Mayhem technically concludes with its juggernaut hit “Die With A Smile,” but its true farewell comes in the piano ballad “Blade of Grass.” Inspired by a conversation with her now fiancé about proposals, the track imagines how wrapping a blade of grass around her finger would be enough.

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.

If Lady Gaga's seventh studio album Mayhem is any indication, the superstar has spent the last five years doing some serious creative self-reflection. We've seen a number of different iterations of the superstar in the last few years: box office darling Gaga and Oscar-winning Gaga with A Star is Born,