Life Listens: New music from Lady Gaga, Stray Kids, Jennie and Dua Lipa

In this monthly column, The Straits Times curates the most buzz-worthy music you need to know about that was released in the past month.

Ace Album: Lady Gaga – Mayhem

It seems fitting that Lady Gaga’s upcoming series of concerts in Singapore in May 2025 will be her first here since the Born This Way Ball shows in 2012.

In a lot of ways, Mayhem, released on March 7 – a few days before she announced the National Stadium dates – marks a return to Born This Way (2011)-era Gaga.

Both brim with brash, unadulterated dance-pop, dramatic hooks and pulse-pounding beats.

Mayhem, Lady Gaga’s seventh album, has elements of industrial dance. But the dark themes hinted at by the pre-album hype and the title itself turn out to be misleading.

This is mostly a celebratory album with a wild mix of upbeat genres, from funk (Don’t Call Tonight) to 1980s-style synth-pop (How Bad Do U Want Me), with lyrics exploring themes such as love, fame, desire and spirituality.

It is only in the last few tracks that the American pop star changes gears and slips in sentimental ballads like Blade Of Grass (inspired by her fiance, American investor Michael Polansky) and Die With A Smile (her hit duet with American singer Bruno Mars that won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2025 Grammys).

The past years have seen Lady Gaga making forays into jazz with the albums Love For Sale (2021) and Harlequin (2024), and acting in the much-panned crime musical Joker: Folie a Deux (2024).

But with Mayhem, it feels like the singer has come home, making kooky pop music that bears her distinctive touch. - Eddino Abdul Hadi

Must-see MV: Stray Kids – Burnin’ Tires (Changbin and I.N)

On their latest mixtape, eight-member K-pop boy band Stray Kids split up into duo units, with rapper Changbin and vocalist I.N teaming up on the number Burnin’ Tires.

A blend of rock and hip-hop, the song is bombastic, barrelling forward at full speed. Though it is not tied to any project, it is a number that easily sounds like it can serve as the theme song to a movie about motor racing.

And the music video, conceived like a video game, reflects that amped-up energy. It opens with Changbin and I.N sitting at a booth in a diner, where both receive a message hidden in the package of a chocolate bar for a game that promises the winner a massive cash prize.

The pair are then pitted against each other in four rounds of races and battles, including I.N on a motorbike while Changbin is in a car, and the guys exchanging blows Street Fighter-style.

In a cheeky epilogue, the duo return, exhausted, to the diner after winning a golden trophy. Changbin rings a bell for the bill and asks I.N: “Wanna split?” - Jan Lee

Stream This Song: Jennie and Dua Lipa – Handlebars

Back in 2018, then rising English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa worked with K-pop girl group Blackpink on Kiss And Make Up, a promotional single from the former’s 2018 reissue of her 2017 self-titled debut album.

Fast forward to 2025 and both acts are now in the upper echelons of the pop hemisphere.

Blackpink member Jennie and Lipa have teamed up again, this time for one of the tracks off the South Korean singer’s debut solo album Ruby, which was released on March 7.

Unlike the tropical house sizzle of Kiss And Make Up, Blackpink’s first collaboration with an international act, Handlebars is more of a mid-tempo R&B, neo-soul jam.

Jennie and Lipa sound at ease with each other, and because of their distinctive vocal timbres, you can easily tell them apart.

With lyrics about diving headfirst into a risky relationship, the bass-heavy track is the type of song you put on to calm down from the post-party buzz. - Eddino Abdul Hadi

Chart Champ: Playboi Carti – Music

American rapper Playboi Carti’s third album Music is shaping up to be the biggest hip-hop release of 2025.

Released on March 14, it went straight to the top of the Billboard album charts, just like its predecessor Whole Lotta Red (2020).

The 29-year-old from Atlanta also became the first rapper to have 30 tracks from a single album enter Billboard’s Hot 100 charts.

Only two other artistes have topped that feat: American pop star Taylor Swift, with all 31 songs on The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology (2024), and American country singer Morgan Wallen, with all 36 songs from One Thing At A Time (2023).

Music also logged the highest first-week streaming numbers (384 million) since The Tortured Poets Department, which had 428.54 million. It is also Playboi Carti’s first album to top the UK music charts.

The highly anticipated release is an extensive showcase of the rapper’s idiosyncratic style – strong trap beats and production, catchy phrases repeated ad nauseum and heavy on the vibes. - Eddino Abdul Hadi

Singapore Scene: Dru Chen and Nathan Hartono – Everyone Is A Star

Disco-pop track Everyone Is A Star, a collaboration between home-grown singer-songwriters Dru Chen and Nathan Hartono, is a shiny and charming earworm.

Driven by a buoyant rhythm and funky bassline, and anchored by uplifting lyrics (“May you never feel the light of the sun setting in your heart”), it offers listeners a feel-good high and an irresistible urge to get up and dance.

Chen and Hartono trade falsettos and sound like they are having a ball, and a middle section with killer synth and guitar solos provides icing on the cake.

The tune will be included in Chen’s upcoming album Mirror Work 2, set to be released in June.

The singer has also released other collaborative singles from it, including Shades Of You, which features rising singers Heema Izzati and Thaarmin; These Chords Will Do, with jazz stalwart Chok Kerong; and Make It Alright, with singer-songwriter Gentle Bones. - Eddino Abdul Hadi