Lady Gaga has been a superstar for almost two decades, but in the recent past the pendulum has swung wildly between extremes, with her iconic breakout records rubbing shoulders alongside collaborations with Tony Bennett and the much-maligned Folie à Deux soundtrack, which arrived tagged to a cinematic turkey of giant proportions.
‘Mayhem’, then, has its work cut out for it. Fortunately Gaga’s first fully ‘Gaga’ studio album since 2020’s ‘Chromatica’ is a recentering and reassertion of just why she became an icon.
Disease might appear to kick the album at a relatively sedate pace but it’s got a pulsating bassline that’ll get feet moving. It’s a heavy hint that Gaga is back in full flow.
Abracadabra is pure raucous dancefloor pop, replete with borderline-ridiculous Bad Romance-style nonsense phrases, while Vanish Into You also calls back to that mega-hit with its pre-chorus vocal runs. These Easter eggs and self-referential moments are fun and balanced out by the fact that at no point does anything here sound dated.
At the halfway point, ‘Mayhem’ becomes a funk-pop dream. Killah is all sinewy bass and guitars that crop up between vocal phrases, with Zombieboy doubling down on the formula while throwing in some raucous gang vocals for good measure. There’s an overriding sense that, after a few ups and downs, Gaga is really having fun here.
That said, ‘Mayhem’ stumbles over the finish line. Blade Of Grass is a touching ode to her partner that could’ve offered a stunning close to the album, but the Bruno Mars mega-smash Die With A Smile is instead shoehorned in. Rather than arriving at a natural endpoint it becomes a little too slow and cloyingly sentimental, its 14 songs and hour-long running time suddenly feeling a little unwieldy.
But these are minor flaws on an otherwise excellent, resurgent Lady Gaga album. ‘Mayhem’ reaffirms her place at the very pinnacle of pop, 17 years after she upended it with ‘The Fame’.
Lady Gaga Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sat May 03 2025 - RIO DE JANEIRO Copacabana Beach (Brazil)
Sun May 18 2025 - KALLANG National Stadium (Singapore)
Mon May 19 2025 - KALLANG National Stadium (Singapore)
Wed May 21 2025 - KALLANG National Stadium (Singapore)
Sat May 24 2025 - KALLANG National Stadium (Singapore)
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