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Lady Gaga: Mayhem review – a wholesale rewind to core career values


It’s back to the dancefloor as the US superstar doubles down on what she does best – albeit with one eye on Madonna, Charli xcx, Taylor Swift and more…

Pop stars spend their careers impaled on the horns of a perennial dilemma: whether to reinvent themselves and show range, or stick to core value variations. But other spectres hover over this banquet: Madonna, most obviously, but also Charli xcx – who has been channelling authentic outsider club-pop for the decade Gaga has been pursuing jazz and acting – plus Chappell Roan, self-made convenor of the queer party people. Most unexpectedly of all, it’s hard to tell whether the Taylor Swift-alike How Bad Do U Want Me is intended as homage or satire, but it sits a touch oddly on a record that purports to know who the real Gaga is.

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