Lady Gaga recently had all of her monsters feeling a good romance to her newest studio album, “Mayhem”. With it consisting of fourteen fantastic tracks and 3 hit singles, this album was born to be good— you can even say it was born that way. Gaga will always be true with her music, and after taking 5 years off, she still puts on a show that is on repeat in our headphones.
DISEASE
The opening track hits us with vocals in the background and a huge bass-hit. “Disease” is about Gaga facing her inner darkness and her own fears. When you hear this song it’s a clear reminder that Gaga never left and it was a phenomenal way to open a new era of her music.
ABRACADABRA
With track two starting to play, it’s already an entirely different vibe from “Disease”, but it still has that strong beat in the background that is impossible to keep you still. As Gaga sings the line, “Like a poem said by a lady in red,” she is referring to the voice in your head debating your strengths. When she mentions “amor” and “morta”, she very quickly also sings “In her tongue she said, ‘death or love tonight.’” “Amor” and “morta” are meant to be spelled in Latin meaning love or death.
GARDEN OF EDEN
“Garden of Eden” has that old 2000’s television show soundtrack which immediately means this song is going to be an absolute banger from start to finish. With the song title being a direct biblical reference, Gaga takes the role of the serpent, one of Lucifer’s forms, to convince Eve to eat the forbidden apple. Gaga’s “garden of eden” though, is represented as a club floor, and that’s noticeable with the candy references.
PERFECT CELEBRITY
The song is in reference to the effects of fame and how it
made Gaga void of all emotions, “I’m made of plastic like a human doll, you push and pull me, I don’t hurt at all.” The brutal lines in the chorus convey anger toward the public and denouncement of fame culture . This song is poetry and every single line means something to her and the audience. The lyric “Hollywood’s a ghost town,” is about how celebrities lie to the public to keep their fame and feed the public.
VANISH INTO YOU
“Vanish Into You” is a love song, and it’s about how Gaga wants to be a singular being with her partner and to forget the world. “Once in a blue moon, I forget you,” reminds listeners that under all the funky instrumental, she’s always thinking about her partner. She also refers to running away with her mother and feeling free from the world they live in. This song shows the flip from the dark pop to a disco-love sound, and it’s tantalizing to the ears with this line “When I die, can I vanish into you?” representing that shift in sound.
KILLAH (FT. GESAFFELSTEIN)
One of my favorite songs in the whole album, “Killah” gives a funky vibe to the halfway point of the album. While quite the explicit track, the track is entirely different for Lady Gaga. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she said “ it was unlike any feel or groove that I’d ever worked on before.”
ZOMBIEBOY
“We [are] about to be up all night, wakin’ up a zombie.”
Disco is in full swing with this song. The first line, “We [are] about to be up all night, wakin’ up a zombie,”is in reference to a wild night, and this song definitely feels like it. The song is a tribute to one of Gaga’s late friends, Rick Genest, who had the nickname “Zombie Boy” and collaborated with Gaga in the past on the smash hit “Born This Way”. “Zombie” carries the feeling of a wild night to the morning after and the feeling when you wake up.
LOVEDRUG
While slower than previous tracks, “LoveDrug” still keeps up with the past songs. Stefani writes about the addiction that love is, and that it’s never-ending. With the entire song begging for a dose of the “Lovedrug”, it gives off “Chromatica” vibes with the “dancing through the pain” message and the same sound from her last studio album.
HOW BAD DO U WANT ME
“But I got a tattoo for us last week.”
An entirely different song from her discography, “How Bad Do U Want Me” offers a new type of sound we have never heard from Gaga before. The song is about Gaga challenging her partner’s ideal girl that is only in his mind. She puts herself out there to show a real unashamed woman and sings a song that discusses identity, desire, and societal expectations.
DON’T CALL TONIGHT
“Don’t call tonight, unless you wanna hurt me.”
As a party instrumental starts us off, this song once again has flipped the sound of this album. The song tells a tale of her and past conflicts with other people. While another explicit track, the song has a vibe from start to finish. The song has many large references to hookup culture.
SHADOW OF A MAN
Another one of my favorite songs, “Shadow of a Man” was the first teaser of the album. The song is about Gaga’s journey to fame in a heavily male-dominated industry. “I don’t wanna fade into the darkness tonight” is a line directly about refusing to be taken over by male predecessors. Her album was inspired by David Bowie and Prince, which makes this line more powerful. “Can’t ignore the voice within, and a woman can’t lose, but you still pretend.”
THE BEAST
This is my favorite song in the entire album as it brings us to the soft finale “Mayhem”. This song is about Stefani and Gaga being two different people. “You can’t hide who you are, 11:59,” is in reference to the folklore beast, the werewolf, and represents the beast she is on stage. I love this track due to its instrumental: it’s powerful with a chill but scary feel to it, and when that beat drops, it is just immensely cool. While marked as a lot of the fans’ least favorite, this song is one you can’t miss.
BLADE OF GRASS
“Cause even though the church burned down, I’ll be your queen without a crown.”
The slowest and darkest song on the album, this ballad feels like a heartstring being pulled over and over again. The blade of grass represents her act of grace to her fiance, as they had their proposal in their backyard. Gaga has also stated in past interviews that this was her favorite song when it was finished due to the fact it was representing something so special.
DIE WITH A SMILE (WITH BRUNO MARS)
We’ve arrived at the first released track for “Mayhem” and the closer for the album. “Die With A Smile” was a song that you would hear everywhere and not only was it a comeback for Gaga, but also Bruno Mars. It has that old time feel that you want in a song, and I had this on repeat for ages. It starts with Mars giving us a breather before the finale of Gaga’s vocals, and he does it phenomenally. These two powerhouses put on the best song of the year, and even won an award for it. The song was about wanting to die with a partner, and it was shown so clearly with instrumental lyrics too. While the last track dies out, every listener definitely finished the album with a smile.
