Mayhem Should Have Been 14 songs like Abracadabra

[qoqo 3,773]

Any sentence beginning with “mayhem should have been” is ridiculous lol its a perfect 10/10 album

[holy scheisse 22,308]

I disagree my only critique of the album is how abruptly it all slows down with the last 3 tracks feels very anticlimactic 

[Lord Mayhem 1,162]

I think the sound should have been what Gaga originally wanted...more grunge dark pop like Perfect Celebrity, Disease, Abracadabra, etc...

Unfortunately we got a lot of 80s disco funk for a HUGE section of the album 

 

[Ladle Ghoulash 26,730]

Ngl I would’ve happily taken an album’s worth of material in almost any of the sounds she explored here, but I enjoy the eclecticism on the record overall

[Ladle Ghoulash 26,730]

Also how are people still claiming that the industrial/grunge sound was the original sound of the record? She literally said she wrote Perfect Celebrity later on (first song she wrote was VIY) and contemplated reworking some of the funkier cuts into the industrial electro style. 

[REALITY 77,406]

My hot take is that I enjoy the middle/end of the album more than I do the first part...

I love Disease, Abra, GOE, and PC, but I enjoy many of the disco/funk tracks more. I'm very happy with the direction MAYHEM went in

[Ladle Ghoulash 26,730]

2 minutes ago, REALITY said:

My hot take is that I enjoy the middle/end of the album more than I do the first part...

I love Disease, Abra, GOE, and PC, but I enjoy many of the disco/funk tracks more. I'm very happy with the direction MAYHEM went in

Yeah, I get this tbh. I love the beginning and enjoy listening to it all the way thru, but have found myself listening from VIY -> TB a lot recently. 

[Bobina 2,923]

49 minutes ago, holy scheisse said:

I disagree my only critique of the album is how abruptly it all slows down with the last 3 tracks feels very anticlimactic 

This was my only criticism of the album. With the addition of TDD, CSTH, and KFL, they feel like good padding that makes this almost a non issue for me now. 

[Linus Gaga 8,275]

Whenever I see these threads, I do understand and agree a bit, but I always remind myself:

She said when we think we know who Lady Gaga is, we don't. 

And I will always trust her vision if this is what she wants to show us. Same as unreleased materials. I bet we love it anyway, but she also said there is a reasons it is not on the album. 

 

[LOVEDRUG 10,786]

1 hour ago, artdoll said:

I think most people heard Disease and Abracadabra and thought that Mayhem would sound like those two songs. People heard that it was "Gaga's return to her dark-pop roots", immediately thought of TFM & BTW and ran with it. They got disappointed it wasn't exactly that and got a bit salty. But that happens with each Gaga drop, doesn't it?

Of course this doesn't apply to everyone, but that's my takeaway from the fans who voiced how they felt let down. Personally, I think it's perfect as is and the inclusion of CSTH, TDD & KFL made Mayhem sound even more whole, if that makes sense.

I honestly think that was, in part, the fault of Gaga/her team. I love Mayhem, it's my third-favourite Gaga album currently, but I don't think fans can be blamed for expecting a whole dark-pop album when the first (and only) two singles were Disease and Abracadabra. Had she also released a more-disco/funk track, perhaps as a promotional single, prior to release, I think it would've helped to moderate expectations when it comes to genre.

[artdoll 46,569]

10 minutes ago, LOVEDRUG said:

I honestly think that was, in part, the fault of Gaga/her team. I love Mayhem, it's my third-favourite Gaga album currently, but I don't think fans can be blamed for expecting a whole dark-pop album when the first (and only) two singles were Disease and Abracadabra. Had she also released a more-disco/funk track, perhaps as a promotional single, prior to release, I think it would've helped to moderate expectations when it comes to genre.

That's fair. I think that's also in part as to why Gaga kept continuously saying "after the first few tracks you think you know what you're getting into, and then you don't." I probably got the quote wrong

There was an effort but I guess it just didn't really translate well or reach the audience well

[zzbrandon 99]

It should be called perfect celebrity like it originally planned

[Ladle Ghoulash 26,730]

22 minutes ago, zzbrandon said:

It should be called perfect celebrity like it originally planned

So that was never the original plan. She had written a lot of music (including VIY, which was the first song she wrote for the record) and eventually stumbled on the sound of PC later in the process, contemplated naming the album and reworking all of the material she’d already written to fit into the electrogrunge motif of PC, and decided against it. If anything, what we got is closer to the original vision for the record and the grunge version of would’ve been an attempt to superimpose a single style on a collection of songs she’d already written. 

[Tranquil 88]

Wait, we're still talking about this? Idk why fans are confused. Every album, aside from Chromatica, has always included multiple musical genres??

[Starmie25 19,174]

3 hours ago, TheFrenchGuy said:

If the whole thing was dark industrial electronic pop, y'all would have complained that it's repetitive. We have 3 disco funk songs (Zombieboy, TDD and Kill for Love) and that's too much for some people. The first 4-5 songs stand out because there is contrast on the album

One thing I have noticed is even after 17 years running they still expect this "huge, commercial success" for Gaga which is wild.

had the album remained more hard/industrial sounding like "Disease" and "Notorious Being" then I feel it would have turned off many of her umm, "bling not the song" type of fans.

That's just my opinion. I could be wrong. 

Edited 20 hours ago by Starmie25