Review: Lady Gaga - "Mayhem" (track for track)

I don't know if this return to the origins of Lady Gaga seduces me completely. I confess, with a veil of hesitation, that he has never been a fervent disciple of Miss Germanotta of his first era, that of “The Fame” and “Born This Way”, where the synth-pop pulled like an electric heart in clubs all over the world.

I have always loved the most sophisticated Gaga, the one that whispers jazz in the arms of Tony Bennett, or who dresses rock with the intensity of a diva consumed. But Joker's film failure: Folie à Deux has imposed an inevitable choice: to return to his comfort zone, where everything began, where the public consecrated it as an icon.

“Mayhem” is the manifesto of this rebirth, a work that exudes awareness and control. If on the one hand it reaffirms its chameleonic nature, on the other it is proof that, even when it plays on the safe side, Gaga never gives up challenging the boundaries. It is a vibrant album, unscrupulous, but also deeply intimate, where the search for identity mixes with the will of belonging. A dialogue between chaos and harmony, between experimentation and nostalgia.

The fourteen tracks follow one another as chapters of a sound diary, among which stands out Die with in smile, His collaboration with Bruno Mars, a hedonistic and melancholy hymn at the same time. The melodies surprise, the texts dig, letting emerge a gaga that still seems to question himself in his place in the world. The sound is impeccable, as always, and demonstrates the obsession of the artist for detail: the merger between live and electronic instruments is calibrated with skill, while his voice – now velvet, now blade – crosses any emotional nuance.

Recorded at Shangri-La studios, a few steps from his home in Malibu, the album bears the signature of weight producers such as Andrew Watt, Cirkut and Gesaffelstein, in addition to Gaga herself, which directs the orchestra with the safety of those who have already written pages of history.

Yet, if there is a criticism to move, it is that the first traces seem almost a tribute to itself, a déjà-vu that touches self-referentiality. But when the disc takes flight, when he leaves the clichés of the “Gaga-Style” and dares to go further, then so that we find the artist who knows how to reinvent himself, the icon capable of remaining a guide for a generation that, without her, would not be the same.

Track for track

Disease
It is a song dance with dark sounds that mixes electronics with a rock vein, in which Gaga sings an unconditional love.

Abracadabra
An imaginative fresco on the many tests of life through the representation of a metaphorical feast.

Garden of Eden
A hymn to nightlife that merges the 2000 years and electro-grunge guitars. The result is a controlled, seductive and frenetic chaos, which tells the night as an artificial paradise in the balance between euphoria and ruin.

Perfect Celebrity
Taglient irony and rock attitude for a song that unmasks the cult of celebrities with incisive refrains and an aggressive groove. Gaga gets a mockery of fame, moving between theatricality and provocation.

Vanish Into you
Love at the time of the Apocalypse: this theatrical ballad inspired Bowie combines fragility and audacity. The I would ethereal synths and an emotional crescendo transform the declaration of love into an intense and cinematographic sound odyssey.

Killah
An industrial funk, dirty and magnetic with reminiscences of guitarrine to the price which then transforms itself into Drum'n'bas. Gaga plays with electronics and his voice becomes a chameleonic, moving between sensuality and danger. A hymn to chaos that makes dance and restless at the same time.

Zombieboy
An chic style dance with electronic and industrial rock grafts including a hair metal absoltion. A piece that pulsates with dark and obsessive energy, perfect for the most experimental side of the album.

Lovedrug
Gaga turns on the dark-Discan with a track that tells emotional anesthesia through deep bass and buttons synthesizers. A night and enveloping piece, ideal for those who love their most melancholy and hypnotic vein.

How bad do u want me
A tribute to the synth-pop of the early 80s, in particular to the “Only You” of the Yazoo which, however, turns into a song in which the melodic influence at the Taylor Swift is quite annoying.

Don't Call Tonig
An old -fashioned power ballad that passes without praise in infamy.

Shadow of a man
A gaga-style beat for a reflection on survival in a world dominated by men. The voice of Gaga Danza between the rhythm and the crystalline melodies, giving an elegant and powerful piece.

The Beast
Gaga embodies the tension between desire and fear, with a charismatic vocal performance and without brakes.

Blade of Grass
The penultimate track turns into a moment of pure vulnerability: a poignant ballad that celebrates love as the only firm point in chaos. Voice and piano in the foreground for an intimate and touching effect.

Die with in Smile
The collaboration with Bruno Mars closes the album with a mix of melancholy and hope.

Score: 7.00

Disease – Vote 6.75
Abracadabra – Vote 6.75
Garden of Eden – Vote 6.75
Perfect Celebrity – 7.00 vote
Vanish Into You – Vote 6.50
Killah (feat. Gesaffelstein) – Vote 7.50
Zombieboy vote 7.50
Lovedrug – Vote 6.75
How Bad Do U Want Me – Vote 6.50
Don't Call Tonight – Vote 6.50
Shadow of a Man – Vote 6.50
The Beast – 7.00 vote
Blade of Grass – 7.25 vote
Die with in Smile (with Bruno Mars) – 7.50 vote

The votes of others

The Guardian: 8.00 vote
The Telegraph – 8.00 vote
Variety – 8.00 vote

To listen immediately

Perfect Celebrity – Killah – Zombieboy

To skip immediately

Nothing. The disc works well and not bores. It's still a Lady Gaga album!

Tracklist

2008- The Fame
2011 – Born This Way
2013 – ArtPop
2014 – Cheek to Cheek (with Tony Bennett)
2016 – Joanna
2020 – Chromatic
2021 –Love for Sale (with Tony Bennett)
2025 – Mayhem

Soundtracks

2018 – A Star Is Born Soundtrack (with Bradley Cooper)
2022 – Top Gun: Maverick (Music From The Motion Picture) (with Harold Faltermeyer and Hans Zimmer)
2024 – Harlequin
2024 – Joker: Folie à Deux (Music From The Motion Picture) (with Joaquin Phoenix)