Lady Gaga - Mayhem

At this stage in her career, Lady Gaga calling an album ‘Mayhem’ almost sounds like a dare – to herself, to pop music, and to anyone expecting her to mellow out. Ever the master of reinvention, Gaga has spent the last few years indulging in jazz standards, country-tinged balladry and Hollywood glamour, but her latest record sees her dive back into the neon-soaked club chaos that made her name. The result is an album that doesn’t just embrace mayhem; it positively bathes in it.

After the polished dystopia of 2020’s triumphant ‘Chromatica’ and a detour into big-screen musical drama, Gaga’s return to pop comes with a twist – ‘Mayhem’ is less a concept album and more a planned explosion. Freed from any one genre or persona, Gaga uses her stylistic freedom to prove she can do it all at once. In interviews, she hinted that she didn’t want to box herself in this time, and you can tell: ‘Mayhem’ pinballs between moods and styles with gleeful abandon, unified only by an unshakeable confidence that it will all make sense under her vision.

True to its title, ‘Mayhem’ is a riot from start to finish. This is an album of relentless pop bangers that come at you thick and fast. From the first synth stab of opener ‘Disease’ to the final soaring chorus of ‘Die with a Smile’, Gaga barrels forward at full throttle. The energy is high, the beats are hard, and the choruses are shamelessly huge. If subtlety was ever an option, it’s been left at the studio door – and frankly, it’s all the better for it.

Each track offers its own flavour of chaos. Lead single ‘Disease’ sets the tone with a thumping electro-pop pulse and Gaga grappling with her demons on the dancefloor – it’s dark, dramatic and impossibly catchy. Follow-up single ‘Abracadabra’ is equally massive, a piece of shiny synth wizardry that harks back to Gaga’s ‘The Fame Monster’ era of hook-driven spectacle. Then there’s the sultry dance floor confessions of ‘Garden of Eden’ and tongue-in-cheek ‘Zombieboy’, a pair of gloriously camp club ragers destined to become late-night anthems for the creatures of the night. On ‘Perfect Celebrity’, she unleashes a razor-edged commentary about fame’s absurdities over a stomp-and-clap beat, channelling the kind of wry pop satire only Gaga can pull off.

For all its ferocity, ‘Mayhem’ isn’t one-note. Gaga finds room in the madness for a few well-timed breather moments – or at least her version of them. Midway through the record, ‘Killah’ brings a deliciously menacing edge, with French producer Gesaffelstein lending an industrial-grade funk undercurrent that throbs ominously beneath Gaga’s vocals. And just when you think the album will charge ahead indefinitely, along comes ‘Blade of Grass’, a stripped-back love song that proves even amid the mayhem, Gaga can still hush the room with a genuine emotional gut-punch. Of course, the grandest slow burn is ‘Die with a Smile’, her much-hyped duet with Bruno Mars. Starting as a tender ballad and swelling into a show-stopping finale, complete with Gaga’s powerhouse belt and Mars’ silky tones, it's a dramatic, cinematic moment of euphoria that fits perfectly as the album’s curtain-closer.

Despite the eclectic nature of these songs, ‘Mayhem’ hangs together by the sheer force of Gaga’s personality. You’ll hear hints of 80s rock grandiosity one minute, echoes of warehouse rave the next and even a touch of gothic drama in a track like ‘The Beast’. In lesser hands, such wild swings might feel disjointed, but Gaga is the ringmaster holding it all together. Her commitment to the bit – whatever bit that may be at any given moment – keeps you convinced that this rollercoaster is heading somewhere, even as it careens around sharp corners.

Vocally, Gaga has rarely sounded better or more versatile. One moment, she’s purring seductively; the next, she’s belting like a church choir, and then she might drop to a hushed whisper to send a chill. It’s a reminder that beyond the avant-garde outfits and persona changes, Gaga really can sing – and she’s clearly enjoying the hell out of doing it here. There’s a palpable joy in her performance, a sense that this is the most fun she’s had on a record in ages. Even when the subject matter gets dark or cheeky, she sells every line with a theatrical wink or a full-throated roar, as appropriate.

It’s true that ‘Mayhem’ can be a lot – a 53-minute sugar rush of big beats, bigger vocals and zero chill. Listeners accustomed to gentler faire might be dazed by the album’s unyielding intensity. But where some might call it exhausting, it’s positively exhilarating. Rather than sprinkling one or two crowd-pleasers among mid-tempo filler, Gaga has effectively said, “Why not all bangers?” – and that audacity is a triumph in itself. For anyone who believes you can never have too much of a good thing, ‘Mayhem’ feels like an absolute gift.

Ultimately, ‘Mayhem’ does exactly what it said it would. It’s chaotic, loud, and more than a little bonkers – but it’s also a blast and a bold reassertion of Gaga’s status as pop’s reigning maximalist.