Very few artists have managed to revolutionize popular music in the 2010s quite like Lady Gaga. While many have an album or two to get past before they hit their stride, Gaga has had an “it” factor since her debut record The Fame back in 2008. Her inventive fusion of electronic dance music, synth-pop, and rock combined with her vocals and unwavering confidence made her a force to be reckoned with in those earlier albums. Even if she had more of a stranglehold on the music industry in the first half of the 2010s, the latter half of that decade saw her branching out into other ventures and transcending her profession as a musician. With multiple acting performances for shows and movies such as American Horror Story and A Star is Born under her belt (the latter of which she composed the critically lauded, Oscar-winning single “Shallow” for), she’s proved herself a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to cementing her status within the current zeitgeist of whatever point in pop culture she finds herself in. It’s been five years since Gaga’s last release Chromatica, and she’s eager to reintroduce herself to the limelight with her newest album Mayhem released on March 7, 2025.
Chromatica was an electric, exciting project to carry Gaga’s sound into this decade, and its remix album Dawn of Chromatica released a year later embraced the growing trends of hyperpop by collaborating with the hottest names in that sub genre such as Dorian Electra, A.G. Cook, Arca, Shygirl and Charli XCX. Gaga has been keeping herself at the front of the public’s mind with endeavors such as her role in 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux, contributions for film soundtracks like in Top Gun: Maverick and and other musical side projects. She first teased the album with the lead single “Disease” on October 20, 2025 and then later with the second single “Abracadabra” on February 3, 2025, boasting about the chaotic explosiveness and enjoyment she got from recording her newest batch of songs. Such sensationalism is to be expected from someone considered by many people as the modern queen of pop, and the two aforementioned singles generated a good deal of excitement for the record’s release. Now that Mayhem is out, does it truly live up to the high expectations both she and others have set? I happen to think it does a great job at giving listeners a dose of classic Gaga and then some.
One of Mayhem’s biggest strengths is the versatility that Gaga demonstrates with the album’s broad range of sounds. Stylistically, the album feels like a throwback to some of her most iconic eras in her discography. There are many cuts that would feel right at home on The Fame, Born This Way or Artpop. Others take on funkier disco grooves reminiscent of artists like Michael Jackson or Prince. There’s even a little bit of industrial music thrown in for a more mechanical, rowdier sound. While there are many artists that have come and gone since the early days of her career, many of whom looked to her for inspiration, Gaga shows herself to be just as feisty as ever before. Much like many of her previous albums, she leaves little room for guest musicians to feature with her and centers herself as the voice of drama on the album. But when you have a voice as unique in pop as her’s, it’s difficult to argue against it. Producers Cirkut, D’Mile, Gesaffelstein and Andrew Watt are to be thanked just as much for their contributions to the album’s diverse mesh of industrial, funky synth-pop disco tunes.
The album’s aesthetics also match the frenetic energy of the music. Not only does the album cover evoke a darker tone, but songs like “Killah” featuring Gesaffelstein and “Zombieboy” add a hint of horror to the hedonism that Gaga presents in the lyrics. The album’s first half is strong, starting with two lead singles as well as “Garden of Eden”, which is full of the sensual dance club allure that Gaga pens so well amidst pulsing beats (“I could be your girlfriend for the weekend / You could be my boyfriend for the night / My excuse to make a bad decision / Bodies gettin’ close under the lights”). She is at once a temptress and the tempted, the cure and the disease, the invitation to a life of passionate love or one of deathly love, and she does a great job at expressing this duality in this first fourth of the album. These first few songs made for the strongest moments of the record, but that’s not to say the rest isn’t chock full of great grooves as well.
The song “Perfect Celebrity” marks a shift in tone as it becomes more explicitly about the artist herself and her experiences with the music industry as well as celebrity culture. The scathing anger and confidence that she spits out on the track with lyrics like, “So rip off my face in this photograph (Perfect celebrity) / You make me money, I’ll make you laugh (Perfect celebrity) / You love to hate me / I’m thе perfect celebrity” paints her in a vindictive but not unflattering light, as she is clearly grateful for the prestige and privileges that her status grants her even if it comes at the cost of unwelcomed scorn and the invasion of privacy from others. As the album progresses, the songs become wrapped up in subjects of love and allure mixed in with the nightclub life. Tracks like “Vanish Into You” show a more vulnerable side of Gaga that expresses a desire to surrender her being to her loved one and become one with them, while “Killah” hits listeners with a funky rhythm similar to Bowie’s Young Americans era and Prince amidst lyrics about being a literal and metaphorical killer for her lover as they become more sexually engaged.
At the halfway point, “Zombieboy” and “LoveDrug” further add to the album’s subjects of lust and desperation for love. These tracks take on more of the straightforward disco, synth-pop sound that Gaga is known for, but not quite as loud and electrifying as the opening tracks. Generally, I found this latter half of the album to be weaker than the first as it makes way for slower-paced ballads that fell a little flat. However, songs like “Shadow Of A Man”, “Don’t Call Tonight” and “How Bad Do U Want Me?” do a great job of continuing the romantic melodrama from the last few tracks. These show Gaga breaking away from the toxicity that comes with casual hookups, misleading idealizations of others and living underneath the shadow of masculinity. Not only do these moments serve as a cathartic lyrical break away from the thrills of the first half, they still manage to be catchy and danceable.
The last three tracks are where I feel Mayhem is at its weakest. While they serve as an interesting contrast to the explosiveness of the first three tracks, the album feels like it’s fizzling out rather than ending on the grandest of notes. That’s not to say that these tracks are without merit, though; “The Beast” is a fine track that continues the occurring motifs of monsters and frights present in the album, this time representing the desire to love and embrace another in their most bestial moments at the strike of midnight. The penultimate track “Blade of Grass” is a sweet and endearing moment on the record based on a memory with Gaga’s fiance Michael Polansky. The imagery she conjures up is as sweet and heartfelt as it is destructive, with lyrics like, “This is the lawn of memories I mourn / I fall into your eyes, shelter from storm / ‘Cause even though the church burned down / I’ll be your queen without a crown” showcasing an acceptance of vulnerability and comfort in the companionship of another, no matter how unceremonious things may be.
This makes for a fitting transition into the closing song “Die With A Smile” featuring Bruno Mars, a single that was first released on August 16, 2024 and won both artists a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for this year’s award show. While I found the song to be a bit of a downer as far as its sound goes, the vocal chemistry that Gaga and Mars share is undeniable. The simple yet smooth and lush soul ballad makes for a passionate ending that once again affirms the importance of having a lasting connection with a special someone. For a previously released single initially unintended for the album, it serves its purpose as a narrative conclusion for Mayhem even if it doesn’t excite me or pique my interest quite as much as the songs before it.
Despite all my qualms regarding the second half, Mayhem excels in delivering unto listeners all the classic stylings they’ve come to expect from one of modern pop’s most celebrated icons. Gaga’s embrace of industrial textures combined with funk and disco makes for a unique sound that prevents the album from sounding old hat or tiring. Not only is the icon still as confident and dominant as ever in her music, but the added horror elements make for a pretty hedonistically chaotic listen, albeit quite an enjoyable one. Even for someone unfamiliar with her music for whatever reason, this is a solid dance-pop record that shows why Gaga has maintained her status as the queen of pop for almost two decades. With all the attention that her releases always get when they drop, there’s no doubt that clubs all around the U.S. will be queuing up Mayhem’s most addicting tracks for the foreseeable future.
