Even the most devoted Lady Gaga fan would admit the past decade has been frustratingly unfruitful for a pop star who once shook the genre to its core. But when Gaga dropped her new single ‘Abracadabra’ at the Grammy’s last week from the forthcoming album Mayhem (7 March), her fans (aka Little Monsters) rejoiced.
“When the world needed her most, she returned,” one commented on the accompanying music video, which has racked up over 15 million views. By most accounts, Gaga is returning to her dark-pop, club-filling, vaguely-Catholic, super-camp roots.
She’s even reverted to including “Gaga” in the nonsensical lyrics (“Abracadabra, morta-oo-gaga”).
Think ‘Bad Romance’ (2009); ‘Alejandro’ (2010); and ‘Judas’ (2011). Sadly, the other two singles released so far – ‘Disease’ and the Grammy-winning ballad ‘Die With a Smile’, featuring Bruno Mars – don’t quite reach the new bar she’s set.
Her monsters will be praying the rest of Mayhem lives up to its name.
