A Review of Lady Gaga’s MAYHEM
After nearly a whole year of teasing and almost 5 years after her previous album, Chromatica (released in 2020), Lady Gaga has officially made her return with her seventh studio album MAYHEM to the excitement of fans worldwide with what Gaga describes as an “electro grunge” sound.
The album is fronted by the two pre-released singles teasing the album, “Disease” and “Abracadabra”. Between the two, “Abracadabra” became a favorite of mine from the overall work. The song perfectly delivers everything Gaga is known for: unapologetically fun, entrancing pop music made on an infinitely danceable beat.
Several tracks feature instrumental lead outs that become a signature of MAYHEM’s sound, my favorites coming from “Zombieboy” and “Shadow Of A Man”. “Killah” featuring French DJ Gesaffelstein stands out both within the album and Gaga’s discography as a whole, mainly carried by the groovy strums of a guitar (which happens to the only live recorded instrument in the whole album, as Gaga revealed to Rolling Stone).
The second to last track, “Blade Of Grass”, felt underwhelming and lost some of the good momentum built up from the songs preceding it. The lyrics didn’t stand out as particularly robust and layered as other Gaga songs, especially in comparison to her other ballads such as “Dope” or “Speechless”. Though upon further research, I found out that the song was written based on a heartfelt conversion between Gaga and her fiancé Michael Polansky. Still, “Blade Of Grass” failed to deliver the emotional impact that would’ve been expected from writing about such a personal moment.
Fortunately, we round out the album with “Die With A Smile”, a duet released in collaboration with Bruno Mars last October, saving the album from ending on a weak note. Every praise given to this track has already been said (deservedly so), every instrumental and lyrical feature brought to greater heights by Gaga and Mars’s excellent vocal performances.
Overall, my favorite songs were “Abracadabra”, “Vanish Into You”, and “Shadow Of A Man”. MAYHEM stands solidly among Gaga’s other albums and continues to bring both the artistic and floor-filling music that Lady Gaga is known for.
