Pop icon’s latest features Gesaffelstein and Bruno Mars
Lady Gaga’s seventh album Mayhem is out now. The LP follows 2020’s Chromatica and her Joker 2 companion Harlequin from 2023.
Executive produced by Gaga, her fiancé Michael Polansky and Andrew Watt, Gaga began rolling out new music last fall. Her Bruno Mars duet “Die With A Smile” preceded the album’s other lead singles “Disease” and “Abracadabra,” a pair of heavy, electro-pop tracks. Alongside Mars, the album’s other main feature is Gesaffelstein, a French DJ and producer who has worked extensively with the Weeknd. Cirkut also produced much of the album alongside Watt and Gaga.
Gaga recorded the album at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-la Studios. “The album started as me conquering a fear: to return to the pop music my earliest fans loved,” she said in a statement. “This record allowed me to reclaim a huge part of myself. It’s about enjoying everything I am and sharing that joy with my fans.”
The sound of the album has been compared to The Fame Monster and Born This Way, harnessing some of the darker sound and imagery from those projects. “I wanted to traverse old ground while breaking new ground, which I think is hard to do,” she told Rolling Stone. “There are a few moments on the album where some people might say, ‘Oh, that reminds me of this,’ because I do have a style, but I made an effort musically to push myself to a new place.”
This weekend, Gaga will pull double-duty as host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live. She has not yet announced a tour but has shows in Mexico and Brazil scheduled, along with a headlining set at Coachella in April
