Woman Gaga returned to pop music when she launched “Mayhem” final week. NPR Music’s Hazel Cills talks to Rob Schmitz concerning the album.
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
You may know Woman Gaga for being a pop star. However within the final decade, she’s finished 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 remedy your illness. Should you have been a sinner, I might make you consider.
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 feel that this album, “Mayhem,” is admittedly 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 Remedy. There are all these songs about, , beasts and zombies and witchcraft. There’s even a track known 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, , 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. You realize, 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 appears like she’s typically performing nearly, like, an homage to her finest work on this album. There’s a number of components on the album the place it appears 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 am going to take you to the backyard of Eden. I am going to 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 might write a nasty 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 Woman Gaga to the music she was making almost twenty 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 assume that, however it’s humorous. To me, it actually does not sound dated. You realize, I really feel like what’s fascinating about “Mayhem” is that I really feel like quite a 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 assume that is likely to be boring for an artist to do. I feel the truth that Woman Gaga has had such an experimental profession and a such numerous catalog, it implies that she will be able to type of pull this off. And, , there is a track on the album known as “Vanish Into You.” Once 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 appears like rather a lot like her earlier work. And as many people know, , Woman Gaga isn’t just a musician. She simply starred within the new “Joker” sequel, and he or she was nominated for an Oscar for her function in “A Star Is Born.” You realize, 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 likely to be sort of complicated. She’s simply finished 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 individuals need from her, which is, , this sort of music. There is a track on the album known as “Excellent Movie star,” 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 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 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 assume Woman Gaga’s making an attempt 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 feel undoubtedly. I have been describing this album to associates as type of a flex. It simply appears like her actually confidently saying, , I am in a world of my very own. You realize, she will be able to make nice pop music completely on her personal time period. She does not should observe traits. You realize, she did not must do one other dramatic pivot like so many pop stars should do. And I feel, , in between, , films and tv and all of her different ventures, she’s mainly saying, like, I can at all times 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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