POP/ROCK

Lady Gaga, "Stupid Love" (Interscope)

This single is the pop singer's first piece of music since her starring opposite Bradley Cooper in his 2018 remake of "A Star Is Born." A knowing return to the flamboyant dance-pop sound that brought her to fame more than a decade ago, "Stupid Love" — in which she declares, "Now it's time to free me from the chain," over a throbbing disco groove — is accompanied by a colorful music video in which opposing tribes flex their best moves in a post-apocalyptic desertscape.

"Stupid Love" was created by Gaga with a team headed by BloodPop and the Swedish studio wizard Max Martin. Her last album (not counting the soundtrack from "A Star Is Born") was 2016's classic-rock-inspired "Joanne." The challenge before her now — at a moment when former peers like Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus are struggling for visibility — is to attract young fans with a song that sounds like anything other than hip-hop.

"I want people to dance and feel happy," Gaga said of her new music in a recent interview with Zane Lowe of Apple's Beats 1.

Mikael wood, Los Angeles Times

Guided by Voices, "Surrender Your Poppy Field" (GBV)

This is, by some counts, the 30th Guided by Voices album, the seventh since the current lineup featuring guitarists Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare Jr. solidified in 2017, and the first of 2020, with at least one more in the works. With solo albums and other releases, leader Bob Pollard, 62, has put out more than 100 albums.

"Surrender Your Poppy Field" ranges widely over its 15 songs, often tilting to heavy, trudging songs that are more Sabbath than Who. But it's got a handful of chiming anthems ("Physician"), several multipart brief suites ("Year of the Hard Hitter") and splashes of strings and keyboards ("Whoah Nelly"). Pollard's lyrics lean more on non sequiturs than coherence, but there may be some political frustration in accusatory songs such as "Stone Cold Moron" and "Man Called Blunder." Poppy Field isn't the best recent GBV album — I'd vote for last year's "Zeppelin Over China" or 2018's "Space Gun" — but it's a worthy addition to Pollard's vast canon.

Steve klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

new releases

• Phantogram, "Ceremony"

• Mandy Moore, "Silver Landings"

• Moby, "All Visible Objects"

• Cornershop, "England Is a Garden"

• Swamp Dogg, "Sorry You Couldn't Make It"