vision.

DAWN OF CHROMATICA The Remix Album | by Lady Gaga | is available to download on iTunes and additional digital music store outlets. Download from iTunes here.