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.

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.