Lady Gaga’s Newest Album MAYHEM Is A Nostalgic Triumph

Gaga is so back.

MAYHEM, the latest album by pop star and music icon Lady Gaga, is a brilliant culmination of some of Gaga’s best material this decade. This album is so fun and so fresh, while also having such a nostalgic sound to it. I’m completely obsessed with it.

Let’s dive into the track list:

Disease, Gaga’s first single to come out for the record, is a fantastic choice for a starting track on the album. The snappy, electric, almost jolting beat, accompanied by Gaga’s powerhouse vocals and her ominously cryptic lyrics, are such a blast from the past. It sets listeners up for the high-energy, head-banging pop cuts on this album that make Gaga such a beloved icon, as MAYHEM sees her going back to basics and absolutely excelling at it. This song makes me feel like I’m being electrocuted, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If Disease is classic Gaga going back to basics, her second single Abracadabra is classic Gaga going back to basics, but even better. This incredible dance beat sounds so good with those loud, clubby, catchy instrumentals, and the panic-inducing, breakneck pace of this absolute slapper is classic Gaga weirdness; you can just see the crazy choreography before you even watch the music video. Gaga’s sly, haunting, borderline nonsensical lyrics on this track with those crazed, spooky spoken word repetitions of the title only add to its intrigue and memorability. This feels like it could have come straight off of Artpop, and I love that. This song is Gaga at her most masterful; it is pure pop perfection.

Garden of Eden is such a fun and flirty track—very reminiscent of The Fame era—as we get more of a pop rock vibe from the song. Gaga’s voice sounds so sweet and slick over the echoey background vocals and those killer guitars, and her chants of “I’ll t-t-take you to the Garden of Eden” add that fun and deliciously edgy flavor to the song. It’s sexy, it’s daring, it’s catchy—it’s a banger. Take us there, queen.

Perfect Celebrity is the very definition of a phenomenal Gaga song. With lyrics touching on her celebrity status and the immense level of fame she grapples with, this song a bold, relentless, fairly scathing fuck-you to all of the people who have criticized her publicly and dragged her through the mud. She calls out the culture of “loving to hate” Hollywood stars and calls herself the perfect celebrity, since she is able to stay happy and disconnected from all outer critiques, perfectly content in being hated by strangers due to her love for herself and the art she makes. This song goes hard musically too; the vocals are loud and bold and so, so good, and that chorus is killer.

Vanish Into You takes things more slowly—though only slightly—with a gorgeous, more ballad-like track. I like that it slows down the pacing of the tracklist a little bit, because so far it’s been fast-paced banger for banger, and this gives us some breathing room on the track list. But though it’s not as upbeat as the others thus far, it’s still anything but boring, with its swooning vocals and its viscerally soft yet dancey beat. This song is just a very sweet, very heartfelt tribute to Gaga’s fiancé that sees her singing about wanting to vanish into them, wanting to connect and become one. It’s very cute.

Killah is SO good. The funk factor is real and evident on the song. Gaga’s vocals and melodies on this track give Prince vibes, just as much as Gaga’s stunning album art does. It’s a more low-key yet super groovy cut off the record, dripping with lyrics filled to the brim with confidence and deliciously alluring promises of violence. Gaga’s tantalizing, dangerous vocal delivery hits hard on this track, especially on top of those crooning guitars and crisp drums. The lyrics are cleverly suggestive and delectably raunchy in that weird, perturbing way Gaga is so known for. And oh my god, that beat is nasty.

Zombieboy—I won’t mince my words, it’s the best song on the album for me. This is it right here. This track legitimately had me levitating; I cannot express in words how good it is. It’s nothing short of pure dance pop bliss, with a gorgeous, entrancing melody, catchy instrumentals, and a seductively smooth vocal delivery—and that beat drop ten seconds in is absolutely dirty, in the very best of ways. That 80s style synthesizer, the chanting, the snappy drums, Gaga’s smooth, sweet vocals on the chorus—all of these aspects make this track incredible. This is danceable, delirious, funky, ethereal, beautiful pop music at its finest.

