STACK #245 March 2025

MUSIC FEATURE

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MUSIC & MAYHEM L ady Gaga admits she was nervous when she returned to making music after Gaga returns to the music world with a stunning new album. Lady Gaga

GOING GAGA

Three Lady Gaga albums you should have in your collection: The Fame Monster (2009) The deluxe edition of Gaga’s debut, The Fame , with a whopping eight bonus tracks, including Bad Romance and the Beyoncé collab Telephone . Born This Way (2011) The second Gaga album to go to number one in Australia. Fun fact: Bruce Springsteen’s sax man, the late, great Clarence Clemons, played on two tracks. A Star Is Born (2018) A blockbuster soundtrack, co-starring Bradley Cooper. Featuring the classic Shallow – which won an Oscar for ‘Best Original Song’ – the album spent 11 weeks at number one in Australia to be come 2018’s longest-running chart topper.

focusing on her film career. Her new album “started as me facing my fear of returning to the pop music my earliest fans loved”. Gaga says making the record was like “reassembling a shattered mirror – even if you can’t put the pieces back together perfectly, you can create something beautiful and whole in its own new way”. The working title for the album was LG7 ; she ended up calling the record Mayhem . Gaga’s fiancé, businessman Michael Polansky, is credited as an executive producer, as well as co-writer of the album’s first single, Disease . “Michael is the person who told me to make a new pop record,” Gaga reveals. “He was like, ‘Babe, I love you. You need to make pop music.’” After three big movies – A Star Is Born, House of Gucci, and Joker: Folie à Deux – it’s a welcome return to the pop charts. Jeff Jenkins Mayhem by Lady Gaga is out Mar 7 via Universal

THE NAME GAME If you’re coming late to the Gaga story, her real name is Stefani Germanotta. “Lady Gaga” was inspired by Radio Ga Ga , a song by one of her favourite bands, Queen.

DUET ALERT Mayhem features Die with a Smile , a duet with Bruno Mars. It was the fastest song to reach one billion streams on Spotify.

SUN, SURF & SEA

DREAM GIG If Tex Perkins could be the lead singer of any Australian band – current or past – who would it be? “The Masters Apprentices. I’m a very big fan of their early work. The garage rock stuff – Undecided and Buried and Dead – was incredible. Then a psychedelic period with Living in a Child’s Dream , then the prog rock period, which I loved. And, of course, Turn Up Your Radio .”

The Cruel Sea release their first album in 24 years.

W hen The Cruel Sea’s James Cruickshank died of cancer in 2015, it looked like the show was over for one of our biggest bands of the ’90s. “Everyone thought it was appropriate to walk away, out of respect for James,” singer Tex Perkins reveals. “There was no thought of doing anything more.” But the 30th anniversary of the band’s classic The Honeymoon Is Over brought them back together, and Tex realised he wanted to continue collaborating with guitarist Danny Rumour. “He is so unique as a player and a writer. There is no one like him.” The Cruel Sea had returned. Jeff Jenkins

VOTE 1 TEX

The Cruel Sea

Photo credit: Kristyna

TEX MESSAGES

Tex Perkins wrote a ripping memoir, Tex , with STACK ’s own Stuart Coupe. It’s filled with classic quotes. Here are three:

Something you might not know: Tex Perkins once ran for parliament. At the 2014 Victorian state election, he campaigned to save St Kilda’s Palais Theatre. He was not elected, but the Palais was saved. So is that the end of Tex’s political career? “I played that card, it was once and only,” he says, before adding, mischievously: “But you never know, I could be back.”

When you’re old, you gotta have a few crazy stories to tell about yourself. The trick is remembering them.

A wise man once said, ‘There’s a difference between scratching your arse and ripping it to shreds.’ This could be applied to many things, but it’s especially true of fame.

Writing songs can also be like writing jokes. I love a good punchline or one-liner.

Straight Into the Sun by The Cruel Sea is out Mar 7 via Universal

26 MARCH 2025

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