We are two weeks into the Mayhem era. On March 7th, Lady Gaga released LG7 (debatable numbering), which is a pop fantasia comprised of lead single “Disease,” Bruno Mars feature “Die with a Smile,” instant club classic “Abracadabra” and everything in between.
A lot of conversation around Mayhem is that a) we are so back and b) it is a return to form. [These ideas sound identical on their face, but idiomatically it’s different because of the broken brained way we speak nowadays].
I have gone through my own journey of digesting Mayhem. When we only had singles, I was on more or less on board with “Disease,” hated “Die with a Smile,” and needed time for “Abracadabra” to grow on me.
Needless to say, I was trepidatious going into Mayhem. And I waited until I really had the time to take it all in. And since Monday it has been reverberating in my brain like nobody’s business.
The first three tracks—“Disease,” “Abracadabra,” and “Garden of Eden”—are absolutely shamelessly fun. These are dancey pop tracks that do feel very classic Gaga to me. I hear a bit of Artpop and a bit of Born this Way on each. These tracks are a bit too polished to quite have that ring of a track from the Fame or the Fame Monster. But sonically, they’re just Good dance pop. There’s no debate and there’s no air of these tracks being anything else.
“Perfect Celebrity” is a grunge-y, stadium rock departure from the opening of the album. While Gaga has long talked of celebrity and fame in her music, this is the only song that truly grapples with it from the lived experience of being the global phenomenon she is. Beyond this, it tackles the idea of being a woman in the public eye and body image in a feminist Lilith Fair way she never quite broached with other social justice/feminist songs (“Born this Way” in particular) that focus much more on uplifting others. This ranks up there as one of her most seemingly confessional tracks, especially excluding her ballades.
While “Perfect Celebrity” is a bit Nine Inch Nails, “Vanish Into You” is a softer 80s track. The kind that plays in coming-of-age film. It’s a song that would pair perfectly well with bisexual lighting, converse, and a puffy prom dress. There’s something here that connects interestingly sonically with “Perfect Celebrity,” keeping them in the same relative world.
Now comes even more pastiche—which is the kind of thing Gaga has often strayed away from. Her music is usually original (with plenty of reference), but is unmistakably Gaga, even in its references. This is where it lives and dies.
But what “Perfect Celebrity” starts and what continues for the next several tracks is this sort of collage of references that are far more overt than in any of her other works.
“Killah,” is ostensibly a Prince track, down to the tinny guitar line that artists have long used to evoke his music in their own Prince-like tracks. It is a bit embarrassing because it’s a white woman doing Prince funk and the song is called “Killah” spelled like that. But it’s very fun in spite of itself.
“Zombieboy” is more or less a Michael Jackson track, but has some other 80s references in there (like sing-talking a la [insert new wave group]). This is also a little bit embarrassing in the same way “Killah” is, but it also kinda rules. Gaga makes really great music with really stupid titles and really embarrassing lyrics sometimes. You just have to accept that.
See “Aura,” “G.U.Y,” “Swine,” “Scheibe,” “Money Honey,” and so many more.
She’s just such a fucking theater kid it hurts. And that’s why we love her.
And skipping one track for now, “How Bad Do You Want Me” is a Taylor Swift song set over an interpolation of Yaz’s “Only You.”
Tell me these lines from the chorus aren’t 1989 era TS:
The one genius Gaga move here is pairing it with “Only You,” which keeps it from being just a Taylor track. Because Taylor wouldn’t do that. She doesn’t really use samples (for better or for worse).
These tracks don’t all live in the same world as one another musically, but in the sense that they each create this portrait of love as filtered through different genres and even artists known for their love songs (and sexy song), it clicks together well enough.
I previously skipped over “LoveDrug.” It’s a throw-away dance track. Not nearly as fun or good as the opening three tracks but it’s not bad. No Gaga dance track is bad. But she always has a few stragglers on her albums that she might have been better off leaving at home.
“Don’t Call Tonight,” similarly, is a little bit of a clunker. It’s back to that 80s style but doesn’t add too much for me.
“Shadow of Man” is somewhere between 90s rock and house-y gay dance club pop that somehow works. It returns to the themes set forth in “Perfect Celebrity,” a feminist exploration of being a woman in the public eye/in the world in general. It’s a bit more trite (in my view). In theme alone it reminds me of Taylor’s “the Man,” which bravely asks if a woman could get farther in the world if she was actually a man.
“Beast” is a raw expression of desire that’s very classic Gaga to me. She has long used visceral, primal, graphic, and almost violent descriptions of desire (see “Monster” and “Teeth”) and this is a return to that imagery. It also uses the same (or similar) drum machine sound used in Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” and has some guitar licks that call back to the Yaz reference in “How Bad Do You Want Me.” So while it’s not the most exciting track, I can appreciate what it’s doing.
Then we come to “Blades of Grass” and “Die With a Smile.” Once again, “Blades of Grass” reminds me of a Taylor track—“Paper Rings”—which expounds upon this twee idea of getting married or engaged with a ring that’s actually not even a real ring at all. I can understand why some would find this sweet, but the issue is that I personally find it very difficult to find rich people doing cute lo-fi gestures of love as endearing. I know they deserve love and happiness too and I’m sure in a way it almost means more that her lover Michael (allegedly) gave Gaga a ring made of grass than a diamond ring. But…you’re a tech entrepreneur. Act like it. What good is all of that accumulated wealth if you’re not even gonna use it to spoil Gaga. Sonically it’s a snooze.
[One note on the Taylor comparisons…Gaga is not trying to do Taylor. I’m using other pop as a reference point. They couldn’t be more different and if more men wrote good pop, I’m sure I’d compare Gaga with some men. But here we are.]
And then we get to “Die With A Smile,” one of Gaga’s worst songs. There are songs that it seems she wrote for one person only and I’m never that person. It joins the likes of songs I’d say the same thing about, like “Sine from Above” (written for Gaga’s godchild/Elton John’s kid, seemingly a token of their mutual love and relationship), “Blades of Grass” (see above; written for Michael), Angel Down (written exclusively for Gaga because who else wants that), and this was clearly written for Bruno Mars’ career. This is bland CVS pop that sounds like getting caught at a redlight on the way to school when it’s raining and you’re already gonna be late.
With those two tracks as the capstone to the album, the record ends not with a bang but a whimper. And it’s a shame because there are a lot of interesting ideas there and some really amazing songs. Standouts for me are everything up until “ZombieBoy.” That run has no skips for me. But personally, the rest of the album never reaches those heights again for me.
So are we so back? In some ways, sure. But like…She’s doing things she’s never done before. She was never a sample girlie and she was never someone to do this level of pastiche. I actually think she’s really deft with her references, even if as a whole the album is incoherent.
And in that way, we are so back. Think back to the Fame Monster, Born This Way, and Artpop. Those were completely incoherent albums brought together by bops and Gaga’s persona. The thing is that the biggest bops are right at the beginning and the album, to me, becomes less interesting as it goes on. But Gaga remains Gaga and I can’t quit her!
I will never stop thrashing to “Perfect Celebrity” and I will sing “Garden of Eden” til my dying day. But lord help me if I ever have to hear “Die with a Smile” outside of a completionist listen through.
So uh…when’s the next album out?
Love you (allegedly).