A dark, hypnotic fantasy: Lady Gaga’s ‘MAYHEM’
The alt-pop icon’s sixth album is loud, uncompromising and oozing with flair.
Photo: Frank Lebon
Lady Gaga’s long-awaited new album, MAYHEM, is here and it’s the neon-knuckled punch to the heart we’ve all been hoping for. Half a decade from the Babylonian disco empire of Chromatica, MAYHEM feels stripped back, rawer and darker – but no less dazzling.
MAYHEM comes at the first signs of spring, but in sound and content it’s a record for the darker seasons; mingling big, explosive choruses with deliciously 80s dance numbers. Gaga offers up lavish lamentations on love, loss and desire, yes, but finds time for zombies, werewolves, dark magic, murderers and pestilence, too. It’s dark and twisted, yet every track is a dancefloor gem full of pure electricity; quintessential Gaga.
Disease and Abracadabra — both monumental singles in their own right — open the morbid suite, giving no time to breathe before Garden of Eden, a self-reflective anthem in which Gaga models herself as the biblical poisoned apple. Perfect Celebrity, meanwhile, harks back to the singer’s The Fame era, and it’s one hell of a catchy homage.
Photo: Frank Lebon
What follows next is simultaneously the most satisfying and infectious rifle of tracks served up in an album from the 21st century. Vanish Into You, Killah (with producer Gesaffelstein), Zombieboy and LoveDrug are each standout tunes that on any other album would guarantee a place at the top of the charts. Here, Gaga tosses these polished pearls our way with indifference before How Bad Do U Want Me – a classic pop number – and Shadow of a Man, another highlight.
The Beast, while thematically in sync with the rest of MAYHEM, is a weaker moment on the album, redeemed only by follow-up Blade of Grass, which marries easy neon melodies with heartbreaking poetry in a way few musicians can do. Gaga’s multi-billion streamed duet with Bruno Mars, Die With a Smile, closes her sixth studio effort.
MAYHEM feels like the well-placed next step for the Born This Way singer, after the sweeping, decadent behemoth that was Chromatica. MAYHEM, despite every inch the glittering disco ball a ‘little monster’ would expect, feels rawer than the heights of Chromatica ever were; more The Substance than Babylon. Throw in some ripe-for-radio singles (Disease, Abracadabra, LoveDrug) and fan-favourite deep cuts (Zombieboy, Vanish Into You, Blade of Grass) and you have one of the best albums of 2025, with a worthy place in the Gaga canon.
MAYHEM may not see the alternative icon drastically reinventing her image, but it remains a generous offering of dance-pop that sums up Gaga well: loud, uncompromising and oozing with flair.
MAYHEM is out now via Interscope Records.