For one thing, it’s already technically a Grammy winner, with “Die With A Smile” earning her Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Bruno Mars last February. That’s already one box ticked, as far as accolades are concerned, but that wasn’t the only way Lady Gaga stole the show that night. Yes, there was that “California Dreamin’” cover with her duet partner.

But anticipation flared up even more, when she dropped Abracadabra’s music video in a non-televised segment presented by Mastercard. To many, the video felt like a throwback to her Fame Monster era, her glory days, as some would vouch. It was like she’d take the stage once again, encased in an egg or dressed in meat. But, then again, she’s over that phase – for now, at least. Besides, we all know she’s bound to deliver MAYHEM one way or the other. This time, she’s being literal. 

This is her first studio album since 2020’s Chromatica, not counting collaborations like her second with the late Tony Bennett, Love for Sale (2021) or soundtrack work like in Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Much as her renditions in Harlequin (2024) were decent, some would rather forget that Joker: Folie à Deux ever even happened. She had to come home to her pop roots. That’s probably the low-key reason she released the carrier single, Disease, later that same month. 

Some might have wondered: why was she teasing us with a dark pop alt-ballad about love curing any metaphorical disease? Was she done with the dance floor? Well, of course not. Obviously, Abracadabra immediately refuted that theory with its Bad Romance-meets-Born This Way energy. Five years and a global pandemic later, the party has finally recommenced. 

The album requires no over-analysis, as far as themes go. Yes, it’s still a by-product of longing and introspection – most creative outputs are. But that’s all summed up in what Gaga describes, plainly, as a celebration of music through different genres and even eras. The inspirations are evident, with the styles shifting from track to track, offering an irresistibly disjointed club experience. Cynics might call parts of it derivative, but it’s Gaga simply adding her own spin on tried-and-tested formulas. That in itself already makes it fun. 

With the one-two punch of singles serving as openers, the energy only picks up thereafter. The electro-ditty “Garden of Eden” follows suit, sounding like a noughties club throwback. Again, it’s like straight out of Gaga’s disco stick-wielding phase. Same goes for “Perfect Celebrity” and the Eurovision-channeling “Vanish Into You”, which sound like they could have been made in the early 2010s.

Then there’s “Killah”, which bills the album’s co-producer, Gesaffelstein as collaborator. That one sounds like St. Vincent taking charge of the DJ booth at a rave party. 

The time machine takes us further back in time by the second half, with “Zombieboy” starting like an interpolation of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl”. But, really, the 00:09 mark onwards reveals touches of the ‘80s. It sets the tone for the next few cuts, “LoveDrug”, the synth-driven “How Bad Do U Want Me”, which contains hints of Yazoo’s “Only You”, and the Roxette-sounding “Don’t Call Tonight”. 

Gaga returns to the present by the final act. The remainder may sound like filler, but take it as the album’s equivalent of taking a break from a dance floor, either for a drink or for a breather. “Shadow of the Man” is the last dance cut. Then, everything noticeably winds down with “The Beast” and the intimate “Blade of Grass”. It’s not exactly an abrupt shift, as it builds us up for the soulfully epic finale. And, in fact, it saves the most seamless transition for last. 

The mega-hit duet, “Die With a Smile” closes the album and it also accounts for Bruno Mars being one of the co-producers. While it sonically seems like a thematic outlier, it’s actually, the perfect conclusion. The preceding tracks dealt with intrigue, flirting, and, at most, yearning for a lover. This chart-topper, however, punctuates everything with an intense profession of undying love and allegiance, the realization that one cannot live without the other. The refrain nails it with “I’d wanna hold you just for a while and die with a smile/If the world was ending, I’d wanna be next to you”. It’s the appropriate happy ending for a beautiful mess of a tale. 

Though, it’s not because the preceding hour puts us through hell. On the contrary, it’s worth every minute of the dizzying ride, with each cut serving a different experience and you can only anticipate where you’ll be taken next. It really is mayhem, but of the invigorating kind.