Lady Gaga has been many different Lady Gagas. She has been the blonde vixen who wishes she could “shut [her] Playboy mouth” while satirising the world of luxury and glamour. She has been the spiky, prothesis-covered alien proclaiming equality for all and condemning any prejudice on this planet – or any other. She has been the woman donning a pink cowboy hat lamenting tragedy and heartbreak still looking towards a brighter future. Regardless of whatever point you have tuned into her career, Gaga has never been one thing – but always authentically so.
Her refusal to be pigeonholed, her experimental artistry, and her emotional transparency across her many eras culminate in her seventh studio album MAYHEM. The album is a high-octane mixture of all her iterations and facets creating a decadent, maximalist capital-P Pop record that never quite relents in surprise. Like Gaga herself, the album refuses to be one thing in its casual chaos. She skirmishes with Nine Inch Nails-influenced industrial pop, smoothly embodies the swagger of funk and engages delightfully with the spectrum of eighties music – always putting herself at the forefront. Everything that has contributed to Gaga’s discography – oddball theatricality, edgy dance production, exploration of prior pop decades, emotive vocals, catchy hooks, lyrics both tear-jerking and campy – is present yet refined with a more mature and experienced perspective.
The album opens with the grimy, propulsive lead single “Disease”, which taps into the murky electronic world where the synths are loud and sinister in the best way. Gaga sings about seeing the vulnerabilities of being in a dark place (“Running out of medicine / You’re worse than you’ve ever been”) and how this can lead to self-nurturing and coexistence. Although the message is rather empowering (“I can be the doctor / I can cure your disease”), it is twisted through the clanging production – acknowledging darkness as a constant thing to overcome.
Highlight “Garden of Eden” is an 2000s electro-pop wonder about taking someone to the closest approximation of heaven possible. Featuring one of the album’s most delectable hooks (“I could be your girlfriend for the weekend / You could be my boyfriend for the night”), the song features a chuffing beat, choral refrains of “DJ hit the lights!” and squelching synths. This is followed by the angsty “Perfect Celebrity”, a rock song exploring the volatile relationship between the musician and the industry (“I’m made of plastic like a human doll / You push and pull me I don’t hurt at all”).
The album shifts gears with the anthemic “Vanish Into You” which is a glorious slice of funky 80s power pop. On the track, Gaga wistfully ruminates about a past romance (“Once in a blue moon I forget you / And once in your life, you’ll be mine”) and how she yearns to become one with such a memory. It occupies a great middle ground between her pop sensibilities and balladry, managing to be sad yet poignantly upbeat.
MAYHEM’s embodiment of pop greatness of the past makes a significant portion of the album. For example, Gaga channels Prince on the incredible “Killah” which is the pinnacle of slick, funky rock. She embodies a homicidal metaphor to establish her confidence (“Talking some shit with your hand on my ass / I’m a murderer in disguise”). The guitar licks are pure 80s, the melodies are sung with appropriate cockiness and the hook is gloriously catchy (“I’m a killer / And boy you’re gonna die tonight”).
Tracks like the bubbly “How Bad Do U Want Me?” amp up the inherent kitschiness of the era with its euphoric chorus. Its simplicity is charming from its lyrics (“’Cause you like my hair, my ripped-up jeans / You like the bad girl I got in me”) to how accurately Gaga embodies the cheeky eighties pop star who is not quite as innocent as her sweet voice suggests. “Don’t Call Tonight” – which interpolates a synth riff from a-ha’s underrated classic “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” – hits that sweet spot of danceable melancholy as she urges a love interest to never contact her again after a fight. The iconic “Zombieboy” is a deliciously fun romp about partying and living in the moment for the night before turning into a “zombie” in the morning and feels like the darker sister to “Killah” with its more aggressive retro stylings.
The apex of this sound, however, is the defiant and triumphant “Shadow of a Man” – a dark disco explosion that channels the sounds of classic Michael Jackson. On the addictive track, Gaga sings about her refusal to be downtrodden and eclipsed by those who do not acknowledge the path she has paved in the industry. “‘Cause I won’t be used for my love and left out to cry,” she growls before heading into the fast-paced chorus: “I don’t wanna fade into the darkness tonight (show me the light) / I don’t wanna be the one to fall on the knife.” Although briefly previewed in her Chromatica Ball documentary, the snippet barely conveyed just how big this song is. Lyrically, it feels particularly geared towards her fellow pop stars who live under scrutiny and constantly have their impact and relevancy questioned – and the triumph of freeing yourself from such criticisms. To be honest, this would have been an excellent song to close out the album and would also make an excellent choice for the next single.
Any review of MAYHEM would be remiss if we did not acknowledge what could be considered the capstone of the Gaga renaissance: “Abracadabra”. A frenzied, kinetic ball of chaos that invokes a shadowy cult letting loose on a pitch black dance floor, the track features urgent, hammering synths, clonking beats, darkly angelic “oohs” and an ascendant bridge as she explores two choices: Death or Love? Not only does this song feel inherently classic Gaga, it is an absolutely sinister and captivating banger. The apocalyptic imagery (“Pay the toll to the angels / Drawing circles in the clouds”), the charismatic self-referencing (“Morta ooh ga ga”) and the casting of a well-known magic spell that feels like creating a portal to some dark underworld remind the world of why we first fell in love with Gaga – albeit with production that takes it to new extremes.
What can you really say about an album like MAYHEM? It’s a bold and fearless descent into deliciously chaotic party that is simultaneously heartfelt and hammed up. The project is eager to satisfy fans from all eras without necessarily resting on the laurels of those. Instead, she fearlessly magnifies her sounds to new heights to become the joyous harbinger of musical havoc that she has always been.
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