Speaking of “Abracadabra,” Lady Gaga may have pulled off the ultimate “Saturday Night Live” magic trick during her two musical numbers in this week’s episode: dancing furiously and singing live. That combination is not for every “SNL” musical guest,

A second before Gaga sings this line in the song’s music video, where she battles against doppelgangers trying to kill her, she seizes her body as if someone put two defibrillator paddles to her chest and yelled,

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.