Culture

“I’ve been cured, mama!”: Little Monsters react to Lady Gaga’s dark-pop banger Disease

By Sam Damshenas

25th October 2024

Lady Gaga has made her long-awaited return to dark-pop with her massive new single ‘Disease’.

Reminiscent of the EDM and industrial sounds of Born This Way (2011), the banger serves as the lead from her upcoming seventh studio album, dubbed by Little Monsters as ‘LG7’. 

Produced by Gaga with Andrew Watt and Cirkut, ‘Disease’ feels like a spiritual sequel, lyrically, to her seminal 2009 smash ‘Bad Romance’ and standalone 2017 bop ‘The Cure’.

“I can play the doctor, I can cure your disease / If you were a sinner, I could make you believe,” she belts on the chorus. “Lay you down like one, two, three, eyes roll back in ecstasy / I can smell your sickness, I can cure your disease.”

‘Disease’ marks the start of Gaga’s first major music era since Chromatica (2020), which included fan-favourite singles such as ‘Stupid Love’, ‘911’ and the Ariana Grande-assisted chart-topper ‘Rain On Me’.

She has since released the Oscar-nominated ballad ‘Hold My Hand’ for the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack (2022) and the Bruno Mars collaboration, ‘Die With A Smile’. The soft-rock anthem is currently smashing the charts, serving as the longest-running number-one of 2024 on the Billboard Global 200.

Earlier this month, Gaga also released the jazz-influenced Harlequin, a companion album to Joker: Folie a Deux, in which she starred opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s titular weirdo as Harleen “Lee” Quinzel.

Gaga has remained tight-lipped on LG7, but has revealed that it will arrive in February. After hearing ‘Disease’, however, it’s highly likely we can expect some more dark-pop excellence ala ‘Government Hooker’, ‘Scheibe’ and ‘Heavy Metal Lover’. (Dreams do come true, huh?)

The pop icon’s return to her signature genre has been met with overwhelming acclaim, with Monsters hailing ‘Disease’ as the “comeback of the year”.

One fan said it’s “one of the best songs created on earth thus far”: The brilliance, the genius… never underestimate her CAPACITY to make a smash hit of things. Viva la Gaga!”

Another wrote: “DISEASE is the most “GAGA” song in ages without sounding like any of her previous songs… she’s done it again. Pop perfection.”

A third tweeted: “#Disease is everything I wanted and more, Gaga has never sounded better, dark heavy production reminiscent of BTW & brilliant lyrics….SHE IS BACK.”

Check out the best reactions below.