ALBUM REVIEW
10/03/2025 - lady gaga, mayhem
Source: Lady Gaga Album Artwork
Words By Jord Hailwood
Lady Gaga, you will always be famous! I feel grateful, honoured, and somewhat old(ish) to have lived in a time where I have witnessed Lady Gaga’s success from when she released her debut album, The Fame, to the release of her latest album, Mayhem.
Lady Gaga is a household name and, without a doubt, one of the most successful and influential artists in human existence. From debating about sawing off her leg for ‘fashion’, to wearing a meat dress at the 2010 MTV awards to performing one of the most memorable and iconic but unusual live performances of her global hit Paparazzi at the VMA’s, Lady Gaga is a prime example of a popstar.
Mayhem comes as Gaga’s first release since her chart-topping lockdown album, Chromatica, released in 2020. Gaga’s career has continued to grow rapidly in the last five years. Unlike many of her counterparts who were also on their come-up at the same time as her, Gaga has managed to maintain a high-profile presence without neglecting her craft. Despite her ongoing musical success, Gaga has also been recognised as an award-winning actor. Gaga is most known for her roles in Ryan Murphy’s Horror Anthology series, American Horror Story, as well as her role as Ally Campana in A Star Is Born.
Mayhem could be the perfect title to summarise Gaga’s new album. I listened several times to understand the gist, and I'm still trying to grasp it fully. The album discusses familiar themes for Gaga, which include falling in love and her complicit relationship with fame.
Before the release of Mayhem, Gaga had put out three singles: Die With A Smile, Disease and Abracadabra. These singles are all distinctively different and make it difficult to figure out what creative direction Gaga was going to take with the album. Die With A Smile has a more gentle, intimate focus, whilst Disease and Abracadabra is more rooted in familiar elements which brought Gaga to stardom in 2008.
The album begins with two of the singles we are familiar with, Disease and Abracadabra. The current set tone for the album is energetic and upbeat. This theme continues to follow through when Garden of Eden starts playing. Gaga’s playful and flirtatious lyrics are present in the track when she sings, ‘You’re out of candy, I can get you more, you started slurrin and I start to squeal. ’ Gaga is a hopeless romantic.
For the most part, she has an optimistic viewpoint of romance, and she continually expresses her desire to satisfy who she is with. Similar connotations can be heard in How Bad Do U Want Me and LoveDrug. Gaga has always been very open and vulnerable about her difficulties with her mental health, and she doesn't shy away from that on Mayhem. She suggests that on LoveDrug, love has played a place as a safety blanket and can arguably be seen as a mechanism for her to avoid the pain of feeling alone. Gaga suggests this through her lyrics when she is singing, ‘My heart is in a bind, if I could bear it on my own I wouldn’t try so hard to numb what’s left behind. ’
Gaga has been very open about her relationship with fame. This is a recurring theme in her music, consistently since she released The Fame. It’s quite interesting to listen to her perspectives as she has been on both ends of the spectrum: entertaining within the industry when social media was just about to pop off compared to the present day, where it has an undeniable, unavoidable influence. Gaga’s mentions of fame strike out to me most in the song Perfect Celebrity, where she expresses her anger towards the industry as well as with herself.
As we near the end of the album, the narrative changes. She tackles misogyny and male-domination in Shadow of a Man, whilst The Beast is centred around her alter-ego, which is ‘Lady Gaga’ and how she has to get into this performative mode to create her best art.
She finishes this album with a heartfelt tribute to her fiance, Michael Polansky. In Blade Of Grass, Gaga expresses her dedication to her fiance, ensuring that her relationship is everlasting and will succeed. She exclaims this when she sings ‘I’ll be your queen without a crown’ and I think, metaphorically, Gaga is suggesting she isn't materialistic when it comes to love; she just expects and requires unconditional love and loyalty.
I am so proud of Lady Gaga. She has managed to create an album which has gone against typical pop connotations, yet it works. The album is somewhat not very cohesive, but perhaps that’s why it's named Mayhem.
The Album title could suggest the turbulence of everyday life, whilst also trying to navigate life as an extremely famous pop star. Lyrically, this is the best she has ever written. Her songwriting has exceptionally improved, but she continues to find a way to recreate sounds that remind her audience of the sensational feelings the LGBTQ+ community felt when she first entered the scene in 2008. Congratulations, Lady Gaga, you are truly unstoppable!
Rating - 4/5
Favourite Tracks - Garden of Eden, Abracadabra and Don’t Call Tonight
