Is Mayhem a direct response to Chromatica?

[Nycboy 988]

I feel like the opening lines of Mayhem (Disease) are a direct response to Chromatica, specifically the song 911. 
 

There are no more tears to cry

Gaga describes crying a lot on Chromatica (think: ROM being about tears, 911 “I can’t see me cry”, or her not having Fun Tonight). But now there are no more tears to cry, so she’s turning a new leaf. Maybe she cried too much and has no tears left.

I heard you beggin' for life

Gaga was in a low place psychologically in Chromatica. We all heard her begging for life on that album (“I’d rather be dry but at least I’m alive”)

Runnin' out of medicine

In 911, she needed to pop her antipsychotics, but now we find that she ran out of them. A turn of events!

You're worse than you've ever been

Because of her lack of medication, she’s in an even worse place mentally, overcome with darkness, and needs to find a new way out. And so this begins her Mayhem journey. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Nycboy

[MadArchitect 660]

SCREAMINN FOR ME BABYYY

[Starmie25 15,333]

Chromatica = escapism 

Mayhem = realism-ish

[Red 95,692]

I feel like Chromatica is like the struggles with mental health in the beginning of therapy and Mayhem is the struggles with mental health of someone who learnt a lot in therapy already. 

[Ladle Ghoulash 17,174]

12 minutes ago, Starmie25 said:

Chromatica = escapism 

Mayhem = realism-ish

Idk, I feel that MAYHEM’s lyrics are far more fantastical-than Chromatica’s. My take is that her career arc after ARTPOP was about grounding herself, at first by dialing back the escapist tendencies (Joanne, ASIB) and then by gradually trying to reintegrate them from a more grounded POV (Chromatica, MAYHEM). 

Edited 4 hours ago by Ladle Ghoulash

[Bronco 7,589]

I think its less a response to Chromatica and more a case of it being the album to fit the Chromatica Ball tour concept we actually saw live. 

We know TCB is what kind of renewed Gaga's love for performing and pop music as GAGA. And Mayhem has been born from the creativity that tour reenergised.

If Chromatica was the "lowest" point of her Gaga mentality as shown by some of her descriptions of the album process and the tour being a museum of brutality opening with her in a cage-esque outfit for her biggest hit. 

Then Mayhem is her as she is at the end of the show. Freed from the brutality that was weighing her down.

 

[CautiousLurker 17,734]

Chromatica is about how she was going into space, and Mayhem is about how actually she's not going 

[Mars 2,004]

I agree, there's a very deep sense on Chromatica of someone really struggling mentally, but what I love is that sonically its quite uplifting and buoyant.

Seems clear to me that even though LG7 is titled Mayhem and is sonically much darker and abrasive, she's so much more happier and has fire in her eyes again and is on the other side of all those struggles.  

 

[Togekiss 2,395]

35 minutes ago, MadArchitect said:

SCREAMINN FOR ME BABYYY

I’m tired of screaming’ at the top of my lungs… ok I’m a little shook Mary

[The Ew from Judas 891]

Part of what I think makes mayhem so interesting is that it is somewhat a return to form for her earlier dark pop, while also feeling like a natural progression and next step. It feels like this fits in perfectly after chromatica-after an album about finding happiness while struggling with your own mental health, we have an album where she shows she’s found happiness by embracing chaos and darkness 

[Jill 28,598]

1 hour ago, Nycboy said:

There are no more tears to cry

This is actually a reference to Ariana's hit song

[eifulien 2,529]

Her albums and eras are very interesting to look at, cause there's always this duality to them: how it's presented to the audience and what the material actually stems from. I think you've hit the nail on the head cathcing these references in Disease to ROM, 911, etc. and she usually drops a few key words on her albums referencing past songs. So yeah, I think there may be more references in MAYHEM.

However, conceptually they don't seem to be related. As others have pointed, Chromatica was presented as this alternative reality/world with simple messages, colours, etc. Now having gone through the era and the additional info she provided we know Chromatica was born out of her struggle to continue as a pop star. I remember feeling bummed at the end of my first listen of the album and it's a feeling that has stayed with me to this day and I can't really enjoy a lot of the album due to this. Her decision or need to turn this largely ballad, sad album into a collection of polished electropop songs was her call to us, her fans, to gather round and dance with her through her pain, struggle and trauma.

MAYHEM, on the other hand, seems so far to be Gaga being excited about being, well, Gaga. It seems to be that with what we have heard til now, she's back to the slightly non-sensical, quirky, ambiguous and abstract lyricism combined with those hard thumping beats, abrasive sounds and theatrical vocals she's known for in her earlier career. That's why everyone is calling the singles back to form. It really feels like she's come back to us, LMs, and is ready to dance with us FOR us.

TL,DR: Chromatica was a call for help, it was born out of her feeling disconnected to her own career. LMs showed up big time for her, especially during TCB and she reconnected to her drive and passion.

MAYHEM is promising to be her back on an old trajectory in her career. A trajectory that was broken during ARTPOP and ever since she's been reluctant to go back to.

The way I see it for now is that ARTPOP, Joanne and Chromatica will be looked at as the albums that needed to happen as a step down from TF-TFM-BTW for her to address her ghosts and traumas and with MAYHEM she's back but with a healthier mind and perspective on her artistry and career. (don't get offended about this division, AP is still my fave album and I love Joanne but all 3 records are definitely a notch down from her potential on the first album).

[RochestrMonstr 2,485]

Either way I think Mayhem is going to be much better than Chromatica. And more like her oldest albums and just far more “Gaga” than Chromatica was.