Are you ready for LG7? No, it’s not the next intergovernmental summit of liberal democracies but something far more geopolitically groundbreaking: Lady Gaga’s seventh studio album.
The pop star-turned actress surprised fans last month by releasing Harlequin, a jazz-infused album tie-in with her new film Joker: Folie à deux.
Although the Joker sequel may have bombed at the box office, the album was well-received if a little confusing initially — was this the long awaited album number seven?
Gaga cleared up some of the confusion with a billboard campaign of posters spelling out LG SIX.FIVE: as it turns out, Harlequin is a half album due to sit between number six (Chromatica) and the as-yet-unnamed seven (LG7).
The first single, intriguingly titled ‘Disease’, is going to drop this Friday, 25th October.
Because a pop album cannot be born without a trail of clues anymore (thanks, Taylor Alison Swift), Gaga’s team have been dropping hints about the new single on Spotify. Capitalisations on her songs were switched around to highlight certain letters, before her account published a playlist that arranged them in order to spell out ‘GAGA disease’.
Gaga confirmed the news on Instagram, posting an aerial shot of a dark-haired woman in a white dress folded over the bonnet of white car, with DISEASE spelled out upside down in white road markings. The caption simply reads: ‘DISEASE 10.25’.
Along the bottom of the first image and in a grainy second picture are the times the new song will drop around the world — London fans will need to set their alarms to up for 5am on the 25th.
Gaga is famous for her constant artistic and aesthetic reinventions, and fans are already scanning for clues in the promotional material for Disease.
A riddle-like series of websites (a more sinister, seasonally approproate take on Easter eggs, if you like) starting at gagadisease.com encouraged fans to click through to reveal the chorus for the single.
Put all together, the lyrics read: “I could play the doctor/ I can cure your disease/ If you were a sinner/ I could make you believe/ Lay you down like one, two, three/ Eyes roll back in ecstasy/ I can smell your sickness/ I can cure ya/ Cure your disease.”
The original website then briefly displayed a video loop of an old television set in a haunted-looking house, playing a staticky loop of a long-fingered clawed hand holding another hand with talons.
With her fans identifying as Little Monsters to Gaga’s Mother Monster, her artistic oeuvre has always erred on the spooky. Gaga has often drawn on her experience being raised in the Catholic faith, and has been effusive in her love for scary movies such as The Exorcist. She also played not one but two roles on seasons five and six of television series American Horror Story.
As an actor, Gaga has already been method dressing with a gothic mood to promote Joker, where she played the character of Harley Quin.
Whereas Chromatica was dance-pop riot with hits such as ‘Rain on Me’ , LG7 and it’s lead single Disease could be an altogether darker affair.
“The pop album is nothing like Chromatica. It’s a completely different record. I don’t know that I’m even ready to talk about it yet, but I recognize that it’s coming out soon, and I will,” Gaga told Rolling Stone in September.
In an interview with Vogue, the singer hinted that the album will wrestle with some inner turmoil. “There’s a lot of pain associated with this adventure,” she said. “When I start to explore that pain it can bring out another side to my artistry. When I’m here at this studio, I’m relaxed and I am able to face my demons.”
Fans will have to wait a bit longer for the full album, which is due to drop in February 2025.
