Mother Monster is back with her seventh studio album, Mayhem. This marks Lady Gaga’s first pop studio album in almost five years following the release of Chromatica back in 2020, but didn’t come long after companion album to the film Joker: Folie a Deux, Harlequin. Lady Gaga shows she is truly back to her roots after teasing the album with singles “Disease,” and “Abracadabra,” but diving into the full spectrum that is Mayhem, will leave you with the craving to dance, sing, and even disco your way onto the dance floor.
Mayhem opens up with two of the album's singles, “Disease,” which is almost a kaleidoscope of sounds that could be found on her albums Born This Way and ARTPOP, and featuring the dark elements that pulled together her second studio album, The Fame Monster. With a grungy bass line, large exciting choruses, and industrial drums flowing the song from start to finish, this was the first indication that “dark Gaga” was back. Following “Disease,” “Abracadabra” returns to what she calls, “Making her own language in song”. With the catchy chorus of “Abracadabra, morta oh Gaga”, she returns to her word and lyric playing to the days of “Bad Romance,” “Judas,” and even fan favorites, “Scheiße” and “Donatella.” Gaga describes the song as being a trance opera, which is also paired with a heavy grunge hook that may truly leave you feeling the beat under your feet.
Transitioning out of the singles, “Garden of Eden” really is a throwback track to her early 2008 days with The Fame. Hearing this track for the first time, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. This song is truly reminiscent of the Gaga I had fallen in love with all those years ago when The Fame dropped. The nostalgic feeling of growing up listening to her music will flood back the moment you press play. Gaga even hinted on TikTok that the song’s instrumental production may have an interpolation of her unreleased track from The Fame, “Private Audition.” Following “Garden of Eden,” we transition to “Perfect Celebrity,” which Gaga has described as the song with the most rage she has ever put out. The song, in my opinion, is a jab to fake fans who demand everything out of her and are more about what they can get over Gaga’s own happiness. While singing over a rock/ electronic mix, Gaga sings, “You love to hate me, I’m a perfect celebrity.” The lyric I find the most striking is from the pre-chorus, which is “I’ve become a notorious being, find my clone, she’s asleep on the ceiling.”
With the mix of genres, Gaga truly leaves us feeling the mayhem, going back to a sound I would describe as an echoing stadium hit, “Vanish into You” delivers a clean piano, funk beat, and loud, clean vocals reminiscing on a love that she never wants to disappear. Next on from that is “Killah” featuring Gesaffelstein, and personally, it just screams David Bowie. I’ve been longing for her to do a sound like this, and I can’t believe that it’s here. With those dirty pumping synths, and classic guitar samples we hear in David Bowie’s song “Fame,” Gaga and Gesaffelstein perfected the Bowie sound in 2025. From strutting to “Killah,” you better get your best disco shoes on, as “Zombieboy” brings a heavy 70’s disco groove that I have been longing for since she covered CHIC’s “I Want Your Love.” A low-quality snippet of “Zombieboy” was played in the music video for “Disease,” and finally hearing it in its full glory with bless your ears.
“LoveDrug” is a more traditional pop song with an 80s twist to it, and personally is my favorite track on the album with its catchy chorus that will leave you dancing in your living room with tears in your eyes. “How Bad Do U Want Me” definitely was the song that caught me off guard the most. If you are a major Swiftie, this song is for you. Featuring a style similar to Taylor Swift’s albums 1989 and Midnights. Without confirmation, there is speculation that Taylor herself does the background vocals on the track. Even if it's untrue, after hearing this song, I need them both on a track together. My fingers are crossed that this will happen on a vault song for Reputation (Taylor’s Version). “Don’t Call Tonight” is a song straight from the 90s; it gives you the feeling that Tina Turner is dancing along with it, and just like “LoveDrug,” it will have you grooving around your apartment.
“Shadow Of A Man” is the song that kicked off the entire era, as Gaga teased the song with a snippet and the text “LG7, GAGA RETURNS” flashing on the screen at the end of her Chromatica Ball Tour film. I laugh thinking that when we first heard the snippet, we thought she was singing “Dance in the shadow of the night (or moon).” The song is very reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s classic sound, and the song is about reclaiming control, or using invisibility to truly empower yourself, or excelling yourself forward. Personally, “The Beast,” caught me off guard as well, as I was thinking it would have had a similar sound to “Perfect Celebrity,” but the song is more of a sexy slow song, that’ll absorb you into its beat. “Blade of Grass” is a cute song and one of the only two ballads on the album. The song is about her fiancé Michael Polansky and that when he asked her how to propose to her, she said to make a ring out of a blade of grass. This song makes me appreciate everything Michael has done for Lady Gaga. Following her career since 2008, Michael has made her the happiest I have ever seen her and has brought back the creative light in music that she lost and almost quit after Chromatica. So everyone, say it with me: thank you Michael. Thank you for making the woman I look up to the most, the happiest she has ever been.
The album closes out with the global hit “Die With A Smile” with Bruno Mars, a classic and timeless hit that is now the longest running number one global song on Spotify and fastest song in history to reach 1.5 billion streams. If you are craving more Gaga too be sure to discover bonus songs “Can’t Stop The High” which is on available on her webstore exclusive CDs or Vinyl, or “Kill For Love” which can only be found on the Target exclusive CDs or Vinyl.
Being a Little Monster since 2008, and witnessing the drops of every one of Gaga’s albums, there is a lot in her career to cover, and take in, and having done so for 17 years, I can confidently say that Mayhem is her best album to date (sorry Born This Way & ARTPOP). Gaga is back and happier than ever, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Stream Mayhem by Lady Gaga below on Spotify:
