#review: Does Lady Gaga truly bring Mayhem with her new album?

Now that we’ve had time to digest Lady Gaga’s latest offering, David Ho gives his thoughts on Mayhem

Dropping the Joker: Folie à Deux era as quickly as a spoiled meat dress, Lady Gaga aka Stefani Germanotta is back with a new album, supported by a series of Singapore concerts. This round, Gaga promises to bring Mayhem with her new album, as evident from the title. But the results are far more manicured than what she wants you to believe.

Mother Monster has spent the last decade or so zig-zagging through several phases, from Andy Warhol channeler and Tony Bennett duet partner to stripped down songstress and bona fide movie star. Without counting Harlequin (a sombre companion album of jazzy covers for the aforementioned Joker movie), Gaga’s last studio album was Chromatica. The 2020 release was seen as a return to the shiny dance-pop roots of her debut album, The Fame.

This time though, Mayhem draws a line to the next two dots in Gaga’s discography - The Fame Monster (TFM) EP and its follow-up, the Born This Way (BTW) album.

The throwback references are not hard to see. Visually, the black and white photos for Mayhem’s artwork certainly recall the striking horror-inspired shots taken for TFM and BTW. The music videos for “Disease” and “Abracadabra” look like 2025 updates for those of "Bad Romance" and “Alejandro”. Comparisons can also be made between her superstar collaboration for this era, “Die with a Smile” with Bruno Mars, and that of her “Telephone” duet with Beyoncé.

The fact that Mayhem might essentially be a 2025 mashup of TFM and BTW is an accusation that Gaga has tackled head on and embraced. When asked if she was simply “reheating her nachos”,  she reminded her interviewer that the nachos in question “are mine and I invented them, and I’m proud of them.”

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of self-referencing. You’ve earned the right to do so when you are a superstar of Gaga’s stature and have the iconography to pull from. There’s also an inevitability that she would revisit the eras that are largely considered her imperial phase, when Gaga had every pop girlie look like they were trailing behind her bedazzled shoulder pads.

TFM’s DNA is shot and splattered all over Mayhem’s three pre-release singles, two of which serve to open the album. The hyperbolism of “Disease” leans in on the hints of horror glimpsed in previous TFM works like “Monster” and “Teeth”, while the chorus on “Abracadabra” is very reminiscent of the refrain in “Bad Romance”. However, the industrial beats of these two are borrowed more from BTW’s dark electronic playbook.

Also see: #review: Is Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattinson worth a watch?

With those out of the way, the first ‘fresh’ song we get from this project is “Garden of Eden”. We foresee its stuttering hook and ravey instrumental to go down as a real treat in a live setting. But the real highlight and bleeding heart of the project is track number four – “Perfect Celebrity”. With its punchy arena rock sound, the song wouldn’t be out of place on the soundtrack of a 90’s show like Charmed and that’s high praise.

Intentionally or not, its lyrics on the horrors of being consumed in an exploitive environment serves as a fitting epilogue to the dissection of fame in Gaga’s early works, from wanting to be famous (The Fame) to slowly discovering its horrors (TFM and BTW), and now finally offering herself up as a “human doll” to the masses. In the age of social media, where ‘fame’ is more tangible than ever, it feels even more relevant. If Demi Moore’s character in The Substance wrote a song, “Perfect Celebrity” would be it.  

Gaga has stated that the project was conceived from “a happy place” and songs like “Vanish Into You”, “Killah”, “How Bad Do U Want Me” and “Blade of Grass” attest to that. Being loved up has clearly brought out Gaga’s romantic and playful side, likely buoyed by the fact that fiancé Michael Polansky helped pen half of the tracks on this project. Even “Zombieboy”, a tribute to the deceased model Rick Genest who famously appeared in her “Born This Way” video, is no sad song but a disco-fied affair that has sparked a Michael Jackson “Thriller”-esque dance trend on TikTok.    

While songs like “Don’t Call Tonight” and “Shadow of a Man” start strong, they don’t go anywhere particularly interesting after that. “The Beast” could very well be an ode to the Joker, but much like Gaga’s take on Harley Quinn, this one is likely to just be a footnote in her discography.  

Sure, not every song needs or benefits from crazy beat switches. But after so many solid tracks and being placed so late in the sequence, a little extra oomph in the production for these songs might help them stand out more. Without Gaga’s theatrical vocals holding our attention, these just melt into rather generic tracks.

On standard versions, the LP closes with the Grammy-winning “Die With A Smile”. The apocalyptic, romantic duet with Bruno Mars already feels like a classic with its phone-in-the-air (lighters if you’re old) chorus, ensuring its status as a staple at every Filipino karaoke bar. It works as the project’s final nod to TFM, specifically “Speechless”. Within the context of the album, it really is the perfect closer as it provides the feeling of coming home and sinking into your loved one’s arms, after a day filled with mayhem.   

Now, is Mayhem truly the chaotic outing that the future Mrs Polansky wants us to think it is? Not really. There are no new tricks here that we haven’t seen Gaga do before, and the wink-wink-nudge of self-references makes this feel more carefully mapped out than spontaneous.

But reheated nachos can still be delicious, and we appreciate that Gaga has crafted a solid collection of tracks in Mayhem, with no mere two-minute soundbites that much of pop music has been reduced to post-TikTok. What we get is an artiste who is more sure of her legacy than ever, and leaning into it confidently for a second wind.

Stream Lady Gaga’s Mayhem on Spotify here.

Also see: How to get tickets for Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Singapura concerts in Singapore