A love letter to the monsters, Lady Gaga’s Mayhem was released today, Mar. 7, and this entire album took me by surprise. Of course, going into it I was expecting a masterpiece being Gaga is one of the most iconic and creative artists of our lifetime, but I got more than that. Gaga began teasing this album with the release of her concert film on Max Gaga Chromatica Ball by adding a small clip into the end with the words “AG7 GAGA RETURNS” being displayed and officially giving hope to her huge fanbase. Die With A Smile being the super smash hit of Mayhem was the unexpected beginning of this new era back in August. After releasing that song she released Disease, the second single from the album, back in October and Gaga waited until last month to release her new hit Abracadabra and also by surprise, dropped it during this year’s Grammy awards.
With Gaga only releasing two singles before the album came out, this left plenty of room for more hits to begin trending as soon as it was released today. A few songs I can see being major hits off this album, if not all of them, would have to be Garden Of Eden, Zombieboy, Don’t Call Tonight and How Bad Do U Want Me. These songs are all different in their own ways, whether that be dance/electronic, disco-pop or on a synth-pop side, they all find ways to stick on your brain like slime to carpet. They’re addictive and truly bring back all of the vibes from old Gaga music like Applause, Poker Face and Telephone. After 3 listens the one song I can’t get out of my head has to be Zombieboy. Something about it gives me a mix of The Fame, Gaga’s album from 2008 and an 80’s dance party with Prince.
I wish there were negatives to this album but unfortunately it is perfect to my eyes and ears. I wish it was longer, it felt like it was 10 minutes long and that was probably the roughest part in my opinion. Every song was 3-4 minutes but I wanted more. Beggars can’t be choosers and I am more than grateful for what we got but I am seriously hoping we get a deluxe with a few extra songs. Gaga teased 2 extra songs, Kill For Love and Can’t Stop The High, but it’s been announced those will just be used for target exclusive vinyl variations.
One of the things I’ve been itching to talk about is the music videos. For this album specifically, Gaga has outdone herself in her video production and created almost these worlds that exist only inside the songs of her album. Starting with Die With A Smile and creating almost this 60’s aesthetic with the outfits and the performance in the video overall. She changed the expectations when she released the video for Disease and created this rock, dark, emo vibe while still keeping it “Gaga”. Then, she released the music video for Abracadabra and managed to keep that rock, dark and emo “Gaga” feel but added more dance elements and at this point she created 3 pieces of art that perfectly correlate and visualize some of the songs from the album for her monsters.
Overall, I will be putting all of these songs onto my playlists and definitely will be listening a thousand more times. I give this album 5 out of 5 stars and I recommend this album to anyone that just wants to have a good time and anyone who needs to just drop everything and dance. In the end, it really is just “Dance or die.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
