Lady Gaga - "Mayhem"
A non-Gaga Gaga album. Weird.
Lady Gaga needs no introduction, so this review might be a little brief — while Mayhem is only her sixth full-length album since her breakout in 2008, nearly 20 years ago,1 Gaga has demonstrated remarkable staying power, remaining a cultural mainstay and one of the biggest names in Pop for her entire career.
Much of that, I think, is due to the power of her voice and her incredibly raunchy (and catchy) lyrics and tunes. The combination of that overpowering alto and horny-A-F vibes is, in essence, the core Gaga experience.2
In short, that description does not apply to Mayhem.
Let me be a little more clear — there are a lot of actually good songs on Mayhem, but they aren’t good Gaga songs.
The album was written and conceived with this idea of focusing on Gaga’s “love of music — so many different genres, so many different styles, so many different dreams.” She continues, telling the LA Times that “It leaps around genre in a way that’s almost corrupt.”
She’s not wrong about that in the slightest. If it wasn’t clear that many of these songs were already pretty much done in early 2024, then I would think that she basically stole the concept from Halsey, whose Great Impersonator album, which released last year (and made my Honorable Mentions), saw Halsey emulating a host of artists who had inspired her.
While the core sound of Mayhem is a blend of Synth-Pop and Disco, there is a ton of emulation going on here. Allow me to highlight a few tracks:
“Abracadabra” contains an interpolation (so it’s kind of a cheap first highlight, but 'I’m going down the tracklist in numerical order, and this is track 2) of “Spellbound” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. The rhythm here is stiff and not very Gaga, so it really sounds like a karaoke track more than anything; the big, bold production and sound, though is very Gaga and has fans saying it takes them back to the late aughts. The song also reminds me of something else, but I can’t place it.
“Garden of Eden” sounds appropriately horny for Gaga, but also sounds like a Ke$ha song at points.
“Perfect Celebrity” sounds like Demi Lovato with a strong Pop/Rock blend; the song’s commentary on celebrity sounds very much like a song Lovato might write, as well.
“Vanish Into You” introduces the very interesting concept of Baroque Disco. It’s an enchanting sound, but the way Gaga channels Lana Del Rey’s flat tonality in the verses pulls me out of the song.
“Killah” pulls strongly on David Bowie, as flagged by Slant. It’s also disgustingly raunchy, so we’re getting half of the formula here.
“How Bad Do U Want Me” is surreal — if I heard this song without context on the radio, I would think it was a new Taylor Swift track. It is blatant. And, worse, it’s good.
“Shadow of a Man” is very Michael Jackson.
“Blade of Grass” uses a commonly-recycled melody in the chorus; Redditor u/perrysangelbtch made a playlist. So this one isn’t specific, but it’s nice to have an illustration of why this sequence of notes has begun to irritate me when I hear them. This is one of my least favorites on the album.
“Die With a Smile” is a duet love ballad with Bruno Mars; Gaga says it was inspired by duets between Carole King and James Taylor, and it sounds appropriately old-school.
With all of this, there are very few moments where Gaga truly sounds like herself — honestly, I would only really recognize probably opening track “Disease”, “Don’t Call Tonight”, and, maybe, “LoveDrug” as Gaga songs. Much of that is because her vocals are so toned down throughout this album — we never truly get any of those powerful Gaga vocal moments. These three songs are really the closest we get.
And, honestly, I’m not okay with that.
As much as I’m happy to see Gaga do something different, doing it while, essentially, tying her hands behind her back is not what I was hoping for.
The emulation is impressive; honestly, she did a better job of emulating acts in much of this album than Halsey did on Great Impersonator, but Halsey did it from this really genuine place. Gaga’s emulation feels very shits-n-giggles and it comes at the cost of her strengths.
The songs are, for the most part, genuinely solid. But it doesn’t feel like a cohesive album in any respect, and it doesn’t feel like a Gaga album in the slightest. There’s nothing authentic here. So, while it’s enjoyable for what it is, I can’t rate it very highly.
Rating: Yellow
OOF! That one hurts…
To be fair, one of my criticisms of 2020’s Chromatica (and much of Gaga’s discography) is the over-reliance on sex-crazed lyrics.