LoveDrug is just amazing. Gaga’s voice on this track is so powerful. The track is as fun and freeing as unhealthy pining can possibly be. This pop ballad is so addictive; it feels like a euphoric dance scene straight out of a movie, with those sweet electric guitar rips and her light, high vocals and desperate lyrics. It feels like the emotional crux of the record after Vanish Into You, with Gaga expressing her inability to escape her own dark thoughts and feeling the desire to get high off of someone else’s love to cope. As for the music, it’s just one amazing instrumental after another. The instruments on this song are pure bliss. The chorus on this one is one of my favorites on the entire record. Incredible stuff.

How Bad Do U Want Me gives me major Taylor Swift vibes with that chorus and the cheeky spoken-word portions. There’s a more “mainstream” pop sound on this track, even with that bubbly, in-and-out instrumental between the chorus and the verses, with lyrics about Gaga wanting her significant other to love the sweet, romantic part of her just as much as he loves her “bad girl” side. It’s very cheeky, very, very Taylor, and it’s a banger. It’s also probably the first song on the album that’s more of a 7 or 8/10 for me instead of 12/10, but it still slaps.

Don’t Call Tonight is a wistful, dancey banger that reminds me so much of her Born This Way era. The chorus is catchy and ear-grabbing, sobered by lyrics thick with doubt and fear surrounding a person’s intentions with her romantically as we see Gaga convincing a lover, or perhaps herself, she doesn’t want them to call her, because they don’t truly care about her in the way she needs. The beat is soft, electric bliss, and that final pre-chorus with the stifled, Daft Punk-esque vocals is so weird and so, so good.

Shadow Of a Man is a banger. This is, once again, such a throwback to that classic Gaga sound we know from The Fame and Born This Way. The song highlights Gaga’s resistance and resilience as she expresses an uncompromising promise to not be used for her love and to instead be free and authentically herself. The fast lyrical delivery on the chorus and the eccentric, pulsing beat make this such a danceable track. It’s definitely one of the strongest tracks from the second leg of the album.

The Beast is a song thick with emotion and power, as Gaga delivers yet another impressive vocal performance. Taking things slower and more sensually, it takes its time establishing a sinister, sexual vibe, with Gaga’s lyrics about wanting “to feel the beast inside”—wink, wink. It’s a song about the primal qualities of sexuality, which I like and appreciate. Musically, it’s probably one of my least favorite songs on the album, alongside the song that follows it, but I still really enjoyed it.

Blade of Grass is another ballad that reminds me of a bit of her stuff on Joanne—we’re really hitting all of the eras, it’s wild. This is a very sweet, very heartfelt track about Gaga’s relationship and making things last with the person you love, no matter how bleak things may seem around you. It’s not my favorite style of music she makes, but it’s a good song with really great lyrics, and I like and appreciate its addition on this album.

And finally, the record ends with Die With a Smile—we all know it, we all love it. It’s a solid song. But I do have to say, as good as this song is, it really doesn’t fit very well into Mayhem as an album. It has a completely different vibe than the rest of the songs, being a more singer/songwriter type of track with that radio friendly feel—but hey, it still goes hard.

Overall, MAYHEM is a victory lap, just as the fans were expecting. It sees Gaga returning to classic form while also trying out so many new interesting beats and sounds. She is just as weird and risqué as ever on this new record, which of course we love, and her music is just as magical and intoxicating as it always has been. Personally, it’s my favorite record of hers since Born This Way, and I was a huge fan of both Artpop and Chromatica. The first half of the album in particular is pure, peak Lady Gaga. It’s an insane eight track run of some of her very best work to date.

Gaga’s endless creativity and her boundless love for music always make her art shine, and this is no exception. I really don’t see myself listening to anything else for the next two weeks. It’s a great record.

Gaga fans, feel free to tell me your thoughts on the album! Everyone else, let me know what albums/songs you’ve been keeping in rotation as of late.

Thanks for reading! ♥️

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