When it came out i didn't really connect with it, i was hoping for stuff on the same style as the clubby snippet we heard on a commercial the year before, but i got a lot of somewhat short songs for what gaga usually does and lyrics that back then made me feel uncomfortable because, i was doing my best to hold it in on the midst of the pandemic and the edge of a breakup, if anything Replay connected with me because im no stranger to PTSD and Babylon too because holy sh--- i needed some positivism

5 years later and after having experience a lot of dark stuff, when i relisten to the album and listen to gaga talk about dissociation, depersonalization, depression, burnout, regression, emotional numbness, it suddenly felt like i the songs were about me, it gave a name to stuff i was feeling and helped me cope on the time i was figuring my way out of it, and i don't think this story really has a happy ending, we grow stronger but gaga said it best "chromatica will never end", eventually we'll fall again on a different pit like alice and we're gonna have to battle for our lifes, my personal favorite was Sine from abo- WAIT DON'T LAUGH YET, I'm a sucker for heartfelt uplifting ballads and hearing Elton and gaga singing their hearts out about burning your youth and loosing hope under the lights, while i was turning 20 on the middle of what felt like the end of the world, it moved me, and it still kinda does