Girl 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 Girl Gaga for being a pop star. However within the final decade, she’s carried out 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, Girl 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 the event you have been a sinner, I might make you consider.
SCHMITZ: Critics are calling the album a return to kind 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 Girl Gaga since 2020. What do you consider it?
CILLS: I feel that this album, “Mayhem,” is de facto 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 fascinating, referencing bands like 9 Inch Nails and The Treatment. There are all these songs about, , beasts and zombies and witchcraft. There’s even a track known as “Abracadabra” that truly credit the very influential ’80s goth rock group Siouxsie And The Banshees as a result of it sounds fairly just 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 night time. Abracadabra, amor-oo-na-na. Abracadabra, morta-oo-ga-ga (ph).
SCHMITZ: So Girl Gaga is a pop artist, however she’s additionally made music and different genres. And, , 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 fascinating. , Gaga has known 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 virtually, like, an homage to her greatest work on this album. There’s a number of components on the album the place it seems like she’s very explicitly referencing her personal catalog. For instance, there is a track known 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 track, the way in which that she performs her vocals – it sounds so unbelievably just like me to the way in which that she sings on her 2009 hit “Unhealthy Romance.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BAD ROMANCE”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) I need your love, and I need your revenge. You and me might write a nasty romance. Oh. I need your love and all of your lover’s revenge, you and me…
SCHMITZ: And you might be saying that “Mayhem” is a return for Girl Gaga to the music she was making almost 20 years in the past. Does the music sound, , dated in any respect, like, this yr, in 2025?
CILLS: I really feel like I might see how individuals would suppose that, but it surely’s humorous. To me, it actually does not sound dated. , I really feel like what’s fascinating about “Mayhem” is that I really feel like a whole lot of artists couldn’t pull off making an album like this, , type of going again so explicitly to the sound of, , the place they began their profession. I really feel like lots of people would suppose that is perhaps boring for an artist to do. I feel the truth that Girl Gaga has had such an experimental profession and a such various catalog, it signifies that she will type of pull this off. And, , there is a track on the album known as “Vanish Into You.” After I hear a track like that, I hear somebody who actually is aware of their very own private components 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 have been completely satisfied simply to be alive.
SCHMITZ: Yeah, I can hear that. I imply, this seems like rather a lot like her earlier work. And as many people know, , Girl Gaga is not only 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.” , how does her music match into this profession lately?
CILLS: Yeah, I really feel like from, , the surface Gaga’s profession during the last a number of years, it is perhaps form of complicated. She’s simply carried out 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, , this type of music. There is a track on the album known as “Good Celeb,” 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 product of plastic like a human doll. You push and pull me, I do not damage in any respect. I speak in circles ‘trigger my mind, it aches. You say I 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 all the time been.
SCHMITZ: So Hazel, what do you suppose Girl Gaga’s making an attempt to inform us with this album? Do you suppose it is – it tells one thing about how she sees herself as an artist?
CILLS: Yeah, I feel positively. I have been describing this album to buddies as type of a flex. It simply seems like her actually confidently saying, , I am in a world of my very own. , she will make nice pop music completely on her personal time period. She does not must comply with tendencies. , she did not must do one other dramatic pivot like so many pop stars must do. And I feel, , in between, , films and tv and all of her different ventures, she’s principally saying, like, I can all the time come again to this. Like, I can do that in my sleep. And I feel her followers, , 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”)
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