After a streak of serious albums in an attempt to reinvent her as a movie star, Lady Gaga returns to a joyful, chaotic mix of genres with “Mayhem,” released on March 7.
The album was preceded by the singles “Disease,” “Abracadabra,” and “Die with a Smile,” a duet with Bruno Mars. She began work on the album in 2022, during her Chromatica Ball Tour, after her fiancé encouraged her to write another pop album.
The album touches on a wide variety of genres, each song sounding different from the one before. the hit single “Abracadabra” interpolates the post-punk classic “Spellbound” in the verses before bouncing into a rhythmically complex chorus and hook. Simultaneously dark and upbeat, it’s one of the album’s many standouts.
“Killah” is a catchy, funk-pop song that sounds like a fever-dream mashup of Prince and Nine Inch Nails, with Gaga taking control of the femme fatale archetype as more than an object of desire. The instrumental, which is one of the only songs on the album with live instruments, features Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers drumming and the album’s producer Andrew Watt on guitar.
Watt, who is credited as a producer on albums by Ozzy Osbourne, Post Malone, the Rolling Stones, and more, plays on almost every song and is key to the variety on the album.
The first half of the album takes many creative turns and musical risks, making it all the more disappointing when the second half starts to blend together with tone. Only one of the songs is actively unlikeable, that being the musically funky but creatively clunky “Zombieboy,” but the excitement of the first half starts to fade after “Killah.”
Gaga has been promoting this album with music videos and performances that are visually stunning and creative. “Abracadabra” features two versions of herself; one a regal queen clad in red instructing the other, among a crowd of dancers all in white, to “dance or die.” On a “Saturday Night Live” episode where she both hosted and was musical guest, she performed “Killah” starting backstage in a purple suit, walking up to the stage through the halls as she continued to dance and sing until she ended on the mirror-covered stage.
As Gaga looks to her past music and image, reinventing them for the modern pop landscape, her musical side is similarly reinvigorated with this new album.
“Mayhem” is available to stream on all major streaming platforms.
