Final verdict: 8/10 ★★★★☆
Say what you will about Lady Gaga – but one thing you absolutely cannot deny is that she’s an unlikely talent. A beast of a vocalist, a more-than-merely-competent pianist, and a reasonably trustworthy songwriter, complete with mind-blowing stage pyrotechnics. She’s what a popstar ought to be, the complete package. But well, let’s not fool ourselves – it isn’t all too rare that she releases music that is, well, to put it mildly, sub-par. 2020’s “Chromatica” is one such instance; a very thematically coherent album that had a ton of potential, only to lose absurdly many points in execution. Some of the fans who desperately wanted her out of her yee-haw era (see “Joanne”) were glad, but they were not few, those who complained about the quality of the album. And frankly? I get it! “Chromatica” had its few good moments, but it was – for Gaga’s standards at least – a severely underwhelming album!
While mayhem (ha, see what I did there?) broke out amongst the pop music crowd, Gaga was watching from the sidelines. She kept notes until her head fell off, after which she kept taking more notes, sans head. A woman on a mission, she was determined to prove the haters wrong. The product of that unlikely circumstance was none other than 2025’s “Mayhem” – her seventh studio album, fucking finally.
Well, to keep it brief, this album is good. Though it seemed that all was lost following a decade of not-very-good music by Gaga, she came back with a bang.
What this is, at its core, is an electropop, pop-rock album, that is vaguely industrial informed at parts. That said, my favorite bits are the nu-disco cuts; namely, “Don’t Call Tonight” and “Shadow of a Man” (which also boasts glam rock elements, alongside the slice of nu-disco). “Abracadabra” might just be one of her best singles to date – yes, it’s that good – while “Vanish Into You” is probably my favorite song on the album overall. “Disease” I deemed underwhelming at first, but on second thought, it was a good lead single choice.
Other songs that are notable for either being remarkably good or obscenely bad are the following: “Perfect Celebrity” (oh my fucking GOD that chorus is nuts – in the good way), “Killah” (back and funkiah than evah!), “How Bad Do U Want Me” (how do you sleep at night knowing that you slipped this abomination of a “song” into a good album like nobody’s business?), and “Blade of Grass” (a well-written song that serves as a nice transition to the otherwise out-of-place “Die With a Smile”, which, for the sake of my sanity, I consider to be a bonus track).
So, “Mayhem”. Gaga’s most solid album since 2013’s “ARTPOP”. The future is looking bright for pop music; from the re-emergence of the popstar (e.g. Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan), to the grand return of Gaga-who-makes-great-music, the pop landscape is slowly but surely healing. And like so, life is good again.
8/10.
Silia 
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