Hi, everyone. Dithony Seasetano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Lady Gaga album, MAYHEM.

Here we have the newest album from one of modern pop's most celebrated and influential figures, cccentric as well, Lady Gaga. Yes, the Mother of Monsters is back with her first proper Gaga album in five years. Not to say she has been totally inactive creatively over that course of time.

Obviously, she just appeared in that insane musical sequel to the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix, which also had a soundtrack, and she, around the same time, independently dropped her own record that had some thematic parallels titled Harlequin, that feature a lot of show tune-type tracks. She also took part in the soundtrack of the 2022 Top Gun Maverick film. She also had her second album of Tony Bennett crossovers, released back in 2021.

When she was in the midst of her last proper album cycle, Chromatica, we were collectively deep in the chaos of COVID. Personally, I was very thankful to have Gaga feeding us some new tracks because this was around a time where many pop stars, understandably, were pushing their releases and big projects back due to the fact that nobody was going to be able to tour behind whatever material they released.

While Chromatica did have its low points for sure, I did think it was a very solid album for Gaga, one that doesn't get enough conversation in retrospect for its many consistently catchy anthems, a lot of quality, nostalgic, throwback, dance pop type production on this album, too, all of which complimented her voice really well. And let's not also forget to mention the Chromatica remix album, which was also an event unto itself, which featured all of these hyperpop and freaky left field pop tie-ins that no other mainstream artist on Gaga's level was doing at that time, at least not to that extent.

Moving on to MAYHEM, though, this album is very much ushering in a new era, a new vibe, an edgier Gaga, if you will, with the title and the black and white cover and the look she's giving and the cracked glass – or is it a mirror? We also had "Disease", which was the first big teaser to this record, which is this track packed with these Marilyn Manson-ass lyrics and heavy lumbering beats that feel at least a little industrial-adjacent.

So right off the bat, this era is bringing a much darker energy than the pretty pink Power Ranger outfit that she was wearing in the "Stupid Love" video. And while it is most definitely a change, I feel like doing something along these lines, doing something in this style, is hallowed ground for Gaga. I mean, she broke into the pop sphere as a weird edgy game changer, which sure you could say is relative in a way because there's certainly music out there that is more freaky and weird than Lady Gaga, sure. But you can't really deny that quirky, odd, flamboyant mainstream pop is the flavor right now.

In that sense, Gaga, her sound, her shtick, if you will, is almost normalized in a way, which is all the more reason for her on this new album to go hard and simultaneously remind us of who she really is, really embrace that classic Gaga "mayhem."

And there has been a lot of discussion around this album cycle about whether or not she is going back to her old self, "reheating her nachos," especially after the release of the single "Abracadabra". Between the revving bass and zany refrains and contorted choreography in the video for that song, it really does feel like we're getting a new iteration of Fame Monster era Gaga all over again in a way that's very obviously self-aware and in good taste. I mean, it's done so well. It's understandable that a lot of people would come away from this song looking to the rest of this album for a deep hit of Gaga nostalgia.

And while nostalgia is the name of the game on this album, it's not just for past Gaga eras. To one degree or another, Gaga is reheating everyone's nachos on this album, and she's doing a really good job of it. Not just her own on "Abracadabra", but a pretty wide array of reference points throughout the album.

Take the track "Garden of Eden", for example, which is laced with these really campy, over-the-top cheerleader style group vocal chants. There are parts of it that feel like we're getting a taste of that bombastic care-free party pop that the early 2010s was colored with, thanks to the likes of Kesha. But by that same token, there's something really dark about it, too, not just because of the very odd biblical themes and temptation going on in the lyrics, but I'm also loving all of the thumping club beats and super-gritty, textured analog synthesizers packed throughout the production that are very much giving Nine Inch Nails, Trent Rezner, especially on the outro of the track.

And I feel like that Nine Inch Nails influence comes out even more bold boldly on the following "Perfect Celebrity", where you not only have these dour synth cords that kick the entire track off, but these explosive rock choruses with burning chord progressions. The story of the track matches the instrumental really well, too, as Gaga describes the downsides of fame, the self-destruction, the beauty standards.

"Vanish into You" also keeps up a lot of these somewhat dark, edgy production aesthetics, but I don't care how many weird synth layers you cover this song in. This is an ABBA song. Through and through, this is ABBA. It's just pure roller disco with all the glitz, all the glamour, but just that perfect amount of Gaga oddity to make it sound weird and specific to her, but not distracting away from just how good and solid the song is.

