Albums with a misleading title/image/sound

[HotLikeMexico 6,743]

7 minutes ago, elegidadedios said:

You are wrong but I don't blame you cause you're stuck with Alejandro in 2026. You will get it in 2040

But what does Alejandro have to do with this tho. 

[elegidadedios 5,102]

1 minute ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

But that’s just me, ig.

NO sis it's the reality get these bitches!!!

[elegidadedios 5,102]

1 minute ago, HotLikeMexico said:

But what does Alejandro have to do with this tho. 

Well, it has everything to do with this if you think about it. Give it a second thought ❤️

[Ultimecia 6,885]

15 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I just don’t really see MAYHEM as being any more shallow than the bulk of her discography, tbh. Her music, on her face, has never been especially deep and I think most the depth folks read into it tends to come from the way she adds layers thru stage performance, MVs, and her own supplemental interpretations. But that’s just me, ig.

I think we've discussed that exact point before, and I don't disagree that most of Gaga's substance lies in her performances and visuals.

Here's my issue with MAYHEM's lyrics, there is for example a huge difference between how the word "monster" is used in the song of the same name, compared to how it is used in "Kill For Love."

One has weight and symbolism, the other is void of any substance to me.

She's throwing around the words werewolf, zombie, ghost etc. in a "Monster Mash" way, and not in a "dark poetry" way.

[Ladle Ghoulash 55,360]

2 minutes ago, Ultimecia said:

"dark poetry" way.

Yeah, I disagree with the “dark poetry” framing, but I ultimately like the album, so I don’t hold that specific incongruity against her. She’s inappropriately used the term “poetry” to discuss her lyrics throughout her career so I always take that with a massive grain of salt lol

[imogen2133 697]

2 hours ago, Ultimecia said:

I think we've discussed that exact point before, and I don't disagree that most of Gaga's substance lies in her performances and visuals.

Here's my issue with MAYHEM's lyrics, there is for example a huge difference between how the word "monster" is used in the song of the same name, compared to how it is used in "Kill For Love."

One has weight and symbolism, the other is void of any substance to me.

She's throwing around the words werewolf, zombie, ghost etc. in a "Monster Mash" way, and not in a "dark poetry" way.

Don't ever compare Mayhem to the masterpiece that is The Monster Mash

[imogen2133 697]

3 hours ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I just don’t really see MAYHEM as being any more shallow than the bulk of her discography, tbh. Her music, on her face, has never been especially deep and I think most the depth folks read into it tends to come from the way she adds layers thru stage performance, MVs, and her own supplemental interpretations. But that’s just me, ig.

Ok a few things first of all I don't see the point of saying "but all of her albums are shallow though" because 1. That doesn't make Mayhem any better and doesn't access the quality of it on it's own and 2. I don't think that is true. Gaga has plenty of songs with deeper meanings especially on her earlier albums (Speechless, Dope, Bloody Mary, Government Hooker, Grigio Girls, The Fame, I Like It Rough, SHICD, Marry The Night, Replay, Swine, DWUW) but I think Gaga's best strengths as a songwriter have always been in her storytelling and her ability to flesh out simplistic ideas using metaphors or complex lyrics like Bad Romance, Judas, Poker Face, Applause, Paparazzi, Just Dance, Monster and Lovegame for example all have simplistic meanings which is fine not every song has to be super deep to be good but it is the way she writes the songs and fleshes out the ideas to be more complex or unique to her that make her great. I also agree with what you have said before that she tends to fully flesh out her song ideas in her visuals or recontextualize them to have new meanings and that is great (Telephone video, Paparazzi video, Disease video etc.) but I would not use that to say that the original songs meanings are shallow.

 

Also there is nothing inherently wrong with more simplistic songs with simplistic meanings/lyrics that don't delve too far into the idea/explore much or flesh out the concept which is in many of the songs on Mayhem I just think Gaga can (and has) done better is all. Also what you have said before about the songs on Mayhem being about Gaga's fame and her personal relationship with her "Gaga self", I think it is a bit of a reach personally and is really only found explicitly on Abracadabra, SOAM, PC and The Beast. I think VIY, LD, Zombieboy, Killah, HBDUWM, DCT, KFL,BOG and DWAS are mostly just love songs or about partying and that is it. I mean Gaga has sang about these topics before on other albums and sang about topics that are typically sung about in pop like love, romance, sex, partying and drugs, she just usually has a more interesting and fleshed out way of writing about them, for example Bloody Mary (a love song) is about Mary Magdalene being both spiritually divine and also fully human and how Mary must have wept but also needed to be strong and carry on Jesus's teachings after his death and Monster which takes an idea Gaga previously explored on BR (falling in love with the bad boy) and fleshes it out more with her singing about a predatory man who has fully consumed her heart and mind and one that clearly takes advantage of her (also shows Gaga's great storytelling as well). I mean what you said about most of the songs on Mayhem actually being about Gaga's relationship with her persona is similar to Gaga saying "It wasnt love it was a perfect illusion" is about social media (which is ridiculous and requires massive reaching). Don't get me wrong there are songs that have good writing (Disease, Abra, GOE) but not many really and I would say overall it is pretty weak lyrically and doesn't fit the "gothic dreams" framing she gave either.

