By Grace Koennecke, Managing Editor

[Interscope Records; 2025]

Rating: 7/10

Key Tracks: “Garden Of Eden,” “Perfect Celebrity,” “Killah (feat. Gesaffelstein),” “LoveDrug”

Finally, Mother Monster is back and better than ever with arguably her best album since 2016’s Joanne. MAYHEM is a return to Lady Gaga’s original form, reminiscent of her earlier albums like 2009’s The Fame Monster and 2011’s Born This Way. A mixture of genres ranging from EDM to pop to funk, the singer seems to feel more secure in her art and vision than before.

After a lackluster release with Gaga’s last album, 2020’s Chromatica, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rollout for this new project has already received unwavering praise from Little Monsters everywhere, particularly for MAYHEM’s lead singles – “Disease,” “Abracadabra” and “Die With A Smile” with Bruno Mars. It feels like Lady Gaga is herself again, interacting with fans on and offline, creating insane visuals and preparing to headline 2025’s biggest music gig: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. 

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The album’s title serves well for its 14 tracks, as Gaga’s leaps and jumps in her sound are definitely chaotic and mind-boggling. After starting strong with two dark, industrial pop songs with “Disease” and “Abracadabra,” the singer embraces her popstar status on “Garden Of Eden,” a song about giving into temptation that the biblical tale discusses. Placing herself in a nightclub, Lady Gaga is looking for love in the wrong places, but doesn’t seem to care as long as she’s having fun, a sentiment only real fans know refers back to her early music of the late 2000s.

She sings, “I could be your girlfriend for the weekend / You could be my boyfriend for the night / My excuse to make a bad decision / Bodies gettin’ close under the lights,” and the production of growling bass and pop synths make it feel like you’re on the dance floor with Gaga. 

Another moment that impressed me was the following track, “Perfect Celebrity.” A callback to Gaga’s rock anthems like 2016’s “Perfect Illusion,” this song’s tone is angry and vengeful as the singer finds frustration in trying to be perfect in the public eye. The perfect song to play in a rage room, Gaga is unapologetic, which is why this may be some of her best writing in years: “So rip off my face in this photograph (Perfect celebrity) / You make me money, I’ll make you laugh (Perfect celebrity) / Show me your pretty, I’ll show you mine / You love to hate me / I’m the perfect celebrity.” 

With so many good moments on this album in songs like “Zombieboy,” “How Bad Do U Want Me” and “Blade Of Grass,” there are only a few songs were Gaga falls flat at times, reverting back to the basic millennial pop sound that consumed much of Chromatica. For example, “Vanish Into You” – which supposedly is a meaningful tribute to one of Gaga’s famous collaborators jazz singer Tony Bennett – brings down the overall tempo of MAYHEM and doesn’t really seem like the singer challenged herself vocally or lyrically.

While some may say this is Lady Gaga’s best album, there are also a few moments that may doubt that statement, such as with the song “Don’t Call Tonight.” The song’s lack of energy and purpose towards the end of the album makes me want to skip over it every time, which pains me to say as a Little Monster myself, but it feels like it was just used as filler. My one critique of this album would be to have a shorter tracklist, but Gaga’s ambitious nature definitely took over after five years off.

Luckily, this is a very cohesive album overall, and Gaga’s fun and flirtatious personality is evident in lighter moments like “Killah (feat. Gesaffelstein).” Recently performed on Saturday Night Live, this song literally feels like you’re in The Matrix as Gaga sings about being an impulsive and sensuous lover. With the help of Gesaffelstein, Gaga embraces 1970s-inspired funk production while singing in falsetto, which is insanely impressive to still realize that the singer’s vocals have remained healthy and iconic after almost 20 years in the spotlight.

Gaga also discusses love on “LoveDrug,” which leans more into a 1980s sound adjacent to Whitney Houston or Madonna. This is personally one of my favorite songs on the album because it’s so easy to become immersed in. The singer’s broad vocal range is also at the forefront of this track, hitting lower notes in her register that Little Monsters haven’t heard since 2013’s ARTPOP. The lyrics are an added bonus, with lines like, “I don’t wanna feel, I don’t wanna cry / So I’m gonna dance until I feel alright / I just need a dose of the right stuff / I just need a hit of your love drug” and “I know this time / I won’t escape these thoughts that I dread / I need you tonight / But I’m gonna fight the feelin’ instead.”

In all, MAYHEM is an amazing comeback album for Lady Gaga after five long years, despite some of its flaws. With an impressive ability to genre-switch and create new storylines in her music that are relatable to her fanbase, this album feels nostalgic of the early 2000s when the singer first became the powerhouse she is now. 

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