On Popcast, a discussion about the singer’s latest “return to form” album and whether her aggressive promotion of it adds up to anything new.

As Lady Gaga’s Mayhem prepares to debut, Harlequin surprisingly returns to the Jazz Albums chart, while her classics remain strong on Billboard rankings.

“Mayhem” puts the lie to that idea: Brash, squirmy, full of detailed grooves and expertly crafted hooks, it’s a winning reclamation of her trademark sound — her best since 2011’s “Born This Way” and precisely the album you’d want her to drop before headlining Coachella, as Lady Gaga will do next month.

She dances on the line between clever self-referentiality and less inspired rehashing on her new LP, committing to the over-the-top excess that first made her a star.

It is as complete a statement about who Lady Gaga is in 2025 as anything could be. MAYHEM repositions Gaga as a dance diva heavily indebted to the icons who came before her to an audience as likely to know her for wearing a meat dress as for performing with Tony Bennett.

Lady Gaga's Mayhem has stormed to No. 1 on the U.K.'s Official Albums Chart to give the pop icon her fifth chart-topper (March 14). The new LP now joins The Fame (2009), Born This Way (2010), Artpop (2013) and Chromatica (2020) as No.

Lady Gaga's new album "Mayhem" is a beautifully chaotic collage of songs sonically inspired by David Bowie, Prince, Nine Inch Nails and more to create a more mature version of her debut studio album entitled "The Fame" or "The Fame Monster" deluxe.

It comes after Gaga hinted at impending Australian tour dates, which would mark her first in the country since 2014.