Mayhem is the seventh solo album from New York pop icon, Lady Gaga. Since the late 2000s, she’s been a staple of the pop music genre with hits like “Poker Face,” “Applause,” and “Just Dance,” just to name a few. She’s primarily made dance pop tracks in her career, but she’s also experimented with Americana on her album, Joanne, blues rock in the soundtrack from the movie she starred in, A Star Is Born, and jazz in her collaborative albums with the late Tony Bennett. Her last album, Chromatica was released in 2020, and was primarily a dance pop record. I really liked the singles from that album, “Stupid Love,” and “Rain on Me,” featuring Ariana Grande. For her first album in nearly five years, I was looking forward to it. Here are my thoughts.

    We open up the record with the track, “Disease.” I really love the industrial synth production on this track and I like the love metaphors Gaga uses on this track, as while sure they can be viewed as kinda cliché, I like the whole doctor lyrical theme, and overall it just feels like a classic Gaga track, without coming off as desperate to relive the past. The songwriting on it is easily a strong point and the overall composition sounds futuristic. I like the house-style production of the second track “Abracadabra,” as well as the heaven and hell theme of the lyrics. Gaga is a really strong songwriter as the lyrics are very vivid and enthralling. I really enjoyed “Garden of Eden,” it’s a total club banger and Gaga does the whole religious analogy theme really well, with the Adam and Eve theme as well as in the pre-chorus where she ties in telling the DJ to hit the lights to “let there be light.” It’s insanely clever and creative, and I really love the synths and guitars incorporated in this track, as well. “Perfect Celebrity,” is Gaga at her most vulnerable as she channels her fury at herself and the music industry, as she sings about how she fears that fame is changing her as a person to the point where she won’t recognize herself. The line about how Hollywood is a ghost town is a clever line, as it’s implying that the industry is soulless. 

    In addition, the Princess Diana reference really sells the seriousness of the track. “Vanish Into You,” has a glam rock sound to it, which I appreciate to an extent, but in comparison to the rest of the album it just doesn’t really leave much of an impression on me. It’s weaker than the first four tracks which have this incredibly strong electropop sound. “Killah,” featuring Gesaffelstein is a funky track that mixes a variety of different genres together, and does it successfully. I like the confidence Gaga has on this track, as well as the campy vibe she goes for. “Zombieboy,” has some seriously groovy bass and guitar lines, and she actually made this track as a tribute to her late friend, Rick Genest, whose nickname was “Zombie Boy.” The track is basically about partying so hard last night that you wake up the next morning a zombie, but the lines, “I can’t watch you walk away. I’ll think about you in my dreams,” is very clearly dedicated to him. “LoveDrug,” in my opinion, is one of the most underrated tracks on the record, while sure it’s lyrically not super complex (comparing love to an addictive drug, and running from her emotions to escape the pain of loneliness), it’s lyrically and musically quite strong. “How Bad Do U Want Me,” has some of my favorite synth production on the entire record, and I like the themes of insecurity Gaga expresses on this track as she wants to be loved and appreciated as she may be the bad girl, but she doesn’t want to be constantly competing with her partner’s idea of the “good girl,” in his mind. It’s easily one of my favorite tracks. “Don’t Call Tonight,” is a track that talks about the uncomfortable feeling after a hookup, where she basically is saying “don’t call tonight,” because she doesn’t want to be viewed as someone who only is there for sex, rather than a substantial relationship. “Shadow Of A Man,” and “The Beast,” are solid tracks, and I liked the werewolf theme of the latter track, but it does feel sort of out of place instrumentally. “Blade Of Grass,” is a sweet track dedicated to her fiancé, as it actually references how he wrapped a blade of grass around her finger, since he proposed to her in their backyard. It’s a sweet piano ballad, and even though it does sound drastically different than most of the album, I really loved the songwriting of the track. Finally, we close off the album with probably my least favorite track on the record, “Die with a Smile,” featuring Bruno Mars. It doesn’t really feel like a Gaga track, it feels more like a Bruno Mars track, and while both contributed strong vocal performances it just doesn’t really fit with the rest of the album sonically.

   Overall, Mayhem is a solid but not spectacular return to form from Lady Gaga. It has very strong moments at times, but overall the album can be very inconsistent at times, and while the songwriting and production are mostly strong, quite a few tracks just really don’t mesh with the album’s overall sound and themes. There’s not really any bad tracks on this thing, the ones that are my least favorites just don’t wow me. It’s an enjoyable record, but I definitely had higher expectations for this thing.

Overall Score: 7/10

Favorite Tracks: “Disease,” “Abracadabra,” “Garden of Eden,” “LoveDrug,” “How Bad Do U Want Me,” “Perfect Celebrity,”

Least Favorite Tracks: “Shadow Of A Man,” “The Beast,” “Die With A Smile,”

Listen: https://youtu.be/vBynw9Isr28?si=7C1_jdd1LrHjJ3eQ

Genres: Dance Pop/Electropop/Synthpop/Pop Rock