The Mayhem has finally been unleashed\u2014Lady Gaga\u2019s seventh studio album has officially hit streaming platforms. Technically her eighth if you count Joker: Folie \u00e0 Deux, the HarleyQuinn companion soundtrack, which Gaga considers her \u201c6.5\u201d record. \u201cMayhem\u201d is an angry, 80s- and 90s-inspired, genre-less album that thrives in destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first two tracks are already familiar: \u201cDisease,\u201d the album\u2019s lead single, and \u201cAbracadabra,\u201d which debuted during the Grammys. The final track, Die With a Smile, a Grammy Award-winning duet with Bruno Mars, closes out the record\u2014but the real message of this album lies within its bleeding guts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A throwback to the trappings of fame, \u201cPerfect Celebrity\u201d nods to \u201cThe Fame,\u201d Gaga\u2019s 2008 debut, giving OG Little Monsters a taste of classic Gaga. \u201cVanish Into You\u201d is a desperate plea for the return of a lost love, while \u201cKillah\u201d unleashes vengeful energy, clearly inspired by Prince and the flood of \u201cPurple Rain.\u201d But now that she\u2019s \u201ckilled a guy,\u201d the lust still lingers in \u201cZombieBoy,\u201d a track that throws it back to theHollaback Girls<\/em> of the 2000s\u2014if you know, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLove Drug\u201d takes us on an addictive journey through a toxic relationship, chasing just one more hit to feel the high before the inevitable low. The album\u2019s love story takes a turn with \u201cHow Bad Do You Want Me?,\u201d a side-chick anthem for those who fell a little too hard for a good guy who wanted a taste of the bad girl. Side chicks have feelings too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But all good (or bad) things must come to an end. \u201cDon\u2019t Call Me Tonight\u201d is another plea to break free from the painful cycle of love. Yet, the shadow still lingers in \u201cShadow of a Man,\u201d a sinfully heavy track gunning to be the song of the summer. Reminiscent of Michael Jackson, it\u2019s a feminist anthem demanding to be brought out of any man\u2019s shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The album closes with “The Beast and Blade of Grass,\u201d signaling the end of this chaotic love story\u2014 arriving at something light, something good, something not so dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMayhem\u201d <\/em> is an apocalyptic love story, as Gaga described in her Spotify press conference. Like most of her albums, it takes time to unravel her metaphorical lyrics\u2014all written solely by her. From the start, \u201cMayhem\u201d is chaotic, blending 80s and 90s influences with armageddon vibes of Y2K. It\u2019s meant to be heard in the corner of a dark club, just out of view of the disco ball, with a throbbing beat pulling you into its lustful temptation. This album encourages you to wreak havoc, lean into your weaknesses, make mistakes, and ultimately, find your inner light within the darkness, even if you\u2019re the one turning out the lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As time passes, we will no doubt uncover even more layers to this album. But considering today\u2019s political climate, civil unrest, and overall discourse, \u201cMayhem\u201d might just be what the world needs most. D.j. kill the lights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This masterpiece thrives in destruction, chaos The Mayhem has finally been unleashed\u2014Lady Gaga\u2019s seventh studio album has officially hit streaming platforms. Technically her eighth if… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":11426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[307],"class_list":["post-11425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"authors":[{"term_id":307,"user_id":138,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sean-charles","display_name":"Sean Charles","avatar_url":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/c5632879f99ad0206cb0d302b941165f.jpg?ver=1778637593","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11427,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11425\/revisions\/11427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11425"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}