Everything We Know About Lady Gaga’s Forthcoming Album

Following her appearance at the iHeartRadio music summit, Lady Gaga made it Twitter official: her next single, “Perfect Illusion”, will be available to fans mid-September. “Perfect Illusion”, the first song to debut from the highly anticipated LG5 (the tentative album title), was created with the help of super-producer Mark Ronson and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. Lady Gaga stated that the break-up song gives her a “sick adrenaline rush” every time she hears it, and lovingly spoke about the magic-making recording session that produced her first new single. So, following the news of “Perfect Illusion” and its pending release, what else do we know about Lady Gaga’s forthcoming record? 

She recruited the best and the brightest.

Though collaborations frequently don’t make it onto a record’s final cut, we thought we’d track down every mention of Lady Gaga’s new record and who’s helping her work on it. So far, we’ve heard the following producers offer their sounds and expertise on LG5: Mark Ronson, Giorgio Moroder, RedOne, Diane Warren, Nile Rodgers, Bloodpop, and Tame Impala. With this diverse set of producers and collaborators, we’re not sure what kind of album Lady Gaga will turn out in 2016, but we have faith it’ll live up to her little monster’s expectations.

Yes, According to Gaga, LG5 will drop in 2016.

“You know, I am putting out an album this year. I won’t tell you when,” is what Gaga told reporters at the 2016 Golden Globes. Disclaimer: Just because Lady Gaga promised her album to drop this year, keep in mind fans have coined her “Latey Gaga” for a reason. She notoriously teases projects to drop well before they actually do, making us skeptical that an entire album will drop in 2016 with only one single teased to drop in September. But who knows, maybe Lady Gaga will keep her promise, increase momentum, and drop her Artpop follow-up in 2016.

Some tracks have been described as “classical” and “futuristic”.

According to RedOne, the producer partly responsible for Lady Gaga’s hit singles “Just Dance”, “Poker Face”, and “Lovegame”, has confirmed that the pair have recorded eight songs together for LG5, though he’s unsure which or if any will make the cut. In describing their recent work together, RedOne stated “It’s a mixture of classic music and futuristic, too – I didn’t want to go too far from what she is. We kept it [similar to] what Gaga is, what she’s done all these years. It’s special.” Considering their evolving relationship throughout Gaga’s career, we think RedOne’s word is as good as any when it comes to LG5 intel.

It may be darker than her previous albums.

A few indicators point to this: First, Lady Gaga has stated that appearing on American Horror Story Season 5 has reawakened “the art of darkness” within her. She plans to channel this energy into her next album, as the experience on AHS truly informed her of hidden aspects of herself. Last year in an interview with The Inquirer Lady Gaga said, “They [fans] want a sweet, delightful, ‘Just Dance’ kind of girl or they want ‘Bad Romance’ and that’s fine,” she told the publication. “I am happy to give people that but maybe with my song ‘Dope’ or some of the things I did on Artpop, you saw a kind of dark side, wrapped up in colors. But maybe that was not always what people want to see. They want to see the perfection… it’s the imperfection that is the win.” We’re excited to see a more fully formed and flawed image of Lady Gaga and hope she chooses upmost honesty for LG5. 

LG5 isn’t Gaga’s only big project for 2016.

Just recently Lady Gaga informed her fans that she has landed the biggest acting role of her career to date. She will star in Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut A Star Is Born as a young singer who finds success as her mentor’s health and fame deteriorates. Not only will this be her first starring role, Lady Gaga is also writing and performing new music for the film. Will some of her composition credits make their way onto LG5? Are the two projects in any way related in terms of content and style? Only time will tell!

Check back for more news regarding Lady Gaga, LG5, upcoming tour dates, acting roles, etc, and be sure to listen up for “Perfect Illusion” come mid-September.