Lady Gaga: Chromatica
Streamline/Interscope

Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks: Orange Crate Art
Omnivore

How Madge must grind her teeth. As a mistress of reinvention, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta leaves Madonna Louise Ciccone in the dust. She’s done synth-pop, rock, metal, tempered it all with tinges of country on 2016’s surprisingly mild Joanne, which followed the weirdly Warholesque Artpop; and she’s collaborated with Tony Bennett on Cheek to Cheek and Bradley Cooper on the nth remake of A Star Is Born. Not bad for a girl who not so long ago was doing extra parts like Meadow’s school friend in The Sopranos.

The standard beef – see what I did there? – with Lady Gaga is that the videos and the styling massively outstrip the music, and yes, the visuals for “Bad Romance” were distracting, as was the photoshoot where she turned up in a dress made of best topside. But what songs! “Bad Romance” works stunningly well even on squeaky MP3 and you hear old ladies humming “Poker Face” in the Tesco queue.