By Jem Aswad, Variety.comFor all the reinvention and rejuvenation Lady Gaga has shown over the past few years — her acclaimed acting debut in A Star Is Born, her duets with Tony Bennett, her show-stopping concerts, ranging from innovative Las Vegas residencies to a stellar 2017 Super Bowl halftime performance — it’s hard to escape the fact that her last few albums have been wildly uneven.
Artpop was a musically anemic debacle that included a (since-removed) duet with R. Kelly; Joanne was a hesitant move into singer-songwriter terrain, half of which didn’t even sound like her; and although the Star Is Born soundtrack and its hit Shallow brought her an Oscar and Grammys and returned her to the charts’ upper reaches, the songs essentially are