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 may know Girl Gaga for being a pop star. However within the final decade, she’s completed 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 may play the physician. I can remedy your illness. When you have been a sinner, I may 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 believe that this album, “Mayhem,” is basically Gaga doing what she does finest. 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, you realize, 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 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 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, 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 fascinating. , Gaga has known as this album very chaotic. For my part, it actually is not chaotic. I really feel like Mayhem is her sort of returning to the sound that launched her profession again within the late 2000s. And it feels like she’s usually performing virtually, like, an homage to her finest work on this album. There’s a number of elements on the album the place it looks 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 chew. 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 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 “Dangerous Romance.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BAD ROMANCE”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) I need your love, and I need your revenge. You and me may write a foul romance. Oh. I need your love and all of your lover’s revenge, you and me…
SCHMITZ: And you’re saying that “Mayhem” is a return for Girl Gaga to the music she was making practically 20 years in the past. Does the music sound, you realize, dated in any respect, like, this 12 months, in 2025?
CILLS: I really feel like I may see how folks would suppose that, nevertheless it’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 variety of artists couldn’t pull off making an album like this, you realize, type 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 suppose that could be boring for an artist to do. I believe 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, you realize, 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 joyful simply to be alive.
SCHMITZ: Yeah, I can hear that. I imply, this feels like loads like her earlier work. And as many people know, you realize, 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 as of late?
CILLS: Yeah, I really feel like from, you realize, the skin taking a look at Gaga’s profession during the last a number of years, it could be sort of complicated. She’s simply completed so many alternative issues, pivoted in so many alternative instructions. And I really feel like “Mayhem,” this album, is sort of a palate cleanser for anybody who has felt confused by that. She appears very conscious of what folks need from her, which is, you realize, this sort of music. There is a track on the album known as “Good Superstar,” the place she’s actually sort 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 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 sort of serving as a reminder to everybody that beneath all of it, she’s sort of the identical musician that she’s at all times been.
SCHMITZ: So Hazel, what do you suppose Girl Gaga’s attempting 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 believe positively. I have been describing this album to pals as type of a flex. It simply looks like her actually confidently saying, you realize, I am in a world of my very own. , she will make nice pop music completely on her personal time period. She does not need to comply with traits. , she did not have to 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 should 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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