Queer Arts & Entertainment

Reheated Nachos? We Have Thoughts About Lady Gaga’s New Album

March 7, 2025 Abbie Thompson

Gaga’s newest album ‘Mayhem’ dropped Friday with some hits…and some misses.

Famed philosopher Lady Gaga recently told Entertainment Weekly, “My nachos are mine, I invented them, and I’m proud of them.” With the release of her new album Mayhem on Friday, the iconic artist makes it clear that her nachos (nachos now used to describe cultural currency and legacy) are hers alone to reheat and even to make a new batch topped with unexpected sounds. In this record, Gaga has done what many before her have failed to do—she made a record so perfectly danceable that it could and should be played in a gay club from front to back with not a single skip. While certainly not the dark pop, avant-garde extravaganza that was expected, the album is nonetheless an addictive pop masterpiece that we will be dancing to for years to come. 

Disease + Abracadabra 

These two lead singles returned listeners to the dark, gothic, messy early Gaga sound that Little Monsters have been craving. When played alongside the album’s other 12 tracks, these two songs definitely feel like outliers and may have misled listeners into believing the rest of the album would carry the same energy throughout. While they were not indicative in the sound of the album, they did give us a hint as to just how addictively danceable this era of Gaga would turn out to be.

Garden of Eden

You know a song is going to be a hit when Gaga brings religious iconography into the mix. If she isn’t getting satanic allegations thrown at her, is she really Gaga?  “Go get your friends and meet me on the floor,” Gaga sings as she drags listeners into the middle of a pulsing dance floor with her. There is something so familiarly 2009 about the synth and electric guitar sounds on this energetic track, which describes the momentary ecstasy of dancing with someone in a dimly lit club. “My excuse to make a bad decision / Bodies getting close under the lights / I’ve been getting this familiar feeling like I’ve known you my whole life / take you to the Garden of Eden, poison apple, take a bite,” Gaga enticingly sings. One simply can’t help but Debby-Ryan-hair-tuck and follow her onto the floor.

Perfect Celebrity 

If the last song transported us to the early 2000s, this track is undeniably 90’s with its pop-punk production and the rockstar rasp in Gaga’s voice. Revisiting the pitfalls of fame, this song is soaked in rage about the system of celebrity that consistently fails women, even making reference to Princess Diana’s death. In an interview with Zane Lowe, Gaga described the anger she sometimes feels towards herself and her need for fame. “There’s rage in my music for sure, but like in a song where I’m so implicitly calling out and also like making a mockery out of this thing that I went after.” In an era when pop punk is denigrated over and over by horrible reproductions (I’m looking at you Machine Gun Kelly), this track has enough rage and energy to make its grunge sound authentic. 

Vanish Into You

In a shocking tone shift, this airy track is the first of Gaga’s trespass into disco territory. In the best way, these songs genuinely feel like they were recorded in a smoky recording studio in the 80s. While the plucky electric guitars, slap bass, and retro synths create a groove, the lyrics are wistful enough for a cathartic sob on the dancefloor. With all the glory of her chest voice, Gaga belts out the chorus singing, “Saw your face and mine / In a picture by my bedside / It was cold in the summer / We were happy just to be alive / Can I vanish into you?” This song somehow does feel like being both shot in the chest and levitating off the ground in ecstasy. Ok, duality.

Killah (Gesaffelstien)

Mother Monster doesn’t even give you a second to wipe your tears before launching into the grooviest song of her discography. Gaga once famously said, “Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it.” She shows her own lack of fear with the number of musical references on this track. With lyrics like, “I’ma be your full-time bedroom demon / I’ma make you scream, that’s a matter of fact” and a falsetto doubled vocal, this track feels almost plucked straight out of Prince’s discography. The repeated guitar part is without a doubt a reference to 70’s David Bowie and the chorus even melodically evokes his hit “Fame.” Gaga puts her own stamp on the song, perhaps with the help of DJ Gesaffelstien, through the electronic buildup and breakdown that occurs in the song’s addictive last minute. 

