Perfect celebrity : the ghost of a betrayed album

[CARL GRIMES EXPERT 339]

1 hour ago, REALITY said:

some of y'all are upset that you didn't get your exclusively industrial/rock/grunge album that you desperately wanted

sometimes i do still want it, because it's the sound i grew up listening to thanks to having a mall goth mother, but mayhem as it is makes me just as happy.  i get that industrial in certain songs and i'm content with it.  maybe someday she'll do a full industrial album, but until then, i'm more than happy with mayhem

[Edonis 28,926]

no hate to OP, but so much of what is in the original post is wrong and it's honestly crazy because most of us active in the online facets of this fandom were here as the album was being crafted in real time 

 

I can literally go in my post history for pre-LG7 when everyone was pointing out that Gaga was working with Andrew Watt (thanks @monketsharona who did a lot of that digging and more) because of the studio pictures that heavily teased Prince and how I was personally freaking out (in a good way) that she was making funk inspired music a la Batman 89. And that was late 2023 going into early 2024. We actually saw in real-time over the next 6 months or so how the album evolved and, if anything, Perfect Celebrity (which is my favorite song on the album) didn't come until MUCH later in the process when she posted that typewriter picture with the crossed-out words. There is zero truth in saying that PC was the original concept and that changed because of interference.

 

In terms of album aesthetics, that's completely subjective. Personally, I think they fit. Disease, Abra, GoE, PC, VIY, Killah, ZB, DCT, SOM, The Beast, BOG, and lowkey DWAS all fit that 80s goth feel and that's 12 out of 14 standard tracks. Sure we didn't get a grimdark, industrial, EBM-influenced pop album, but we did get a career-best record of electronic pop music that will actually stand the test of time. For that alone, it's worth celebrating. 

[LOVEDRUG 10,227]

I do agree very slightly. Some of my all-time favourite Gaga songs are on this project (Disease, Abracadabra, Perfect Celebrity, Vanish Into You, LoveDrug, Blade of Grass, Can't Stop The High) and I love most of the others (Garden of Eden, Killah, Don't Call Tonight, The Beast, Kill for Love) with the majority of the remaining tracks even then being ones I like *a lot* (Zombieboy, Shadow of a Man).

However, I've been really struggling to figure out my thoughts on the album. On paper it should be my second or third favourite Gaga album, especially with that awesome gothic aesthetic. But at the same time, I've been really struggling to see the vision. It just feels so sonically and thematically disparate, I still haven't seen anyone being able to name a theme or descriptor that applies to the whole project other than chaos or mayhem, which feels like a cop-out.

I don't think she threw out some mysterious other album in order to make this one, she just wanted to experiment more with a range of sounds so the album didn't sound too homogenous. Something which I think she did to the opposite extreme, to the album's detriment.

I really love it as a collection of songs, but I don't love it as an album.

[Juanne 670]

Let's face it, MAJORITY of us (at least in GGD) before the album release thought it was gonna be techno, heavy, dark, industrial, pots and pans, rock album. Since Disease, since Paris snippets, since the visuals came through, since Abra, since title leaked and then font reveal ("Mayhem", come on now, even on a sunny day with that font that's still screams metal/dark + LⱯDY GⱯGⱯ ? that's demonic) it made sense to expect that.

At most, some are expected few glam sprinkles ala Bowie/Prince, but never disco, 80's, dance album. The argument about justifying it with goth visuals in the 80's, that visual implication worked for that time which is a few decades ago, and IMO that argument is just cope mechanism.

But, I'm not hating anyone on each sides, I totally see and understand both sides and I'm not unhappy with the album we got, in fact I see the vision and grateful that we got VANISH INTO YOU/ZOMBOBOI/BLADE OF GRASS/PURRFECT CELEB/CANT STOP THE HIGH which are for me miles better than what we got in Chromatica.

