Albums with a misleading title/image/sound

[Ladle Ghoulash 52,875]

11 minutes ago, Ziggy said:

Ns to her but I think this is why she called it Mayhem (to have plausible cover lol). Methinks **** was kinda a mess of indecisions until they clicked with the vision for Abracadabra 

And, imo, she’s at her best when she’s following her muse and I think the greatest weakness of the AP era is the attempt to shoehorn that inclination into some kind of pseudo high brow concept instead of just saying: “I can be whatever I want to be and I reserve the right to reinvent into whatever I want, whenever I want” (which is what I feel she arrived at with MAYHEM)

[DESTROY UR DISEASE 19,754]

On 7/29/2026 at 3:53 AM, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

Joanne but uptempo 

I-

[elegidadedios 4,844]

9 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

And, imo, she’s at her best when she’s following her muse and I think the greatest weakness of the AP era is the attempt to shoehorn that inclination into some kind of pseudo high brow concept instead of just saying: “I can be whatever I want to be and I reserve the right to reinvent into whatever I want, whenever I want” (which is what I feel she arrived at with MAYHEM)

God you're so intelligent it amazes me

[Savage 1,812]

On 7/29/2026 at 1:56 AM, Oriane said:

Also Harlequin wasn't anything we expected, from The Joker and the cover.

I genuinely feel like the Harlequin album cover so accurately portrays the music as well as Gotham from the comics but in real life. I love it! 

[imogen2133 565]

3 hours ago, Ziggy said:

Ns to her but I think this is why she called it Mayhem (to have plausible cover lol). Methinks **** was kinda a mess of indecisions until they clicked with the vision for Abracadabra 

Well wasn't the album originally supposed to be called Perfect Celebrity at first anyway? This makes it seem like calling it Mayhem was a last minute title and she was making it up as she went along lmao. 

[nATAH 56,993]

6 minutes ago, imogen2133 said:

Well wasn't the album originally supposed to be called Perfect Celebrity at first anyway? This makes it seem like calling it Mayhem was a last minute title and she was making it up as she went along lmao. 

no, she made PC late in the album's creation and wanted to scrap everything for a new album and name it PC

[imogen2133 565]

2 hours ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

And, imo, she’s at her best when she’s following her muse and I think the greatest weakness of the AP era is the attempt to shoehorn that inclination into some kind of pseudo high brow concept instead of just saying: “I can be whatever I want to be and I reserve the right to reinvent into whatever I want, whenever I want” (which is what I feel she arrived at with MAYHEM)

Well the  fashion during the era showed different sides to her and was not as coherent as previous eras but I think that was intentional and fit the whole "I am every artist" thing she was going for during the era. As for the music I think you can hear her influences on that as well and Gaga did say that it was about returning to the kid of music she loved and that kind of club kid culture. Also I don't see how the idea of "being whatever I want to be whenever I want" is really explored on the album or era I mean the album sonically is in 3 parts first dark pop then disco/funk and then ends off with ballads ad as for fashion I would say it was quite cohesive overall as well.  

[imogen2133 565]

1 minute ago, nATAH said:

no, she made PC late in the album's creation and wanted to scrap everything for a new album and name it PC

Oh... well ok then.

[imogen2133 565]

3 hours ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I’d say she fine tuned what she attempted to do with the messaging surrounding ARTPOP on MAYHEM. The MAYHEM era, as meta commentary, owns the idea that she doesn’t have to be solely one thing as its central ethos. And even though that was probably the strongest and most coherent aspect of the ARTPOP era and messenging, she endlessly diluted that message by cramming in a bunch of secondary cultural critique (“reverse Warholian expedition,” “intersection of ART and POP culture” etc.). that didn’t do much to reinforce the album’s most salient theme. 

I don't really see how the message of her not solely having to be one thing is really represented through the album or era besides her showing her inner chaos I guess but maybe there is something I am not understanding. As for ARTPOP I would not even agree there, she showed different sides of herself through the fashion and performances yes but the strongest elements of the album to me are the idea that it is a pure expression of her pain at the time and showing her musical personal journey at that time as well. 

[Oriane 22,768]

3 hours ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

And, imo, she’s at her best when she’s following her muse and I think the greatest weakness of the AP era is the attempt to shoehorn that inclination into some kind of pseudo high brow concept instead of just saying: “I can be whatever I want to be and I reserve the right to reinvent into whatever I want, whenever I want” (which is what I feel she arrived at with MAYHEM)

Well, she did say that too during the ARTPOP era, ARTPOP meant a lot of things indeed

[Ladle Ghoulash 52,875]

39 minutes ago, Oriane said:

Well, she did say that too during the ARTPOP era, ARTPOP meant a lot of things indeed

She did, but per my previous comment, she often diluted it with a lot of convoluted, ad hoc art/cultural philosophy + critique, which is why I praised MAYHEM’s streamlined approach to that message 

Edited 21 hours ago by Ladle Ghoulash

[StrawberryBlond 15,564]

On 7/29/2026 at 7:51 PM, princedeeblebleble said:

thou the latest one I don't get why she's in a chatolic school again at basically 30.

To be fair, AC/DC were grown men dressed up as schoolboys in shorts, it's just a bit of a gimmick. The reference to Catholic school is simply a popular motif in rock music for obvious reasons and I think that cover refers to what she was taught in childhood rather than being her current self.

[Ziggy 14,040]

3 hours ago, imogen2133 said:

Well wasn't the album originally supposed to be called Perfect Celebrity at first anyway? This makes it seem like calling it Mayhem was a last minute title and she was making it up as she went along lmao. 

Could be! I didn’t take that too much to heart bc she says stuff like that all the time but I do think after she changed direction from the grunge angle she took a hard look at all the music she’d made and went from there thinking of a new concept to organize the album by lmfao and then arrived at “well **** this doesn’t make much sense unless you call it nonsense or…wait…mayhem…yes…mayhem.”

[HotLikeMexico 6,554]

MAYHEM and the people saying “well… it’s called “MAYHEM you dumb bitch” are reaching. The photoshoot, the aesthetic doesn’t match what the album ended up sounding like. 

Edited 18 hours ago by HotLikeMexico

[imogen2133 565]

47 minutes ago, HotLikeMexico said:

MAYHEM and the people saying “well… it’s called “MAYHEM you dumb bitch” are reaching. The photoshoot, the aesthetic doesn’t match what the album ended up sounding like. 

I predicted people would do this and use it to defend how incohesive the album is when the album was announced so I am not really surprised.