Lady Gaga- Mayhem
Label: Interscope
Producers: Lady Gaga, Andrew Watt, Gesaffelstein, Cirkut, D’Mile, Bruno Mars
The career and musical journey of Lady Gaga, both in terms of her reach as a pop superstar and creative artist, will always be one that’s impossible to singularly define. That fact in and of itself will truly always be the heart of her legacy. However, if we’re forced to generalize her biggest successes, the conversation will always center around the onslaught of modern dance-pop classics she produced from the run of albums between her 2008 debut and 2011’s Born This Way. But Gaga didn’t just help define what pop sounded like as the 2000s morphed into the 2010s, she also transformed and elevated what the pop aesthetic looked like as well, through an edgy and outrageously creative drag-inspired vision that brought the bold visuals of the MTV era to new heights. She wasn’t the first artist to follow this sonic or visual path, but she undoubtedly took what pivotal influences like Elton John, David Bowie, Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson did before her, and redefined it for a new generation.
But even as she expanded the creativite boundaries of her own artistry to rare limits, her stylistic restlessness still brought her to new realms of diversity, through navigations into jazz, folk-rock, and movie soundtracks. Now, with the release of her first proper pop release in five years, Mayhem finds Gaga consolidating her fandom’s hunger for her classic heyday pop sounds with her own diverse well of sonic influences and interests as cohesively as any other record in her vast catalog. Many critics will, and are already, proclaiming this as her return-to-form release as it relates to her pre-Artpop heights; I already regarded 2020’s pandemic classic, Chromatica as that record and that’s a hill I will die on. I’d argue that Mayhem builds on the greatness she already accomplished there, while also serving as the most well-rounded realization of her boundary-less pop vision, while still within the confines of one of her proper studio sets.
The bangers and bops contained throughout are Gaga at her finest, and they’re delivered in a bounty-level quantity, as is the ultimate wish for any classic pop record. While singles like “Disease” and “Abracadabra” and tracks like “Garden of Eden” and “LoveDrug” are the kind of club-ready synth anthems of the highest Gaga order, moments like “Perfect Celebrity” and “Vanish Into You” tip their hats to Bowie’s glam-rock signatures. Meanwhile, “Killah” recalls Prince’s funkiest rock moments and “Zombieboy” is a disco-rock dream that feels like a deliciously torrid, three-way love-affair between Michael Jackson, Blondie and Van Halen (its bridge is also my newest favorite emotional pivots in all of pop). Of course underneath all of this glorious sonic goodness you will find Gaga’s signature social commentary on everything from romance and sexuality, to personal identity and society’s pitfalls, among much else.
As the album enters its final arc, the tone shifts to more pensive but equally contagious moments like “How Bad Do U Want Me”, “Don’t Call Tonight”, and “Shadow of A Man”, before pivoting completely to Gaga’s own indelible brand of power-pop balladry with the demonic drama of “The Beast”, the deceptively romantic “Blade of Grass”, and the blockbuster soft-rock finale of her smash duet with Bruno Mars, “Die With A Smile”. Some may argue that closing the record with this more subdued trifecta may cut the album’s overall energy off at the knees, but to me, it’s what helps make Mayhem such a wholly-rewarding record from Gaga at this stage in her career.
In many ways, it signifies the inevitable coming down from the superficial highs of the club-life euphorias tailored to by the beats and sounds of the album’s earlier tracks. On a grander scale, this album’s arc could symbolize the general maturation and perspective that comes when youth ultimately fades into the realities of adulthood. Ultimately, it mirrors the overall trajectory and scope of Lady Gaga’s career to date. A career that’s one of those rare and special pop music stories untethered to the fickle trends and interests of a specific timeframe. Mayhem not only immediately radiates as an excellent album, not to mention one of the best of the decade. It’s the exact sort of album an artist wants to achieve almost twenty years into a career. It’s the kind of record that cements a legacy, and feeds it new and vibrant energy to carry into the years, and hopefully decades ahead.
Track Listing:
- “Disease” (Lady Gaga, Andrew Watt, Henry Walter, Michael Polansky)
- “Abracadabra” (Gaga, Watt, Walter, Siouxsie Sioux, Peter Edward Clarke, John McGeoch, Steven Severin)
- “Garden of Eden” (Gaga, Watt, Mike Levy, Walter)
- “Perfect Celebrity” (Gaga, Watt, Levy, Walter)
- “Vanish Into You” (Gaga, Watt, Walter, Polansky)
- “Killah” (featuring Gesaffelstein) (Gaga, Watt, Levy, Walter)
- “Zombieboy” (Gaga, Watt, Walter, James Fauntleroy)
- “LoveDrug” (Gaga, Watt, Walter, Polansky)
- “How Bad Do U Want Me” (Gaga, Watt, Walter, Polansky)
- “Don’t Call Tonight” (Gaga, Watt, Walter, Polansky)
- “Shadow of a Man” (Gaga, Watt, Walter)
- “The Beast” (Gaga, Watt, Walter, Polansky)
- “Blade of Grass” (Gaga, Watt, Walter, Polansky)
- “Die With a Smile” (featuring Bruno Mars) (Gaga, Bruno Mars, Dernst Emile II, Watt, Fauntleroy)
The 706 
Leave a comment