Lady Gaga’s ‘Mayhem’ Revives the Golden Age of Pop Music
It’s March 7, 2025, and Lady Gaga has once again dropped an album that I will be listening to nonstop. The timing? Impeccable. Wall Street took a nosedive after the Trump admin’s tariffs cost the economy over 13 billion in a day, and just like that, Gaga swoops in with a collection of bangers that are sonically insane and thematically unhinged. This album is messy in the best way possible—grungy, poppy, manic, and a little bit deranged. It’s giving 2008 in all the right ways. A time when everything else sucked—the economy, human rights, censorship—but the music? Untouchable.
Gaga is taking us back to the golden era of pop, and I could not be more here for it.
This album is basically the unholy love child of ARTPOP, Born This Way, and The Fame. It’s weird, camp and unfiltered. The album kicks off with the two lead singles, Disease and Abracadabra, both incredible in their own way. Disease is what happens when existential despair meets a dancefloor. The production is claustrophobic, the vocals are breathless, and the whole thing feels like an anxiety attack with a side of mania in the form of a club banger. Abracadabra is its evil twin—dark, hypnotic, and reminiscent of Alejandor and Bad Romance if it had been produced by a coven of witches. Oddly, Mayhem, also has a GOOD deal of 80s and 90s funk. There are elements of Michael Jackson in Shadow Of A Man and Zombieboy which was an strange but welcome inclusion. The entire album is like a fever dream in the very best possible way, the kind of dream that you just cannot shake out of your head!
But the real standout here? Perfect Celebrity.
This track is so SO Gaga, I genuinely believe no one else could have made it, at least not like this. It’s a brutal takedown of celebrity culture, fame, self-obsession, and the machine that chews people up and spits them out. And yet, it’s also the catchiest thing I’ve heard in YEARS. The intro is eerie, creeping, like something out of a horror movie, ready to pounce, and then the beat just HITS YOU IN THE FACE. And the lyrics?
"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"
Oh, Gaga is COOKING.
"I look so hungry, but I look so good Tap on my vein, suck on my diamond blood Choke on the fame and hope it gets you high Sit in the front row, watch the princess die"
Gaga has always been at her best when she’s wielding irony like a weapon, and Perfect Celebrity is her deadliest strike yet. The line "watch the princess die" recalls Princess Die, her infamous unreleased track about media voyeurism and the glorification of tragedy, making this feel like a full-circle moment in her discography.
The bridge only deepens the eerie, ghostly quality of the song:
"Catch me as I rebound (Let all the stuff) Save me, I'm underground (I can't be found) Hollywood's a ghost town You love to hate me I'm the perfect celebrity"
It’s the soundtrack to a city burning from the inside out, a place where icons are created and destroyed in the blink of an eye.
With Recession Pop, Gaga isn’t just giving us music; she’s giving us a time capsule of a world that feels eerily familiar. This is the sound of a crumbling empire, set to a pounding dance beat. The album’s themes of excess, exploitation, and self-destruction feel particularly potent in 2025, a time when pop culture is more manufactured than ever. Yet, amidst all the chaos, Gaga has made something that feels raw, unfiltered, and gloriously, unapologetically her.
And in true Gaga fashion, she makes the end of the world sound like the best party you’ll ever go to. Please for the love of god, go and listen to it NOW!
