When Lady Gaga released this non-album single in the wake of her ‘comeback’ album Joanne, it met with a pretty scathing reception from her fanbase. And I will acknowledge that there were plenty of great potential singles left on Joanne that could have been released instead, and also that this song does seem like something of a backwards step stylistically, sounding more like a track from one of her first two albums than the Rock- and Country-inflected sound she had used on Joanne. Still, the fact remains that there’s nothing really wrong with the song itself…indeed, if it had been a track on one of those first two albums, it would rank among their highlights. It’s a powerfully intense love song with a superb production and a real sense of inner fire. It’s not the single best song she’s ever released, but it’s still well above average by her standards, and given how many truly awful songs she released during her slump period of 2011-2013, it seems odd that this one attracted so much undue hatred.
Verdict: I’m honestly confused as to what everyone’s so angry about.