The idea of big fun suggests the existence of little fun, and Lady Gaga is now the kind of pop star who can do both. “Just Dance.” Meat dress. Being carried down the red carpet at the Grammys inside an egg.

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.