Lady Gaga Is Back And Better Than Ever With 'Mayhem'
In March of this year, Lady Gaga released her seventh studio album, 'Mayhem’.
‘Mayhem’ feels like a return to form for Gaga, and through its release, she has further cemented her place in pop culture as a theatrical, experimental, and iconoclastic artist.
So, let’s get into some of the tracks.
The first track, 'Disease', has warped, airy vocals in the opening, followed swiftly by a pounding, metallic-sounding drum beat. From the very first verse, the song evokes an air of mystery, which intrigues the listener into the album. Throughout the verses, Gaga layers deep, gravelly, almost distorted-sounding vocals under the main melody, which makes for a layered and interesting listening experience. It’s very reminiscent of Gaga’s style in the early 2010s: mysterious and dramatic with an epically catchy, soaring chorus.
The next song, 'Abracadabra', is quintessentially Gaga. It’s an upbeat, dance track featuring a characteristic trait of Gaga’s music: nonsensical lyrics which are just so damn catchy! It feels reminiscent of the best songs from ‘Born This Way’, such as 'Judas', with a loud belting chorus sure to get stuck in the listener’s head. Here, Gaga also resurrected her notable ‘talk-singing’ style of vocals, which always brings such character and personality to a track.
'Garden of Eden' opens with strange, warped-sounding synths with a driving beat, and the pre-chorus sounds almost like choral music, tying in with the religious imagery of the song. Gaga starts the song in the lower register of her voice, which makes the anthemic chorus even more pronounced as she enters her higher register. Gaga once again leans into the theatrical, spoken word style when she says, “I’ll take you to the Garden of Eden,” punctuated by punchy, electric guitars which could make anyone get up and dance.
'Perfect Celebrity' is perhaps the most raw and vulnerable Gaga has ever been when discussing her relationship to fame and the music industry. In it, Gaga expresses anger at both herself and the industry as she explores what it feels like to have multiple identities, her public-facing persona as ‘Lady Gaga,’ and herself, Stefani. Sonically, the music matches the vibe of feeling confused or lost, with eerie, sparse production of an alien-sounding beat/bassline accompanied by singular chords, with the chorus exploding into a raging, angry, pop-punk style with both layered production and vocals - an excellent meditation on fame.
'Zombieboy', a track which is clearly influenced by Gwen Stefani’s ‘Hollerback Girl,’ is again an excellent pop song. The extended electric guitar solos in the middle of the song are a welcome addition. With live instruments used less frequently now in the pop sphere, it's always refreshing and exciting to hear them. To me, the bridge of the song feels reminiscent of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),’ another song that gets you in a groovy mood. This is a fun, disco-style track which showcases the best of Gaga.
'How Bad Do U Want Me 'is the most overtly pop song on the album. People have compared it to Taylor Swift’s style of music and songwriting, with an extended double chorus with a rising melody, typical of Swift’s style. To me, it sounds more '80s, Carly Rae Jepsen adjacent, with a jumpy, arpeggiated synth pattern dotted under the vocal line in the verses. The song then explodes into a pop-perfection anthemic, soaring chorus. The song follows a simple pop rubric and is not really doing anything new or experimental. But the simplicity is what makes it perfect and memorable. I have had the chorus stuck in my head all week, and that, to me, is the sign of an effective pop song.
'The Beast' is one of the few ballads in this track list, but it manages not to kill the momentum built by the more upbeat songs. Here, it is really Gaga’s vocals that take centre stage, with a simple drumline throughout the track and simple bassy synth chords underscoring the entire track.
The final song on this album is 'Die With A Smile', a duet with Bruno Mars, which opens with a few bars of a simple strummed guitar. Mars opens the song with his characteristic silky smooth vocals, and the pair complement each other beautifully in the second part of the song as they sing with close harmonies. With a musical interlude breaking up the latter part of the song, the track has a great ebb and flow to it as it builds, strips back down, and builds right back up again. However, the waltz timing gives a slightly meandering, overwrought feeling to the song. Honestly, this track is not a standout when compared to the pop mastery of the previous songs, but for what it is... It’s pretty good.
Overall, despite the title ‘Mayhem,’ this album feels wonderfully coherent.
Gaga expertly mixes the experimental with tried-and-true pop formulas, something she has always done well. The variety of genres, such as pop punk, funk, disco and house music, makes for an expertly balanced and sonically interesting listening experience without feeling incoherent or scattered. Lyrically, 'Mayhem' is equally well-rounded, earnestly exploring themes of love, identity, and fame whilst maintaining humour and fun.
After spending many years as a musical nomad, whether that was delving into jazz music or becoming a movie soundtracker, 'Mayhem' feels like the right place for Lady Gaga to land: she is an extremely talented musician in all genres, but this album feels like an authentic return to form and has solidified her place as a pop genius, an expert in what she does best.
