Review | Lady Gaga’s new album ‘Mayhem’ is the ‘Garden of Eden’ of pop comebacks

Lady Gaga, pop superstar and queer icon, released her highly anticipated “LG7” album “Mayhem” on March 7, a project filled with growth and a resurgence of passion for the artist. “Mayhem” is a late-stage renaissance by Gaga and a testament to her creativity and skill within the pop genre.

Mayhem is a 14-track release with collaborations from Bruno Mars on “Die With A Smile” and Gesaffelstein on “Killah.” The album gained traction with the aforementioned lead collaboration single, “Die With A Smile,” which reached over two billion streams on Spotify. Gaga released “Disease,” the album’s first track, as a single on Oct. 15, 2024, and “Abracadabra” premiered in a Mastercard commercial during the Grammy Awards. Gaga spoke to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe on the album, discussing the authenticity she relayed in the gothic-electronica project. 

“​​That is who Lady Gaga is to me … maybe to someone else, it might be the meat dress or something that I did that they remember as me. But for me, I always want to be remembered for being a real artist and someone that cares so much,” Gaga said.

As someone who’s been a Lady Gaga fan since I was four, I cannot overstate my happiness with “Mayhem.” I was ready to be underwhelmed after “Harlequin” and the initial release of “Disease,” expecting “Mayhem” to be a disappointing revival of 2010 recession hits. I was instead met with maturity, individuality, creativity and artistry in every track. To understand the revolution of “Mayhem” within Gaga’s style, it’s important to understand her journey and her path to finding herself through the theatrics of her initial style. 

Gaga has been in the pop scene since 2008 after her release of “The Fame,” which turned New York native Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta into an international star. She followed with “The Fame Monster” in 2010 and the release of “Born This Way” in 2011. “Born This Way” specifically pushed Gaga further to the bounds of her artistry with creative spins on musical tradition, like her operatic opening to “Government Hooker,” German gibberish in “Scheiße” and religious overtones in “Judas.”

After her trio of charting hit albums, Gaga detoured with the experimental album “Artpop” in 2013, where songs like “Sexxx Dreams” and “ARTPOP” played heavily into an audio-tuned synth sound, with fewer hits in comparison to her prior albums, despite the success of “Applause.”  She then released “Cheek to Cheek” with the late Tony Bennett in 2014 and another duet album with Bennett in 2021 called “Love for Sale,” where she turned jazz standards into her own and showcased a sophisticated side fans weren’t used to seeing. In between her jazz remakes was the 2016 release of “Joanne,” a soft folk-country-rock album exploring her grief for her late aunt Joanne Germanotta. Gaga also made “Chromatica” in 2020, remembered only by “Rain On Me” with Ariana Grande, and “Harlequin” in 2024, a concept album sung from the perspective of her character in the recent movie, “Joker 2: Folie à Deux.” The albums couldn’t match her former glory yet allowed her to mature in the pop scene and flow between genres to strengthen her songwriting and producing capabilities. 

I firmly believe that “Mayhem” is the result of Gaga’s years-long sound exploration, as well as a revisit to her party-girl roots and the theatrics of meat-dress Gaga. The album isn’t as mainstream as “The Fame,” doesn’t push boundaries as much as ”Born This Way” and doesn’t mimic a specific sound like in “Love For Sale.” “Mayhem” is a stew of her past personas, musical choices and work in both experimental and genre-widening sounds. It’s her love for music winding its way through style, electronic and acoustic balances, deeply personal lyrics and a journey through Gaga’s wonders.

A highlight of “Mayhem” for me is the dimension of genre in each song. “Zombieboy” and “Killah” remind me of upbeat 80s pop mixed with the time warping sound of American indie band Pomplamoose and a hint of rock hidden behind the dance feel.

 “LoveDrug,” “How Bad Do U Want Me” and “Don’t Call Tonight” all fit into the same feel and category for me and are some of the safer choices on the album. Alongside “Perfect Celebrity,” the songs touch on the focus of the album with Gaga’s gothic musings, something she further discussed with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.

“The album is a series of gothic dreams … It’s like images of the past that haunt me, and they somehow find their way into who I am today,” Gaga said.

The lyrics on the album are a huge point of demonstration for Gaga in terms of artist development, especially in “Blade of Grass,” where heavy piano chords and soft acoustic guitar surround vulnerable lines like, “You said, ‘How does a man like me love a woman like you?’ / I said, ‘Hold me until I die and I’ll make you brand new.’” The slowness and love seeping out of “Blade of Grass,” alongside “The Beast,” backs Gaga’s maturity, showing the calm of her life when she’s away from the spotlight in comparison to songs like “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich,” released on “The Fame” at the start of her career. 

My love for Gaga’s music has always stemmed from her extravagant club hits, so “Abracadabra” and “Garden of Eden” easily soared to the top of my favorites list. “Abracadabra” feels like the most danceable song I’ve heard since Chapell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” and will probably serve as a gateway drug for summer party girls, taking the crown from Charli XCX’s 2024 club hit “Brat.” “Garden of Eden” showed Gaga’s youth and freedom with the lines, “Go get your friends and meet me on the floor / You’re out of candy? I can get you mo-o-ore / You started slurring, and I start to squeal / I’m falling over in my nine-inch heels.” It’s not Gaga’s most creative song, but it shows her dedication to her original audience and pays homage to her roots.

I’d be remiss to not touch on “Die With A Smile,” a further departure from the album yet still somewhat cohesive with the rest of the project. I think I would have appreciated the song more as a standalone and not shoved onto the end of “Mayhem,” as its chart-topping fame feels displaced within the rest of the album. While the song can fit, the social context of popularity around it can make it seem out of place, with the only other song slightly comparable being “Abracadabra.” 

Mayhem was a no-skips album for me because of its bounty in terms of style, genre, electronics and creativity. The album is an obvious showcase of her musical skill and dedication to her craft, a project crafted for herself but still satisfying her fans. While we might not be getting meat-dress Gaga anytime soon, I’m satisfied with the mature yet loose Gaga characterized throughout “Mayhem,” and I’d recommend the album to anyone who’s been a longtime fan.