ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
You might know Lady Gaga for being a pop star. But in the last decade, she's done a lot more than just make radio-friendly hits. She's had leading roles in films and television, taken a country turn and recorded two jazz albums with the late Tony Bennett. But last week, Lady Gaga returned to pop music when she released "Mayhem."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DISEASE")
LADY GAGA: (Singing) I could play the doctor. I can cure your disease. If you were a sinner, I could make you believe.
SCHMITZ: Critics are calling the album a return to form for an artist who loves to experiment. We're joined by NPR Music's Hazel Cills to talk about "Mayhem." Welcome, Hazel.
HAZEL CILLS, BYLINE: Thank you for having me.
SCHMITZ: So this is the first album that we've heard from Lady Gaga since 2020. What do you think of it?
CILLS: I think that this album, "Mayhem," is really Gaga doing what she does best. I mean, she's making this very, like, dark, theatrical pop music. She was also very inspired by goth music making this album, which is interesting, referencing bands like Nine Inch Nails and The Cure. There are all these songs about, you know, beasts and zombies and witchcraft. There's even a song called "Abracadabra" that actually credits the very influential '80s goth rock group Siouxsie And The Banshees because it sounds quite similar to one of the band's songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ABRACADABRA")
LADY GAGA: (Singing) With a haunting dance, now you're both in a trance. It's time to cast your spell on the night. Abracadabra, amor-oo-na-na. Abracadabra, morta-oo-ga-ga (ph).
SCHMITZ: So Lady Gaga is a pop artist, but she's also made music and other genres. And, you know, as we mentioned, she made jazz albums with Tony Bennett. She took a country turn. How does this album fit into that career?
CILLS: Yeah, it's interesting. You know, Gaga has called this album very chaotic. In my opinion, it really isn't chaotic. I feel like Mayhem is her kind of returning to the sound that launched her career back in the late 2000s. And it sounds like she's often performing almost, like, an homage to her best work on this album. There's multiple parts on the album where it feels like she's very explicitly referencing her own catalog. For example, there's a song called Garden of Eden.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GARDEN OF EDEN")
LADY GAGA: (Singing) Take you to the garden of Eden, poison apple, take a bite. I'll take you to the garden of Eden. I'll take you to the garden of Eden. Oh.
CILLS: The way that she sings on that song, the way that she performs her vocals - it sounds so unbelievably similar to me to the way that she sings on her 2009 hit "Bad Romance."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAD ROMANCE")
LADY GAGA: (Singing) I want your love, and I want your revenge. You and me could write a bad romance. Oh. I want your love and all your lover's revenge, you and me...
SCHMITZ: And you are saying that "Mayhem" is a return for Lady Gaga to the music she was making nearly two decades ago. Does the music sound, you know, dated at all, like, this year, in 2025?
CILLS: I feel like I could see how people would think that, but it's funny. To me, it really doesn't sound dated. You know, I feel like what's interesting about "Mayhem" is that I feel like a lot of artists could not pull off making an album like this, you know, sort of going back so explicitly to the sound of, you know, where they started their career. I feel like a lot of people would think that might be boring for an artist to do. I think the fact that Lady Gaga has had such an experimental career and a such diverse catalog, it means that she can sort of pull this off. And, you know, there's a song on the album called "Vanish Into You." When I hear a song like that, I hear someone who really knows their own personal formula and knows what works for them and is pulling it off quite confidently.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VANISH INTO YOU")
LADY GAGA: (Singing) Do you see me? Do you see me now? Saw your face and mine in a picture by our bedside. It was cold in the summertime. We were happy just to be alive.
SCHMITZ: Yeah, I can hear that. I mean, this sounds like a lot like her earlier work. And as many of us know, you know, Lady Gaga is not just a musician. She just starred in the new "Joker" sequel, and she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in "A Star Is Born." You know, how does her music fit into this career these days?
CILLS: Yeah, I feel like from, you know, the outside looking at Gaga's career over the last several years, it might be kind of confusing. She's just done so many different things, pivoted in so many different directions. And I feel like "Mayhem," this album, is kind of a palate cleanser for anyone who has felt confused by that. She seems very aware of what people want from her, which is, you know, this kind of music. There's a song on the album called "Perfect Celebrity," where she's really kind of singing explicitly about how her fans see her and how Hollywood sees her.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PERFECT CELEBRITY")
LADY GAGA: (Singing) I'm made of plastic like a human doll. You push and pull me, I don't hurt at all. I talk in circles 'cause my brain, it aches. You say I love you, I disintegrate.
CILLS: It just really solidifies to me that "Mayhem" is an album that is kind of serving as a reminder to everyone that underneath it all, she's kind of the same musician that she's always been.
SCHMITZ: So Hazel, what do you think Lady Gaga's trying to tell us with this album? Do you think it's - it tells something about how she sees herself as an artist?
CILLS: Yeah, I think definitely. I've been describing this album to friends as sort of a flex. It just feels like her really confidently saying, you know, I'm in a world of my own. You know, she can make great pop music totally on her own term. She doesn't have to follow trends. You know, she didn't need to do another dramatic pivot like so many pop stars have to do. And I think, you know, in between, you know, movies and television and all of her other ventures, she's basically saying, like, I can always come back to this. Like, I can do this in my sleep. And I think her fans, you know, really love her for it.
SCHMITZ: It must be nice. That's NPR Music's Hazel Cills. Hazel, thank you for joining us.
CILLS: Thank you for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF LADY GAGA SONG, "PERFECT CELEBRITY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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