Lady Gaga Returns to Her Dance Floor Roots — and Has a Blast — on ‘Mayhem’: Album Review

variety.com:

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer While it’s a welcome and always entertaining aspect of her fashion, Lady Gaga has historically tended to overdress her art.

Anyone who’s followed the arc of her career knows that she frames every era around a concept, maximizing — sometimes over-maximizing — whatever significance she gives it.

Often, it works, like with the political flag-waving of “Born This Way,” or the journey towards healing on “Chromatica.” But it’s when she gets in her own way that her vision falters — last year’s “Harlequin,” for instance, was a stunning lesson in giving into impulse; “Artpop” assigned meaning where there wasn’t much of it.

Gaga didn’t really mythologize “Mayhem,” her seventh album, or its music, in the lead-up to its release. “I actually made the effort [while] making ‘Mayhem’ to not do that and not try to give my music an outfit,” she told Apple Music.