A triumphant return to her core aesthetic, Mayhem is Gaga reclaiming her pop crown with synth-drenched, fashion-forward flair.

Lady Gaga’s career has long played out like a high-wire act—soaring, swerving, occasionally crashing. But with Abracadabra marking its fifth week in the UK Top 10, it seems the pop provocateur is back in control. Following a few commercial stumbles—not least her overreaching Joker: Folie à Deux soundtrack and underperforming jazz projects—Mayhem feels like a deliberate recalibration: a glitter-drenched return to the fundamentals that made Gaga a global icon in the first place.

Built around thunderous synths, maximalist choruses, and high-camp visuals, Abracadabra and its predecessor Disease signal the album’s intentions early. The mission? Channel The Fame-era Gaga, but with more grit, more polish, and a tighter grip on the club. What follows is a dizzyingly confident set of dancefloor-ready anthems and avant-pop curveballs that feel both nostalgic and uncannily current.

There’s something for every Gaga disciple here. Garden of Eden celebrates fleeting romance under strobe lights, while Perfect Celebrity skewers fame with theatrical bite—evoking her 2009 MTV Awards performance where she famously “bled” for Paparazzi. Elsewhere, she leans into genre collisions: Killah fuses Prince-style funk with new wave and drum’n’bass flourishes, while Zombieboy tosses a hair-metal guitar solo into Chic-inspired disco.

Even Gaga’s genre-hopping instincts are reined in smartly. LoveDrug toys with AOR melodrama but keeps pace with a four-on-the-floor pulse; Blade of Grass and the Bruno Mars duet Die With a Smile deliver big-hearted balladry without derailing the record’s club-forward momentum. The lone stumble, How Bad Do U Want Me?, nods to 80s synth-pop and Taylor Swift in equal measure—charming but a touch too trend-chasing for someone whose legacy most pop stars are still trying to emulate.

Yet even at its most referential, Mayhem doesn’t feel retro. If anything, it proves the culture has finally caught up with Gaga. In the era of Chappell Roan and Charli XCX, the pop landscape she once seemed to warp singlehandedly now reflects her own queered, chaotic image. Mayhem doesn’t reinvent Gaga—it doesn’t need to. Instead, it reminds us just how right she got it the first time.