This past weekend, Lady Gaga unleashed Mayhem into the world, marking the seventh studio album in her ever-impressive repertoire. Following singles like the head-banging rock track “Disease,” the spellbinding dance anthem “Abracadabra,” and the romantic Bruno Mars duet “Die With a Smile,” fans were curious to discover what Mother Monster had in store for the official follow-up to 2020’s Chromatica. It turned out to be a surprise. Mostly deviating from the vibe of the singles, Mayhem boasts heavy 1980s pop influences, with sounds of David Bowie, Prince, and Michael Jackson breathing within its funk-inspired rhythms.
As the superstar previously told ELLE the album was inspired by “’90s alternative, electro-grunge, Prince and Bowie melodies, guitar and attitude, funky bass lines, French electronic dance, and analog synths.”
“Mayhem is utter chaos!” Gaga added. She said the record “just feels good to me. It sounds good. It breaks a lot of rules and has a lot of fun.” Here, two ELLE editors make sense of the chaos and surprises on the album.
Personal History With Gaga
Samuel Maude, associate editor: I feel like, in the gay community, there is this thought that Lady Gaga is the ultimate mother, Mother Monster, that she is the supreme gay leader, if you will. Growing up, that was the case for some of my gay friends, but it was never really the case for me. I liked her music, I vibed with it, but it wasn’t my coming-of-age music. I really got on board with Artpop. I remembered listening to that album for the first time and being like this is art. This is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. That’s when I went back and really dug into her discography.
Gaga has a lot of fans, especially in the gay community, who think she can do no wrong, and I am not one of those people. I loved Chromatica. I went to the Chromatica Ball Tour. That was a huge pandemic album for me. I actually do view that as a no-skips album. I’m not the biggest Joanne fan. I’ve recently really gotten back into old Gaga. I would call myself a Little Monster, but with a little paw.
Erica Gonzales, deputy editor, culture: I started out like most people, just hearing her songs on the radio, like “Just Dance.” I don’t feel like I was into The Fame or Fame Monster right away, but I do remember listening through those albums later in high school and college. As you know, I also love a Gaga rock ballad, so “Speechless” was a favorite of mine. Actually, one time I auditioned for The Voice with that song, but that’s a story for another time. I didn’t make it far, but it was fun. Born This Way is my favorite album. I love Artpop. Joanne was also not my favorite. And I really loved Chromatica. I have vivid memories of being up at 12 A.M. when it first dropped. “Rain On Me” is very important to me as a person. At my best friend’s wedding, as an Easter egg for me, she had a quartet play an instrumental cover of the song.
You don’t realize how long Gaga has been in the public eye, making music, and being consistent, but it’s been basically 20 years. She’s just been a constant.
Expectations vs. First Impressions
Sam: I was shocked with the album. I was honestly a little gagged, and I don’t know if it’s gagged (positive) or gagged (derogatory).
Erica: Gagged (neutral).
Sam: Yeah. I think I was really expecting it to feel more in line with “Abracadabra” throughout. I mean, you and I both went nutty when “Abracadabra” came out. It was like a bolt of energy to me.
Erica: We were possessed.
Sam: I don’t know what I was expecting from the sound of this album. This has a lot of rock and Michael Jackson influences. I was really expecting it to feel like a pop record. I think with a title like Mayhem, which I want to get into a little more, you expect something a little less classic-sounding. More grunge. So I was pretty shocked on my first listen. I listened up until “Zombieboy” at midnight, and then I was like, I don’t know what to do with this, I’m going to bed. And restarted it in the morning. I’m a little lost on my true feelings on this album.
Erica: I was also riding on the high of “Abracadabra,” but I didn’t want to assume it would all sound like that. Because “Disease” was the first single, I thought it might go more that route: a little grunge, a little metal-y. And as you said, “mayhem” suggests a little more alt-rock. I was really surprised to find that there was such a big ’80s influence, very disco, very funk, which I like. I was raised on disco, so I welcome that. When I heard the beginning of “Zombieboy,” with the guitars, it sounded very Nile Rodgers to me. I was like oh, that sounds fun. But it totally subverted my expectations, and nothing sounds like the singles at all, which is so shocking.
Sam: My roommate is one of the world’s biggest Little Monsters, and he texted me this morning just, “Thoughts?” I said I feel like “Abracadabra” was a red herring. And he was like, “I see it in the grand scheme of the album. She’s telling a story.” So then I listened to the whole thing again, trying to get that, and I just still couldn’t. The singles are really different from the rest of the album.
Gaga Reheating Her Nachos
Erica: I will say, a lot of people were expecting her to go back to her roots and “reheat her nachos,” and I did still see some of that on this album. There were bits and pieces in “Garden of Eden” or in “Zombieboy” or “Vanish Into You” that felt like hints of that weird and imaginative, more experimental vibe from The Fame. But it also doesn’t go all the way there.
