She dances on the line between clever self-referentiality and less inspired rehashing on her new LP, committing to the over-the-top excess that first made her a star.

It’s pure chaos, and Little Monsters everywhere wouldn’t have it any other way. On Mar. 7, Lady Gaga set the music world on fire with the release of Mayhem, her long-awaited seventh studio album—and it’s everything Gaga fans have been craving.

Instead, she’s made one of her most sonically challenging and uniform albums yet: a mix of Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, Prince and her Fame Monster -era self, rolled into the year’s strongest pop release yet.