 

 

[HotLikeMexico 6,743]

3 hours ago, elegidadedios said:

Well, it has everything to do with this if you think about it. Give it a second thought ❤️

[Ladle Ghoulash 55,360]

17 minutes ago, imogen2133 said:

but all of her albums are shallow though

I didn’t say that. I said I don’t think MAYHEM is uniquely shallow and that you could essentially critique a lot of her other work for being in some way shallow (even if I don’t necessarily think it is). 

That being said, we’ve discussed this at length and it strikes me that you and I have fundamentally different styles of interpretation and interpretations of MAYHEM, so I’d rather leave it here that rehash the same argument again.

[KevinWright 1,744]

I have to mention Troye Sivan and Sam Smith.

Something to Give Each Other and Gloria had nothing to do with the lead singles, Rush and Unholy and ofc with their album covers. I expected some slutty gay anthems and we get some mediocre songs. 

[Ziggy 14,305]

On 7/31/2026 at 8:45 AM, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I’m saying. We can’t be retconning and acting like sexual gothic fascistic religious BDSM was somehow an “obvious” choice for the visuals for Alejandro   She’s always used the visual as a way of, not merely reflecting, but extending the meaning and context of the work. I’m not saying that means you always have to like it or that it’s above critique, but selective application of the “consistency” argument like the relationship between MAYHEM’s visuals + sound are uniquely dissonant is actually the biggest stretch, imo lol. If it doesn’t work for you here, that’s great, but a modest acknowledgement that MAYHEM isn’t exactly unique in terms of having diverging sounds and aesthetics would be nice lol

We had this exact same conversation during the BTW era, I recall. And I recall being like “well the metal glam visual is not the album’s sound but its inspiration!”

but yeah Alejandro being La isla bonita compared and then having a Weimar era German video is such a ki  and then telephone. NARY A CLUB TO BE SEEN. NO BUB TO SIP OR SPEAK OF. When she started getting more literal was when I world get turned off ala Joanne MR era. 
but yeah you’re dead on. Her visual output stood out early on specifically bc it was a means of extending the metaphor and meaning of the song so her “eras” became enormous in aesthetic scope. Mayhem is pretty consistent all things considered and the era as a result is very contained. But there was a time (TFM) when you really didn’t have a clue what she would do with a song at a given appearance. I point to the Telephone DITD McQueen performance as one such example where she *rewrote* one song and live remixed another.

[Bronco 28,138]

On 7/31/2026 at 8:08 PM, Ultimecia said:

Can you have arguments without questioning people's intelligence though? I expect more from you honestly.

I have no trouble interpreting the iconography of MAYHEM's cover, nor do I have trouble relating it to what Gaga claims the album is about.

Where we disagree is on the lyrical content. I find it as a whole to be abysmal and shallow, and thus it doesn't deliver on the premise as laid forth by the cover and Gaga's own words.

I mean I'm not sure why you think my comment about poor media literacy was about you because what you're saying isn't what I've explicitly referenced. 

You have just said that you understand the iconography of the cover and can relate it to the album. So therefore, none of my comments were about you. We disagree on whether it *works* but not what the themes were. That's not relevant to me questioning people who are explicitly saying they dont understand the intentions & iconography.

But when people aren't making very very basic links on media which isn't doing anything particularly opaque or obscure then yeah I am going to say it's a media literacy issue. Because by definition its a media literacy issue.

This all being said. You self inserting yourself into a place that isn't about you doesn't do well for arguments on literacy.  

[Ultimecia 6,885]

1 hour ago, Bronco said:

I mean I'm not sure why you think my comment about poor media literacy was about you because what you're saying isn't what I've explicitly referenced. 

You have just said that you understand the iconography of the cover and can relate it to the album. So therefore, none of my comments were about you. We disagree on whether it *works* but not what the themes were. That's not relevant to me questioning people who are explicitly saying they dont understand the intentions & iconography.

But when people aren't making very very basic links on media which isn't doing anything particularly opaque or obscure then yeah I am going to say it's a media literacy issue. Because by definition its a media literacy issue.

This all being said. You self inserting yourself into a place that isn't about you doesn't do well for arguments on literacy.  

I still stand by the fact that making a blanket statement like "Y'all are just media illiterate" is deeply anti intellectual and low.

You put everyone that disagrees with you in this thread in the same bag with that, so yes I'm bound to take it personally and feel the need to prove you otherwise: that it's possible to disagree with your opinion while having an equally informed point of view.

[Bronco 28,138]

24 minutes ago, Ultimecia said:

I still stand by the fact that making a blanket statement like "Y'all are just media illiterate" is deeply anti intellectual and low.

It's not a blanket statement when it's said in reply to someone lol

[Ultimecia 6,885]

1 hour ago, Bronco said:

It's not a blanket statement when it's said in reply to someone lol

All means one, gotcha.