I don’t want to say that it’s tame. Maybe the right word is evolved or matured. At the Little Monsters Press Conference, she said that this album is a mix of her stage persona and her as a person, and they’re kind of very contradictory, but this is her trying to combine the two in a way that works. I feel like that explains why we get bits and pieces of the Gaga that you know and love and something that’s a little more down-to-earth or human. As I listen to it more, I am liking it more.
Sam: I agree. I’ve also thought, who are her fiancé Michael Polansky’s favorite artists? Because she wrote a lot of this with him. Gaga has said in a lot of interviews that you don’t always understand her records on the first listen. I feel like she says that about Artpop a lot. And what was weird to me about Mayhem was that this didn’t necessarily feel like the next step in music to me. It felt like more of a retrospective, which is fun and different, but I don’t see pop music going in this direction. I don’t see Charli xcx, Chappell Roan, Tate McCrae, Sabrina Carpenter veering in this direction. I mean everyone says that Renaissance Act III is a rock album, and if that happens, then maybe I’m going to be proven dead wrong, because this feels like it leans in the rock direction. But I was very shocked that this is the way it went.
Erica: That is interesting because it is retrospective, but because it has so many retro influences. I should double-check this, but apparently she sampled David Bowie on “Killah,” and “Shadow of a Man” sounded very Michael Jackson and parts of the album felt very Prince to me, too. It’s not that people can’t make references to older music or put their own spin on it. I don’t really know if it’s revolutionary, but it doesn’t feel like a step backwards to me.
Sam: I just wanted to be so obsessed. I wish it went more the “Abracadabra” direction than the “Die With a Smile” direction. I thought we slapped “Die With a Smile” on the end of this record because it did so well commercially. But no. I think it was always there.
Erica: Not to be like, “At least it’s fun!” But it is. At least that was my first impression of the album, listening to it at the press conference, amid all these fans and community and good vibes, dancing in a warehouse.
But there are certain songs where, when she’s very earnest, it’s not as strong, like “Perfect Celebrity” or “Blade of Grass.” When she is really putting her imagination at full volume and creating a world and a character, then that’s when it’s most compelling. But then again, I go back to that quote of her saying that it’s her balancing the persona and her as a person. I’m seeing how that’s reflected in the music. So it is a little bit conflicting.
Sam: This is a mindfuck album for me.
Is It Really “Mayhem”?
Sam: I think she’s typically pretty good at picking a record title. Chromatica feels like we’re going to space. She created a whole world with that album. Artpop, totally the perfect name for that record. Joanne, it makes sense based on the content of it. This did not make sense to me, because again, I felt like it didn’t break the structure. It wasn’t mayhem, it wasn’t chaos to me. It didn’t feel like something super new.
I was rereading our ELLE February 2025 cover story, where she talked about naming this record, and she talked a lot about not being confined by genre, not being confined by the parameters she’d previously set for herself, so it felt like more chaos to her, so I want to respect that. And maybe this record feels like mayhem to her, but when I hear the word “mayhem,” I’m getting on here thinking it’s going to have a hyper-pop element or crazy production or something really unexpected. Maybe she’s saying she’s finding solace in mayhem of her life with her fiancé.
Erica: The way she was talking about it too, she said she had a lot of gothic dreams about this album and the visuals around it. And it’s about embracing her inner chaos, but it doesn’t feel chaotic to me. I feel like I listen to it and I understand it, and it’s not too over my head. I’m so interested by the dark emo hair and fashion choices, too.
Sam: I feel like we’re confused by the mayhem.
Standout Tracks
Erica: I genuinely do like a lot of the songs. I would go out and dance to “LoveDrug” or “Don’t Call Tonight.”
Sam: I also need to say, “Perfect Celebrity” could be in Diana: The Musical, and I would not be surprised. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. I actually think there’s a song in the beginning of the musical that is a mirror to it called “Snap, Click.” I like the first lyric, where she says she’s “plastic like a human doll,” a call back to “Plastic Doll” maybe.
I love “Abracadabra.” I did like “Garden of Eden.” I’ve seen a lot of love for “How Bad Do U Want Me” and its connection with Taylor Swift, and after a few listens, I finally got on board.
Erica: I feel like “Vanish Into You,” “Killah,” “Zombieboy,” “LoveDrug” is a very solid strip of songs. Also “Shadow of a Man.”
Sam: Oh, I do remember liking “Shadow of a Man.”
Where Does Gaga Go Next?
Sam: Here’s my thing with this album: I don’t think Lady Gaga has anything to prove to us. I think she can make the music she wants to make. And if this is what she wants to make, slay.
I would love to see another album in the vein of Artpop. I would love another dance record. I would love all that stuff, but I don’t think she owes us anything. And I think she could make whatever record she wants and those loyal fans are going to still cling to her so hard. I would love Artpop II. But will we ever get that? I don’t know. Give us “Partynauseous.”
Erica: I don’t know what I want to see from her. I just want to be surprised. Maybe it’s her Broadway musical era.
Sam: I’m all for it. Obviously.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
