Lady Gaga Revives (Some of) Her Chaos in MAYHEM -

By Tim McGuire

When Lady Gaga dropped the lead single to her newest album MAYHEM, fans rejoiced in nostalgia. “Disease” was a bass-boosted banger accompanied by some unhinged vocals from Gaga, which many people saw as a return to form, being reminiscent of her older catalogue. The early 2000s-2010s have been a popular reference as of recent, so it makes Gaga’s blast to the past all the sweeter. With an electrifying music video for “Abracadabra” premiering at the 67th Grammys, along with her receiving a Grammy for “Die With a Smile,” all eyes were on her as one of the first big stars to release an album this year.

The singles “Disease” and “Abracadabra” were great choices as singles for the album, standing out as some of the best songs. They are placed right at the beginning, allowing the listeners to get familiar with the songs again in order to prepare them for the rest of the album. I was initially confused by this, but after a full listen, I realized there were not many other pockets where these songs could fit in the tracklist aside from the beginning.

Outside of the opening two songs, “Garden Of Eden” immediately comes up next and re-establishes her Fame Monster style of singing. If you are looking for the throwback that Gaga was seemingly promising, this is the song to check out. It easily holds the strongest tie to her prior aesthetics, being an anthem for the partygoers making poor, yet fun decisions. Another track that holds a light to her older works is “Vanish Into You.” If “Garden Of Eden” was aiming for The Fame Monster, then “Vanish Into You” was aiming for ARTPOP. The throwbacks on this album are not exact one to one renditions, but rather an older, more musically experienced Gaga’s take on it.

However, while she does make many references to her earlier works, there are songs referencing times earlier than Gaga. For example, “Killah” sports a strong influence from the 80s, very reminiscent of the works of Prince. If the inspiration was not obvious enough in the song’s eccentric and high vocals along with funky guitars, it was confirmed as Lady Gaga performed the song clad in a purple suit on Saturday Night Live, which aired one day after the album was released. While the track is a nice homage individually, it does oddly stick out in the tracklist since no other songs venture out this way (stylistically).

That’s not to say all the references Gaga makes to other artists or eras fall short though. One of the most popular songs (outside of the singles) from the album—after fans digested it—is “Zombieboy,” and it is easy to see why. With a nasty bass line and incredibly catchy lines, it combines the disco sound of the seventies with Gaga’s club culture to create an unstoppable force of groovy goodness. I would go as far as to say this is the best song on the album; it becomes an earworm really quick and is undeniably infectious, living up to the “zombie bites” she mentions.

Unfortunately, once Gaga hits a high with “Zombieboy,” she struggles to keep the momentum from there on. Every song mentioned so far in this review has been within the first half of the album, and that is for a reason. For a lack of better words, the last seven songs are underwhelming, to say the least. They lack anything that would make them as interesting or memorable as the first seven songs and end up living in the shadow of the better half (which is ironic considering one of the songs in this homestretch is titled “Shadow Of A Man”). An exception is the closing song “Die With A Smile,” but that is moreso a bonus addition at the end to continue its popularity as a smash hit.

Gaga’s return to her origins is a hit or miss; luckily for listeners, the hit and miss is cleanly split in the middle, so you can just listen to the first seven songs and be on your way. The latter half is not worthless, but it limbers under the bar after the first half sets it so high up. Nevertheless, MAYHEM shows that Gaga is far from fading out of the spotlight, and with her approaching twenty years in the industry, this shows her tank is not even close to running out of gas!