music – The Implausi.blog

Lady Gaga, “Mayhem” (2025)

Thought I’d branch out, try something completely different, and the new Lady Gaga album was a chance to broaden my horizons a bit. having already started to hear Abracadabra non-stop since its release the night of the 2025 Grammy Awards, I was a little curious what the full album would be like. Turns out, not too shabby indeed.

I haven’t picked up a dance-pop album since Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” (2020) was on repeat play on the gym’s stereo system, and while decent, I don’t think Mayhem quite hits the heights of that album, though they share some similarities. I quite like the first three tracks (“Disease”, “Abracadabra”, and “Garden of Eden”) and the latter’s callbacks to Lady Gaga’s own “Bad Romance” provides a nice link to her earlier work. Checking the archive, this is the first Lady Gaga album I’ve owned, though obviously her music has been ubiquitous in the 21st century.

The album unfortunately falls off a bit after that. there’s still some decent tunes: “”Killah” sounds funky enough to appear on a Prince album and “Zombieboy” is topical enough to show up on some geek-related soundtrack at some point in time. The remainder of the album blurs together a bit, unfortunately, at least to my untrained ear. What could have been an all-time classic 8-song album, or a good 10-song one feels bloated with the 14 tracks on it. A tighter track selection would’ve served this album well. Still decent enough dance pop, happy enough to see it come up in the shuffle. 8/10

*: I realize I didn’t mention the Bruno Mars duet “Die With A Smile” from 2024 as this has been played tons, but I appreciate the inclusion of the single here, rather than being off on its lonesome in the ether.

**: Choosing to show the CD rather than the case, and it looks like there was a bit of a missed opportunity there to go full “death metal spiderwebs” with the logo, which would have been a nice way to push those boundaries just a bit further. C’est la vie.

Dream Theater, “Parasomnia” (2025)

Very cool to see Mike Portnoy returning to Dream Theater after recently seeing him playing on a Hello Kitty drumset or playing along to a Nickelback track over at Drumeo. I hadn’t heard a Dream Theater on release for a long time, which isn’t so much a comment on their quality but rather an indictment of my listening habits. And after a few listens, I’m coming around on this one.

The first listen was on the home system, where I thought it came across as trying a little too hard to be Rush, and kinda tuned it out after placing it in that box. But after giving it the authentic Rust Bucket Listen, placing it in the stock CD player of my grungy second-hand car, it sounds much better, and my rating of it has improved.

The track that did it for me was track 5, “Midnight Messiah”, which is probably odd for an album of this length (where the standout comes halfway through). But I like the groove and the riffs, and found it approachable enough that it gave me an “in” to check out the music. I like the instrumental opener “In the Arms of Morpheus”, as well as “Bend the Clock”, and “A Broken Man” isn’t too bad either. The 19 minute final track “The Shadow Man Incident” is still a challenge, but as a whole, the album sits much better as some ambient music in the background at the house than others in my collection.

Which is a reminder that location matters, even for music, and that sometimes a context shift is necessary. 8/10

Killswitch Engage, “This Consequence” (2025)

Picked up in advance of their coming tour, and continuing our streak of grabbing a new album every week or so.

Killswitch Engage (2025) *This Consequence*

This is the first KSE album I’ve owned*, and likely the first I’ve listened to back to front as well. A few of their previous songs have filtered through, but nothing about the music has shone through, just a mild recognition of the (admittedly) awesome band name.

But if I was forced to name one KSE tune, even with the fate of humanity on the line, well, so long and thanks for all the fish.

But as for the album itself. it’s decent enough, though it runs together on a full or repeated lesson. The high points jump out, but get dragged back down by the rest. There’s little (to my ear) to distinguish it from a Linkin Park album, or any other early 2000s metalcore band.

After giving it the requisite review period**, standout tracks include I Believe (the first single) which blends in some melody while tempering the metalcore screams, and the opener Abandon Us which kicks things off with some suitable heavy chugging.

Overall, I like it, and I’ll give it a few more listens to see if it grows on me. If all I get out of it is a few standout singles, then fair enough. A lot of albums in the collection share a similar state.

*: apparently I have 2002’s Alive Or Just Breathing in the archives, but I think that was included in a pile of other stuff. I have no recollection of it.

**: two full listens through on the stick stereo in my 2011 VW Jetta. The ultimate testing ground.

Snow day! Let’s make a little music

Temperature dropped and it got snowy out, so rather than risk the roads, I sat down and made a concerted effort to transform a section of the basement into the music area. After a bit of cleaning, and a lot of re-wiring, by 7pm I had most everything reconnected and working together.

The Arturia Keystep Pro is the control centre, with the other gear connected via MIDI, mostly hidden under some jury-rigged risers. It was working weird, until I dropped the chained synth into MIDI Out 2, and sent MIDI Out 1 to just the Drumbrute. Putting all three synths into the mixer allowed them to play nicely together. Drums, base, and keys (another synth is off to the right).

There’s room on the mixer for a mic, if I want to sing, but I’m mostly just excited that I can run everything together.

The only downside is that I’m still short a couple cables, for the guitar, and for doing some more advanced patches too.

Can’t wait to play the guitar along with the backing section here. Loads of fun!

Back to the tunes…