Lady Gaga’s seventh studio album, Mayhem, was—according to the singer herself—influenced heavily by industrial dance music, suggesting it would mark a return to the sound of her peak-era albums The Fame Monster and Born This Way. The set’s lead single, “Disease,” delivered on that promise, with a mechanical thrum and squelchy bassline with enough heft to support Gaga’s characteristically bombastic performance.

Aside from that track and follow-up “Abracadabra,” however, Mayhem trades almost entirely in ’80s synth-pop, especially in its middle stretch, from “Zombieboy,” a tribute to Rick Genest (who appeared in the video for 2011’s “Born This Way”), to the groovy, Bowie-esque “Killah.” It’s a bait and switch that’s likely to leave many fans disappointed and some critics bewildered.

Songs like “Garden of Eden,” a grating electro track co-produced by French DJ Gesaffelstein, attempt to revive the messy party-girl shtick that launched...