We have Trent Rezner vibes once again on the track "Killah". However, that is combined with a very freaky and sexual amount of Prince influence, too. Between the driving synthesizers, the slap bass, and how the vibes are on this one, Gaga is pulling no punches, especially with that mention of "creamed curtains." The cream, oh my God. But yeah, even though there are elements of this song that can be a bit much, one thing I love about it that is also copied by other tracks on this album are just how many details there are along the run time of this song between all of the segues from one section to the next, the bridge instrumental style switch up where you have this punky tempo jumping popping in on the beat. Again, I'm just very happy and refreshed to hear a pop album where we're getting a lot of songs that really evolve over the course of their run time. It's not like you're getting tracks on this thing where you hear the first minute of it and you pretty much know how the rest of it is going to play out.

"Zombie Boy" is another disco throwback, really the best of them all, in my opinion. I would say some Michael Jackson Thriller era influence turns up as well in terms of the spooky-ooky-ooky imagery and storytelling going on in the bars. This turns up later in to the record as well, which I will get into.

Around the midpoint of the record, I do think we hit a bit of a lull with a few '80s style anthems. "Love Drug" as well as "How Bad Do U Want Me", which I'm also surprised about because it does feature some vocalizations that feel very Taylor Swift and Katy Perry coded. And once you hear them, I swear you will not be able to unhear them. But as obvious as that influence is, even with Lady Gaga playing the psycho love interest in the lyrics of this song, saying she got a tattoo for this person and how even good boys bleed – and one of the final lines of the track is a psychotic love theme. Yeah, I mean, I hear all these reference points, but I feel like Gaga on this track between her vocal performance, between the songwriting, between the production is just doing such a better job of selling them, which again, I feel like is really the energy and the modus operandi of this record. I'm taking and borrowing from a lot of my favorite sounds and ideas, and I'm putting my own spin on them and really smashing it in the process.

And as I said earlier, "Shadow of a Man" brings even more Michael Jackson vibes, especially on the vocal end of this track, because there are numerous key vocal lines on this thing where she says, "And my voice gets tough / I can't get enough / staring at myself in the eye" where she is really mapping over into her performance some Michael Jackson style vocal melodies and inflections, too. She's not just dancing in the shadow of a man on this track. She is dancing in the shadow of the man in the mirror. As the lyrics on this track describe a lot of toxic relationship dynamics being used for your love, essentially. I don't know why – I'm not well-versed enough in Gaga lore to really explain fully why I'm getting this energy – but there's something about this track that reminds me of her weird little mini Jo Calderone era. This little cigarette smoking, greaser Italian guy. I don't know what it is, but there's something about this track that I just feel like that character would really vibe with this one.

But yeah, look, I think this record has a very strong start, a relatively decent middle point. But despite all of this, despite this very respectable flow in the tracklist thus far, the downside of MAYHEM, unfortunately, is that it doesn't really stick the landing, in my opinion. As we move on to a few okay slow burners like "The Beast", as well as "Blade of Grass", which feels like your standard spotlit piano ballad with some tried and true chord progressions. So tried and true. There are some musical shifts along the song that feel akin to "Vanish Into You" from earlier in the album, and not in a reprise way.

And even though I'm not exactly thrilled with these two songs, they most definitely would have made for a better ending than what is the actual ending of the standard edition of this album, and that's "Die with a Smile" with Bruno Mars, which... I get how popular that song has been this year, and I understand the marketability and the star power appeal and the appeal of the song musically at its core. But I feel like stylistically and aesthetically, this song has nothing to do with the rest of MAYHEM.

It doesn't fit in anywhere, even at the end. I mean, Gaga's eccentricity and creativity on the best moments of this album aren't reflected in this song in any way. If anything, she's giving a pretty standard and straightforward vocal performance on it, and it feels more like a Bruno Mars song than anything.

So again, I just don't really get the point and appeal of this track in this tracklist. Keep in mind, again, this album is titled MAYHEM, and a good amount of the material on this thing is so dark and so edgy and so sexy, so performatively freakish, and yet we're going to end the entire thing off with this very measured, very commercial anthem with one of the most paint by the number singers in the modern day pop landscape, Bruno Mars.

Unfortunately, as much as I love what this album started doing and set out to do at the start, MAYHEM, progressively, especially toward the end, just gets more and more and more tame. Yeah, we do not get "mayhem" throughout this album. The "mayhem" ends prematurely.

Make no mistake, I definitely enjoyed this, and I do feel like this is a pretty exciting era for Gaga, creatively. She just really started to reel it in, though, toward the finish, and that is what has essentially held the album back a bit for me, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Lady Gaga, MAYHEM, Forever.