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.

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.

The star singer returns with her first solo LP since 2020, and it’s full of typically irresistible hooks and her signature sense of drama.

“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.

Mayhem” is the love child of Mother Monster’s two most commercially successful albums, 2008’s “The Fame” and 2011’s “Born This Way.”

For those who have wanted the old Gaga back, her new album is a nostalgia trip that completes the journey after the 2020’s pandemic-plagued “Chromatica.”

Lady Gaga ’s MAYHEM makes a mighty debut at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart. Gaga’s sixth solo studio album – and eighth overall including her collaborations with the late Tony Bennett – earns 55,600 chart units this week, including over 36,000 physical copies, to make its showstopping entrance.

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.

On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are marveling at the high-wire act Gaga pulled off with her seventh studio album.