Over Look Today: Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga and director Bradley Cooper attend the UK premiere of "A Star is Born" in London, Britain September 27, 2018. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Stop 10 people walking down the street with headphones, and at least one of them will be listening to the soundtrack to A Star Is Born. In all likelihood, it will be Shallow, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s No 1 single. For me, the film brought back the thrill of being a music journalist: the vim, sweat and chaos of being backstage; the extraordinary capacity of live music to lift the self and spirit, build moments of joy, communion and clarity. The simple act of feeling alive.

Download the Microsoft News app for your Android or iPhone device and get news & live updates on the go. But it also speaks to thrill’s flipside, despair. The inevitable comedown, the isolation and the untethered moments on the road when addiction can trample over a psyche. “In all the good times, I find myself longing for change,” they both sing in the refrain. “And in the bad times, I fear myself.”

Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Bradley Cooper arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "A Star Is Born" on Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, at the Shrine Auditorium. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) It is all very 2018. Much like the runaway (and inexplicable to me) success of The Greatest Showman’s This Is Me, it is a song about internal reflection and self-realisation. But unlike This Is Me, this is not me-against-the-world empowerment. It is a song that not only speaks for those to whom life has not always been fair or kind, but those who may not be all that good inside either.

Two people come together at a period of intense vulnerability and dive into a fated romance – “we’re far from the shallow now”. One spirals into drug and alcohol abuse, while the other clambers upwards to global fame and credibility. Lady Gaga’s vocal is staggering: raw, guttural, powerful. The male/female dialogue evokes Fleetwood Mac at their most pained. Sara, in particular, comes to mind: “Drowning in the sea of love, where everyone would love to drown.”

© Thomson Reuters Cast member Lady Gaga arrives for the premiere of the movie “A Star Is Born” in Los Angeles, California, U.S. September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Water flows deep through the annals of pop history: whether it is being battered by waves (“There’s always a siren singing you to shipwreck,” Thom Yorke sings on Radiohead’s There There, a nod to Odysseus on his ship trying to find his way home); cleansed (“Take me to the river … cleanse my soul” – Al Green); or quenched (“I could drink a case of you, and still I’ll be on my feet” – Joni Mitchell). Water is simultaneously wild, untamed, dangerous, glorious and serene. Much, I suppose, like love.