During her interview with The New York Times published on March 8, the "Rain on Me" singer revealed that her fiancé Michael Polansky talked her out of making Mayhem a "grunge" album.

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 has returned. The pop star's latest album is “Mayhem.” In her review, Associated Press Music Writer Maria Sherman writes that Gaga has reclaimed her early dark-pop sensibilities and ushered them into her 2025 reality.