Let the mayhem begin.

Lady Gaga has released her first major album in five years. Titled Mayhem, the album marks both a sonic departure and return for the mega-pop artist, as she plays with industrial and gothic themes while also bringing back her more theatrical side.

The record comes ahead of her gig headlining this year's Coachella, where she's promised "a massive night of chaos in the desert."

Today on Commotion, culture writers Joan Summers, Liisa Ladouceur and Alessa Dominguez join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to discuss the merits of Mayhem, and how it holds up against the current generation of pop provocateurs.

Elamin: Joan, this is the first big album from Gaga in five years. You had a lot of anticipation for this record. Did it deliver on all that weight and that anticipation?

Joan: Yeah. Actually it surpassed it, surprisingly enough. The conversation amongst people online has been so divisive this morning because I think people were expecting a dark, grungy, Berlin-ready, post-Eusexua type of album. And I was hoping she would go back to her big theatrical pop roots, which is how she describes The Fame — which, this album is very much not necessarily an homage to, but a response to, after all of these other detours she's taken in her career. And she delivered on that.

It is big. It is bombastic. It is full of lyrical flourishes and storytelling, which people have come to love from Gaga, especially her core fan base. And there are just so many moments that were completely unexpected for me, like Zombieboy. I think I must have listened to it already a hundred times, and every time there's just something else about it that sucks me right back in. Same with Vanish Into You, which to me is probably one of the most perfect songs she has ever created in her career. I like some of the nods on the album to the melody of Bad Romance, which shows up a few times. She's interpolating some old ideas of hers. It just was fabulous.

Elamin: When I put on this record, I was not one of the people who was expecting an industrial record from Lady Gaga. I just don't think of her as someone who's invested in that sort of sonic aesthetic; like, she's visited a few times, but I don't think I see her living in that space….

Alessa, it has always been organic for Lady Gaga, I feel, to visit different sonic landscapes and borrow from them what she wants to do, and then come back and say, "This is how I interpret this and put it into the pop machine." That's something that I really love about her: the cohesive thing for me about this record is that it's weird. It's weird in a Gaga way…. That's the main driver of this record. But when you listen to this album, does it feel cohesive to you, even though she's kind of jumping around to different landscapes?

Alessa: I think that Gaga has, from my perspective, kind of struggled in making cohesive statements that bring together the pop star, the woman, the celebrity and being specific.… I loved the second half much more than the first half. I love Disease. But I just find some of the metaphors a little boring or obvious, like "love drug," "zombie boy." It's like really? Florals for spring? ... I wanted more specifics. And I feel like when she leans into the horror show that is being a straight woman, that often yields really good stuff. Like, I loved Don't Call Tonight, How Bad Do U Want Me. But I agree that it's definitely a return to a sort of maximalist, theatrical Gaga.

Elamin: She is going for a bit of a harder edge on that sound. Gaga has cited that Nine Inch Nails is a big influence on this record. And if you watch the video, I think, for Disease, you maybe would think that you're watching a Marilyn Manson video from the mid '90s. Liisa, you literally wrote the encyclopedia on all things goth…. When you see Lady Gaga visiting the industrial and gothic, that kind of aesthetic, do you buy it?

Liisa: Well, she's definitely visiting.

Elamin: You're like, "She's a tourist, yes."

Liisa: I thought it was interesting that two of you said, "Oh, we weren't expecting an industrial record." But she gave interviews saying that she was influenced specifically by Nine Inch Nails, she was influenced by grunge and industrial. I'm looking at the album cover, and I'm looking at her fashion sense lately, and this sort of funereal fetish stuff she's got going on. And the album cover is black and white. My expectations were, "Oh, this could be interesting and dark," but it's really just some '90s industrial presets, with none of the transgression, none of the taboo. None of the pushing ideas that those bands were doing. So I was disappointed. But I also can recognize that it's something that the fans are going to love.