Pop Culture Primer 3.18.25
How bad do u want this Lady Gaga Mayhem review?
MAYHEM
Paws up!
Perhaps a little-known fact for those who have only known me for the past ten years or so, but before I was a massive Swiftie, I was a huge Little Monster. Like, dress up as her for Halloween 2009 and dance on the bar to “Love Game” kind of Little Monster (see below)
Halloween 2009, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. A night that will live in infamy (along with the carpeted bathroom).
I kind of fell off around ArtPop and then fully peaced out for Joanne and all of the Tony Bennett stuff (sorry, Gaga!). After Chromatica, I’d been waiting with bated breath for her to return to her pop roots, and my prayers were answered when released her 7th studio album, MAYHEM, a couple of weeks ago. I am fully obsessed.
I will say, I was nervous to listen, because, as someone the same age as Gaga, I have always gravitated towards the earlier works in her discography, like The Fame/The Fame Monster and Born This Way, the classic pop Gaga that made her famous. But I knew she always had aspirations of developing her art into new and different ways, so while I wanted the “old Gaga” back, I wasn’t counting on it.
Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.
MAYHEM shows that you can make self-referential feel fresh and new, that you can take inspiration from across musical genres and decades and make them your own, and that nostalgia can propel you forward as an artist.
There’s some great samples or almost samples from iconic artists, as well as call-backs to her own songs, and as someone who was in college during Peak Gaga, I was thrilled to dip into those memories again.
I’m not going to talk about every song on the album, but I will pick out some of my highlights.
Abracadabra
As a lead single, ABRACADABRA was a huge clue we’d be going back to “Classic Gaga.” The mildly blasphemous lyrics. The hand choreography. Invoking her own name in songs once again. As my three-year-old says, “I like when she says ‘ooh na na.’” Same, kid. The vibes here were immaculate, and it made me hopeful the old Gaga was going to make an appearance. We’re so back, baby.
Killah
Whew the Bowie/Prince vibes with this one! The beat here is so sick, and the sound is “fresher” than many of the other songs (not as shade to any other songs!). I suspect this will be the next single because she performed it on SNL, and it could be a great summer bop.
Zombieboy
I’ve heard a lot of reviews compare this one to Gwen Stefani’s Hollaback Girl (which is real and fair), but I haven’t seen anyone talk about how it’s so so similar to Summerboy from The Fame!!! It could be a follow-up from Summerboy, a graduation, a step up.
Like Summerboy, it’s a fun, boppy, dance track, and although the songs are sonically different. But I can’t help think about Summerboy when I hear Zombieboy, and I suspect that’s the point.
How Bad Do U Want Me
OH BOY LOTS TO SAY ABOUT THIS ONE. Honestly, if you told me Taylor Swift had a secret writing credit on this song I wouldn’t be surprised at all. The song is so Taylor-esque (and Yaz!), it could have been a vault track for 1989 TV.
The lyrics, the synth drums, the storytelling, the background vocals are very Taylor (“she’s on your mind like all the time but I got a tattoo of us last week,” is such a Taylor line), and the song scratches something in my brain juuuuuustright.
Something about “even good boys leave” makes me think about “no one tells you what to do when a good man hurts you” from HOAX, and I wonder if that’s on purpose.
But I don’t see this as a rip-off of Taylor. Remember, the two of them are big fans of each other. During the Eras Tour, APPLAUSE played right before Taylor took the stage. Taylor commented on Gaga’s post where she called out people for saying she looked pregnant. Gaga has talked in interviews about how much she loves Taylor and admires her impact. There’s no bad blood between the two, and I see the song as an homage to a style of pop that Taylor dominates at, with a Gaga twist.
I hope we get HOW BAD DO U WANT ME as a single (please, Mother Monster, make it so).
Don’t Call Tonight
DON’T CALL TONIGHT screams updated ALEJANDRO, and it’s an insane earworm. We also get the Gaga growl, and I absolutely love the vocal runs. In the episode of EVERY SINGLE ALBUM: MAYHEM, Nathan and Nora talk about how nearly every song is an explosion of sound that gets bigger and better at the end, and DON’T CALL TONIGHT is a great example of that.
The Beast
All I have to say about THE BEAST is that I’m pretty sure this song was written for the Romantasy girlies, especially the shifter romances. Like, come on, is this song not 100% Violet and Xaden? Misery and Lowe? Hell, this is Edward and Bella! I anticipate some insane edits on TikTok and Reels using this song.
If you haven’t had a chance to do a full listen-through of the album, I highly recommend you do it! It’s pure Gaga pop goodness for an updated era.