This album scratches a lot of different itches and I'm happy for that. Casual fans, "old Gaga" fans, die hard fans, Swiftie, the GP, old, young, kids, Tiktok, viral, left, right. All can consume Mayhem, truly ARTPOP.

[Gagaism 10,821]

I’m not sure about any of that or maybe sure about some of that or maybe or maybe and then maybe… anyways

fact is if she decides to come up with a whole rock/punk album full of PF kinda sounds at some point I’m not gonna feel bad, like, AT ALL. 

[ActualPatient 1,393]

so these happy mistakes... if this were true... ended up giving gaga's most critically acclaimed album in over a decade? 

[artdoll 45,747]

8 hours ago, Nagini said:

I do find it a bit odd that Happy Mistake isn't on Mayhem since it directly talks about broken mirrors etc. Maybe too on the nose for Gaga? I would've loved that track in place of The Beast or BoG.

Actually, I find that Happy Mistake fits perfectly between Blade of Grass & DWAS. Lyrically and sonically. It definitely could've fit on Mayhem for sure!

[Starmie25 16,657]

5 hours ago, Emvee said:

****ing love Disease, Perfect Celebrity and CSTH, but it seems like that genre is getting paid the most dust by even the fans. 

I picked up on this too.

They all bark, no bite (some fans) 

Her core fanbase yearns for like "DITD" sounding songs yet it's the least streamed song from that album. 

Edited 15 hours ago by Starmie25

[lastpopicon 12,920]

56 minutes ago, ActualPatient said:

so these happy mistakes... if this were true... ended up giving gaga's most critically acclaimed album in over a decade? 

her most acclaimed album ever actually! 

[jillianwoj 109]

6 hours ago, Doroteyo said:

A lot of artists never get to put out their art b/c they don't understand the journey from perfect idea to imperfect realizaiton.

wow. this gave me chills. you just described my (lack of) artistic process so well. my ocpd/perfectionism is often the thief of trying new things, leaving room for failure in the interest of growth/learning a lesson, even profitability in my small wfh business.  i needed to read this. i vow to bust out my art supplies this week and just make something--anything. thank you for the inspiration and for holding up the mirror in such candid words. it may seem small, but you impacted my life for the better, and for this i am grateful and owe you one. 🩷

[TylerMedeiros 814]

Yawn

[ALGAYDO 31,110]

She literally said that VIY was the first song made for the album and that PC was made late in the process, so how the FÚCK would it make sense that she wanted an electro-grunge album but then Michael “made” her change it to more funky/pop? lol just say you didn’t like the album and move on instead of making stuff up to justify your disappointment 

[Dramatica 13,634]

We are gonna make this era as chaotic as ARTPOP aren't we

 

[Magneto 13,343]

Hmmm, interesting take. I don't necessarily agree, but I can see where you're coming from. I interpreted her comment with Zane as: WHEN she made PC she pondered changing the course of the album. Suggesting she already made songs etc, so it doesn't have to be it's core concept from the beginning. 

In that same remark I got the feeling she was try to say that she then pondered dressing the whole album in a dark sound, but then decided not to cause maybe that's what she had done before. Like how Chromatica was a deep and vulnerable album, but then Bloodpop polished all the edges of.

[Bronco 8,270]

5 hours ago, LOVEDRUG said:

But at the same time, I've been really struggling to see the vision. It just feels so sonically and thematically disparate, I still haven't seen anyone being able to name a theme or descriptor that applies to the whole project other than chaos or mayhem, which feels like a cop-out.

Love.

Every single song, in some format is about relationships &/or love. 

Her relationship with herself as Gaga & her relationship with Fame.

Her relationship with Michael.

Some speculation about Vanish Into You being about Tony, but no matter what its a love song. 

Zombieboy is her friend Rick Genest.

Every single song is talking about love, sex, relationships and heartbreak. And if Mayhem & Chaos aren't perfect descriptors for how we all experience those things, I don't know what is.