Lady Gaga released her seventh studio album titled “MAYHEM” on March 7, featuring 14 songs spanning a variety of genres from electro-pop to disco to ballad. Many of the songs fit in a similar style reminiscent of her older, iconic dance music, but the album features a consistent presence of a darker, unwieldy tone with themes surrounding love, fantastical creatures, death, healing and rebirth.

“MAYHEM” opens with the first single, “Disease,” released in October 2024. Gaga chose “Disease” as the opener because the energy of the song felt like a “dive into an ice-cold pool” of the chaos portrayed in the rest of the album. Her intentions proved successful as the strong sound and dark lyrics brought the song to the top 10 in the UK and the top 30 in the United States and Canada. The music video accompanying the song showcased an intense atmosphere and a variety of characters all played by Gaga, reflecting the different aspects of her chaos that she wanted to explore in “MAYHEM.”

The second song, “Abracadabra,” was released just one month before the album during a commercial break for the Super Bowl LIX, skyrocketing to top five in the UK and top 20 in the United States, Australia and Canada and going viral across short-form media like TikTok. Many attempted to recreate the distinct and visually impressive choreography featured in the music video and praised Gaga for including dancing for seated dancers and cane users. Alongside the choreography, the use of experimental fashion and a limited color palette created a dancing sea of colors.

Between the two music videos, Gaga’s bold, creative visual image shines through, this time in a darker, witchy and somewhat frantic aesthetic.

Many of the songs on “MAYHEM” fit into the general characteristics of alternative, disco and love song genres, including “Garden Of Eden,” “Killah (feat. Gesaffelstein),” “Vanish Into You,” “Zombieboy,” “LoveDrug” and “Don’t Call Tonight.” Each song comes with a unique take on love, often referencing coming alive, rebirth and or the undead. These songs, along with “Abracadabra” and “Disease,” would fit into a funky party playlist because of their interesting, multi-layered beats and catchy repetitive lyrical phrasing.

Additionally, many of these songs use a juxtaposition of a more staccato sound in their verse and the end of the chorus while using a more smooth legato sound for the majority of the chorus. By changing up the balance between these types of sounds, it further differs the tracks from each other.

“Perfect Celebrity” fits into the energetic alternative style of the other songs, but it centers around the dynamic between a celebrity and the public. It exercises Gaga’s frustration with the industry and being in the public eye while also raising concern about the motivations behind her work.

The second half of “Mayhem” features a genre shift, with songs like “How Bad Do U Want Me” coming across like a mixture of Taylor Swift’s love song lyrics and repetitive syllable phrasing and Gaga’s distinct funky beat. “Shadow Of A Man” sounds similar to the other tracks but harkens back to Michael Jackson’s production and high-energy instrumentals. “The Beast” focuses on the vocals with a slower, more subtle beat, feeling more stripped down to its bones than the rest of the album.

Finally, the last two songs are ballads, the first being “Blade of Grass,” an emotional, slower song with a familiar melody. The song keeps with the darker romantic tone of the album, inspired by her relationship with her fiance, Michael Polansky. The song sticks out from the others due to its pacing and tempo on the piano. Despite that, the heavy emotion matches with the unwieldy chaos featured in the majority of “MAYHEM.”

“Die With a Smile” is the final song on the album and a collaboration with Bruno Mars. Released in August 2024, this song was not originally intended to be included on “MAYHEM.” As a result, it falls into a completely different aesthetic and genre — the only theme it shares with the rest of “MAYHEM” is love. The song was a huge success, becoming Gaga’s sixth No. 1 hit and winning the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 67th Grammy Awards. This was Gaga’s 14th Grammy win in her nearly two-decade-long career.

Overall, Lady Gaga’s “MAYHEM” offers her listeners a modern, whimsical twist to her old music, and these songs fit perfectly into a funky party playlist.

Rating: 3/5