Woman Gaga returned to pop music when she launched “Mayhem” final week. NPR Music’s Hazel Cills talks to Rob Schmitz in regards to the album.
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
You would possibly know Woman Gaga for being a pop star. However within the final decade, she’s executed much more than simply make radio-friendly hits. She’s had main roles in movies and tv, taken a rustic flip and recorded two jazz albums with the late Tony Bennett. However final week, Woman Gaga returned to pop music when she launched “Mayhem.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DISEASE”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) I might play the physician. I can treatment your illness. In case you had been a sinner, I might make you imagine.
SCHMITZ: Critics are calling the album a return to type for an artist who likes to experiment. We’re joined by NPR Music’s Hazel Cills to speak about “Mayhem.” Welcome, Hazel.
HAZEL CILLS, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.
SCHMITZ: So that is the primary album that we have heard from Woman Gaga since 2020. What do you consider it?
CILLS: I believe that this album, “Mayhem,” is actually Gaga doing what she does greatest. I imply, she’s making this very, like, darkish, theatrical pop music. She was additionally very impressed by goth music making this album, which is attention-grabbing, referencing bands like 9 Inch Nails and The Treatment. There are all these songs about, you realize, beasts and zombies and witchcraft. There’s even a tune referred to as “Abracadabra” that really credit the very influential ’80s goth rock group Siouxsie And The Banshees as a result of it sounds fairly much like one of many band’s songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ABRACADABRA”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) With a haunting dance, now you are each in a trance. It is time to solid your spell on the evening. Abracadabra, amor-oo-na-na. Abracadabra, morta-oo-ga-ga (ph).
SCHMITZ: So Woman Gaga is a pop artist, however she’s additionally made music and different genres. And, you realize, as we talked about, she made jazz albums with Tony Bennett. She took a rustic flip. How does this album match into that profession?
CILLS: Yeah, it is attention-grabbing. You realize, Gaga has referred to as this album very chaotic. In my view, it actually is not chaotic. I really feel like Mayhem is her form of returning to the sound that launched her profession again within the late 2000s. And it seems like she’s usually performing nearly, like, an homage to her greatest work on this album. There’s a number of elements on the album the place it seems like she’s very explicitly referencing her personal catalog. For instance, there is a tune referred to as Backyard of Eden.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “GARDEN OF EDEN”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) Take you to the backyard of Eden, poison apple, take a chunk. I will take you to the backyard of Eden. I will take you to the backyard of Eden. Oh.
CILLS: The way in which that she sings on that tune, the best way that she performs her vocals – it sounds so unbelievably much like me to the best way that she sings on her 2009 hit “Unhealthy Romance.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BAD ROMANCE”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) I would like your love, and I would like your revenge. You and me might write a nasty romance. Oh. I would like your love and all of your lover’s revenge, you and me…
SCHMITZ: And you’re saying that “Mayhem” is a return for Woman Gaga to the music she was making practically twenty years in the past. Does the music sound, you realize, dated in any respect, like, this yr, in 2025?
CILLS: I really feel like I might see how individuals would assume that, but it surely’s humorous. To me, it actually does not sound dated. You realize, I really feel like what’s attention-grabbing about “Mayhem” is that I really feel like lots of artists couldn’t pull off making an album like this, you realize, form of going again so explicitly to the sound of, you realize, the place they began their profession. I really feel like lots of people would assume that could be boring for an artist to do. I believe the truth that Woman Gaga has had such an experimental profession and a such various catalog, it signifies that she will form of pull this off. And, you realize, there is a tune on the album referred to as “Vanish Into You.” Once I hear a tune like that, I hear somebody who actually is aware of their very own private system and is aware of what works for them and is pulling it off fairly confidently.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “VANISH INTO YOU”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) Do you see me? Do you see me now? Noticed your face and mine in an image by our bedside. It was chilly within the summertime. We had been completely happy simply to be alive.
SCHMITZ: Yeah, I can hear that. I imply, this seems like so much like her earlier work. And as many people know, you realize, Woman Gaga isn’t just a musician. She simply starred within the new “Joker” sequel, and she or he was nominated for an Oscar for her position in “A Star Is Born.” You realize, how does her music match into this profession nowadays?
CILLS: Yeah, I really feel like from, you realize, the skin Gaga’s profession during the last a number of years, it could be form of complicated. She’s simply executed so many various issues, pivoted in so many various instructions. And I really feel like “Mayhem,” this album, is form of a palate cleanser for anybody who has felt confused by that. She appears very conscious of what individuals need from her, which is, you realize, this type of music. There is a tune on the album referred to as “Excellent Superstar,” the place she’s actually form of singing explicitly about how her followers see her and the way Hollywood sees her.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PERFECT CELEBRITY”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) I am manufactured from plastic like a human doll. You push and pull me, I do not harm in any respect. I discuss in circles ‘trigger my mind, it aches. You say I really like you, I disintegrate.
CILLS: It simply actually solidifies to me that “Mayhem” is an album that’s form of serving as a reminder to everybody that beneath all of it, she’s form of the identical musician that she’s at all times been.
SCHMITZ: So Hazel, what do you assume Woman Gaga’s attempting to inform us with this album? Do you assume it is – it tells one thing about how she sees herself as an artist?
CILLS: Yeah, I believe positively. I have been describing this album to buddies as form of a flex. It simply seems like her actually confidently saying, you realize, I am in a world of my very own. You realize, she will make nice pop music completely on her personal time period. She does not need to observe traits. You realize, she did not must do one other dramatic pivot like so many pop stars need to do. And I believe, you realize, in between, you realize, films and tv and all of her different ventures, she’s principally saying, like, I can at all times come again to this. Like, I can do that in my sleep. And I believe her followers, you realize, actually love her for it.
SCHMITZ: It have to be good. That is NPR Music’s Hazel Cills. Hazel, thanks for becoming a member of us.
CILLS: Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF LADY GAGA SONG, “PERFECT CELEBRITY”)
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its remaining type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could differ. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.