“Perfect Illusion” is a song recorded by pop vocalist Lady Gaga. It is the lead from her upcoming fifth album Joanne. “Perfect Illusion” was made available for digital consumption on September 9, 2016. Gaga co-wrote and co-produced the recording, with Kevin Parker and Mark Ronson, with additional production from Bloodpop. An accompanying music video was directed by Ruth Hogben and Andrea Gelardin was released on September 20, 2016, during the season two premiere of Scream Queens on FOX.

After witnessing the music video, I was fairly unimpressed. Lady Gaga is well known for being an over the top performer and artist. The video consisted of Gaga driving through a desert and performing the song in a crowd of adoring fans. Being a huge fan of Gaga, I was ecstatic to see that a new single was being released. Once it was released, I realized I was getting hype for nothing.

“Perfect Illusion” is Lady Gaga’s first single after a three-year hiatus from pop music. From listening to the song for the first time, I sensed a very aggressive tone. As she says in the song, “At least now I know it wasn’t love.” You can automatically infer that it has an essence of a break up song; the rage of a lover who realizes that the love wasn’t real.

Even though the song contains a deeper meaning, and surprisingly, a catchy beat, I still wouldn’t add it to my playlist.

Perfect Illusion didn’t knock my socks off like songs released in the past.