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Album: Lady Gaga - Harlequin | reviews, news & interviews

Album: Lady Gaga - Harlequin

Album: Lady Gaga - Harlequin

Surprise companion album to her new film is lively, enjoyable and in great voice

Poker faced but jazzin'

Lady Gaga has made clear this is not her official new artist album. It’s a side project, inspired by Harley Quinn, the nom-de-chaos of the Arkham Asylum inmate she plays in Todd Phillips’ much-anticipated sequel Joker: Folie à Deux. The original Joker, deep-dipped in Seventies Scorcese aesthetics, saw DC Studios demonstrate they could take superhero fictions to exciting new places. Setting the bar higher, the new film is a musical.

Judging from this album, it’s going to boast a whole heap of swingin’ jazz energy.

As a stand-alone album, it’s very much in the vein of her two albums with Tony Bennett, rather than her usual stadium cyber-pop. It contains songs featured in the film and a few that aren’t. Two of the 13-track set are Gaga originals. The rest are mostly well-known standards. The territory has been relentlessly trampled over the decades - everyone from Sinead O’Connor to Robbie Williams to Rod Stewart has had a go – but Gaga acquits herself with aplomb. Partly this is because she has a stunning voice, whether foghorn belting, gospel diva-ing or deep cabaret playful.

Sure, there are throwaway bits; Charlie Chaplin’s schmaltzy old “Smile”, a predictable easy-listening “Close to You", and a so-so “Oh, When the Saints”. None are horrid and they may well work onscreen, but they don’t show off Gaga’s unique character. Happily there’s plenty that does, notably the rockin’ Cher-goes-burlesque of “The Joker” (the Anthony Newley one, not the Steve Miller Band one!), the Gene Krupa-ish “If My Friends Could See Me Now”, the showbiz explosion of “That’s Life” and a smokey, Winehouse-y take on Dixieland gem “I’ve Got the World on a String”.

Her own songs sit easily next to well-worn classics. One is the lush waltz-time slowie “Folie à Deux”, which sounds as if it hails from a long-ago Disney princess film (albeit spiked with deliberately off-key notes), and the other is a strummed melancholic torch song, “Happy Mistake”. Lady Gaga is one of pop’s true one-off’s, often magificently so, and this outing is sprinkled with enough of her stardust.

Below: Listen to "The Joker" by Lady Gaga

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