Lady Gaga's Mayhem has stormed to No. 1 on the U.K.'s Official Albums Chart to give the pop icon her fifth chart-topper (March 14). The new LP now joins The Fame (2009), Born This Way (2010), Artpop (2013) and Chromatica (2020) as No.

On Popcast, a discussion about the singer’s latest “return to form” album and whether her aggressive promotion of it adds up to anything new.

During her interview with The New York Times published on March 8, the "Rain on Me" singer revealed that her fiancé Michael Polansky talked her out of making Mayhem a "grunge" album.

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.

Her new album is a work of self-citation, rummaging around in Gaga’s own past for inspiration. It’s also, somehow, the freshest collection of songs she has released in years.

“Mayhem” puts the lie to that idea: Brash, squirmy, full of detailed grooves and expertly crafted hooks, it’s a winning reclamation of her trademark sound — her best since 2011’s “Born This Way” and precisely the album you’d want her to drop before headlining Coachella, as Lady Gaga will do next month.