Zombieboy

Continuing her retro era, this future Halloween classic evokes all of the best parts of disco music. I’d reckon to say that if this had been treated as a single, it could have reached the same level of success as other modern disco hit “Levitating” by Dua Lipa. The galactic level of funk reached in this song is destined to be loved by Little Monsters and middle-aged women alike. A gag-worthy guitar solo that has Nile Rogers’ impact written all over it—Rogers being the iconic producer of Chic’s “Le Freak”, Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” and even Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” which all feature his heavenly guitar licks. Even while it is referential, Gaga’s unique vocal delivery and ever-innovative melodic choices help her remain a completely singular artist. Don’t let the questionable title fool you, this song IS a hit.

LoveDrug

Yet another song fit for an 80’s coming-of-age film montage, this track feels forgettable when compared to the exuberance of the previous bops. “I just need a dose of the right stuff / I just need a hit of your love drug,” Gaga sings over a fairly plain synth beat. In this case, the love drug she describes is less intoxicating and feels more like ¼ of a cheap pineapple-flavored edible.

How Bad Do U Want Me

This song is simply a vault track from Taylor Swift’s 1989 record. Everything from the playful light synth arpeggio to the fast-paced melody is Swiftian. As someone with a blind nostalgic love for the 2013 pop record, I am not at all complaining. When Gaga sings the chorus, “Cause you hate the crash, but you love the rush / And I’ll make your heart weak every time you hear my name,” I am struck with envy that I don’t already have the lyrics memorized to scream along to. Catchy enough for the radio, singable enough for the shower—I’ll be brave and say it: this song simply works. 

Don’t Call Tonight

We have left the Eras Tour and have arrived back in the 80s for a slightly disappointing track. While the filtered vocal over the spoken bridge is iconic, the rest of the song pales in comparison to the rest of the record. I will admit that this song might be a grower over the next couple of listens. For now, this is a song you might not skip, but I won’t feel inclined to put it on. 

Shadow of a Man

Do you hear that? Is that a-? Is that Michael Jackson’s “He He” coming from a distance? No silly, that’s just Gaga’s “Shadow of a Man.” With the slinky bass and classic drum kit, this song feels fit for Jackson’s “Thriller” era mixed with the perfect amount of modern electronic flourishes. Lyrically, Gaga explores the way she has dealt with having a career in a heavily male-dominated field. “​​I mean, that song is like, so much a response to my career, you know, and what it always felt like to be the only girl in the room a lot of the time, and to always be like, standing in the shadow of a man because there were so many around me that I learned how to dance in that shadow,” she told Zane Lowe. In the pop perfection that is the chorus she sings, “I don’t wanna fade into the darkness tonight / Show me the light / I don’t wanna be the one to fall on the knife / I’m ‘bout to come alive.” The velocity with which she sings those lines and the wailing guitar crashing in…oh yeah, she’s taking it.

The Beast 

Gaga slows the tempo with this sensual, velvety track. If it were released ten years ago, this song would have been an obvious choice for the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack with its bass that comes baring down as Gaga almost growls, “Turn on the music, turn off the lights / I wanna feel the beast inside.” If I do not see an onslaught of thirst trap edits of fictional characters to this song I will actually lose my mind. 

Blade of Grass

In the record’s most touching track, Gaga pays tribute to the heartwarming love she has found with her fiancé Michael Polansky. The song was inspired by a moment that Gaga described in a press conference saying, “Long before he did propose, when we were in the backyard, he said: ‘If I propose to you one day, what am I supposed to do?’ and I said: ‘You can just get a blade of grass from the backyard and wrap it around my finger.’” The song is as sickeningly sweet as that story and, while it by no means reinvents the power ballad genre, it is beautiful nonetheless. A cinematic final chorus key change will always bring a tear to my eye and Gaga did not disappoint with this one. 

Die With a Smile

When it was originally announced that this song would be included on this album I was doubtful that it could ever fit with songs like “Abracadabra” and “Disease.” To my complete surprise, this song manages to fit better with the rest of the record than either of the two singles. A song we all know and love, its placement at the end of the album allows it to feel like a post-credits song following the high-energy film that the record guided us through. The sweet lyrics follow “Blade of Grass” almost perfectly and the live instrumentation returns us to the retro sound Gaga has taken on. My apologies “Die With a Smile,” I am sorry I ever doubted you queen.

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