If Tony Bennett could see her now. Call Lady Gaga’s new album Harlequin vintage pop, jazz, or a newfangled soundtrack — label it anything but a surprise, because this “companion album” to Joker: Folie à Deux is a par-for-the-course demonstration of her timeless musical versatility.
The record arrived today (September 27), one week ahead of the Joker sequel that casts Gaga as Arthur Fleck’s co-conspirator and love interest, Harley Quinn. Explaining that “when we were done with the movie I just wasn’t done with [Harley],” Harlequin gathers Gaga’s covers from the film and two original songs: The waltz “Folie À Deux” and aching ballad “Happy Mistake.” While a separate, standard film soundtrack will drop next Friday, Harlequin is strictly Gaga’s project, and extends her relationship with the great American songbook, first honed with the late Tony Bennett on their collaborative albums Cheek To Cheek and Love For Sale.
Teeming with easily-recognizable standards — “That’s Life,” “Oh, When The Saints,” “Get Happy (2024)” to name a few — Harlequin accentuates Gaga’s ability to approach classics with both respect and a spirit of reinvention. Elsewhere on the record, her acting chops bleed into her vocals; the guttural roars on “The Joker” could be the forefront of her Oscar campaign, and “That’s Entertainment” plays like a bid to venture into the realm of musicals.
“The record has so many different genres on it, and it has all these original productions that are just completely indicative of a complex woman that wants to be whoever she wants at any given moment, and that will not let anyone pin her down,” Gaga said at the London premiere of Joker: Folie à Deux.
She’s talking about her character Harley, of course, but the description sure sounds familiar, especially with a new pop album from Gaga scheduled to be released in February. The project’s first single will arrive in October, on the heels of Gaga’s August duet “Die With A Smile” with Bruno Mars.
Jump into Gaga’s world of Harlequin below.