In the almost two decades since Lady Gaga made her debut with The Fame and its break-out single “Poker Face,” she’s made a career out of surprising fans and haters with her versatility and her willingness to take risks as a multi-talented artist with feet in both the music and film industries. Loved by the pop girlies and gays alike, she’s constantly switching things up — whether that be her style or the music or film genres she wants to explore — always managing to send a little bit of shock across the media and social media, even to those who have tracked her every move since the beginning.
Though I love pop music and she and I share both an identical first name and full-blooded Italianx heritage, it admittedly took me a long time to totally come around to Gaga’s music. By the time I finally did, it felt as if the era of Gaga I was loving the most, the one where she pushed her experiments in pop’s form and structure to the very limits of where it could go, was over and didn’t have much of a chance of coming back any time. When her announcement about the production of her seventh and newest solo studio album Mayhem went out earlier this year, people all over the internet speculated on what Mayhem might sound like. The first single from Mayhem, “Disease,” had already been out for months and was followed by “Abracadabra” right before Mayhem was announced. Both songs felt like a kind of reclamation of not only the kinds of sounds and compositions that made Gaga so famous to begin with but also of a particular attitude, a more confident and bombastic posturing, that sort of went into hiding in the five years since Chromatica’s release.
After having listened to Mayhem in full, those early assumptions that this album might be a triumphant return to form for Gaga are correct to a point, but they’re also missing an essential part of what makes Gaga such a force in pop and the industry beyond the genre. In a press release for Mayhem, Gaga said the album “reassembl[es] a shattered mirror: Even if you can’t put the pieces back together perfectly, you can create something beautiful and whole in its own new way.” The groundwork laid through the release of the glitchy, low synth-forward “Disease” and the begging to be danced to on the floor of a dimly lit club, “Bad Romance”-reminiscent “Abracadabra” helped establish solid connection to Gaga’s past while also showcasing the growth she’s experienced as a musician in the wake of her previous successes. And that’s exactly what we get on Mayhem: a celebration of her past, a reflection of her present, and a small glimpse into what we might see more of from her in the future.
While the two singles certainly play at this in a highly accessible way, the best tracks on the album — particularly the mid-album run of the sticky stadium-banger “Garden of Eden;” the introspective, grungy-synth flanked “Perfect Celebrity;” the pleading vocals-heavy, glam-rock inspired “Vanish Into You;” the throbbing techno-funk “Killah;” the disco-guitar, foot-tappingly percussive “Zombieboy;” and the heavy hooked, 80’s rock tinged “Lovedrug” — prove that Gaga isn’t interested in just trafficking in nostalgia. The creative uses of samples of David Bowie’s “Fame” on “Killah” and Yazoo’s “Only You” on “How Bad Do You Want Me,” a track that will likely be treated as a much more minor one from the album despite my now undying love for it, help drive this home even further: Gaga is who she’s always been and who she wants to be but she’s evolving, too, and she wants us to come along for the journey.
Instead, Mayhem proves she understands what works best for her and showcases a genius pop sensibility that’s been built and then perfectly sharpened by her willingness to learn from the musicians who inspire her and who are her contemporaries along with her unending devotion to getting a little weird with it in the process. And more than that, it proves she still has so much to say and so many more limits of the genre to push. We should continue to let her.
I listened to the album today fifteen times through, no exaggeration. I never skipped a track. It’s the most complete album ever from Gaga. It has, like you said, the old, the present, and the possible future. I was hearing all sorts of influences—Prince, NIN, Hole, Radiohead, bubblegum pop (pick an artist)—among others. It was later I read an article listing some of those very same artists as her inspiration. I even have a newfound appreciation for Die With A Smile, which I admittedly hated (and I love Bruno, it just didn’t work for me), but now after Blade of Grass, it just fits and makes sense. If I don’t skip a track, it’s truly a masterpiece of music.
That sounds amazing, I will probably pick it up before long. Now, why did she have to release it right after I finally bought the full Fletcher discography? Really poor timing on her part 🤣