Please note that the cover art featured along with this review is not the official cover art for this single. There does not appear to be an official cover for the single which is why I am using a fanmade one (which features credit for the designer as a watermark). (Streaming outlets are using the Chromatica cover art as the single cover.) One day prior to the release of her new studio album Chromatica, American pop singer Lady Gaga has surprise dropped another song from the album, this being the third prior to the album's release. (See my reviews of "Stupid Love" and "Rain on Me" here and here, respectively.) It is my understanding that this song - titled "Sour Candy" is not officially the third single released from the album but rather a promotional teaser to celebrate the release of the album tomorrow. I absolutely love "Stupid Love" but am not crazy about "Rain on Me," and in my review of "Rain on Me," I expressed hope that "Rain on Me" was not a signal of what the majority of Chromatica would have to offer, and "Sour Candy" is fortunately an omen that that will not be the case. It is so much more creative both lyrically and melodically, with a catchy and lyrically meaningful hook sung in Gaga's signature low register: "I'm hard on the outside, but if you give me time, then I could make time for your love. I'm hard on the outside, but if you see inside..." Many of the song's lyrics - that part included - indicate that the song is about being given space and time to grow. The catchy and '90s-esque dance track is also about (in my opinion at least) having a hard outer shell that you use for protection even though the reality is that you are soft and sweet underneath; anyone who wants to truly get to know that soft and sweet spot just needs to take the time that it takes to get there.
On albums such as Hard Candy (2008) and Rebel Heart (2015), Madonna made an effort in those titles to emphasize dichotomies - tough but kind, strong but vulnerable, and I think that Gaga is doing something similar on this track. Sour candy is an interesting treat because it is usually sour but also sweet, and sometimes, most of the sour taste is on a hard outer shell that fades as you get closer and closer to the candy's sweet center, so the analogy here is pretty clear to me. If you take the time that is required to get past the speaker's sour outer shell, you will eventually reach her sweet center. Although it is possible that this is meant to be a double entendre and be somewhat sexual, I don't think that that is the main focus even if so. The song, to me, is about giving someone who appears to be rough around the edges the chance to show that they actually have a good heart, a theme that Gaga has implemented in the past on the Born This Way track "Bad Kids": "Don't be insecure if your heart is pure. You're still good to me if you're a bad kid, baby." "Sour Candy" features vocals from K-Pop girl group BLΛƆKPIИK, and although I think, as I think is the case on "Rain on Me," that they are featured a little bit too prominently on the track when it is really supposed to be Gaga's song, I don't mind it here as much for two reasons - (1) I find them to be much more tolerable than Ariana Grande and (2) there are four of them as opposed to only one Ariana, so it makes sense that they would need more time on the track in order for all of them to be featured. "Sour Candy," as I said, definitely has an early '90s dance rhythm to it and also has a bit of an industrial sound to it, especially in its intro, and I absolutely love it. Running at only 2:38, though, I wish that it were a little longer. (Look for my review of Chromatica in the near future, as, as stated previously, the album drops tomorrow!)
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