Lady Gaga stays in character on Harlequin. It’s her companion to Joker: Folie a Deux, inspired by her role as Harley Quinn. But it’s a luxuriant album of jazzy swing, mostly standards, right in her sweet spot. Harlequin is in the swank mode of her Tony Bennett albums Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale, as well as her Jazz & Piano residency in Vegas. It’s the first time she’s recorded standards since her beloved Bennett passed away last year. As she told Rolling Stone’s Angie Martoccio, she wanted to “create a modern take on vintage pop.”
Gaga is calling this “LG 6.5,” as the world eagerly awaits the next full-on Gaga album, due to arrive in February — her first since 2020’s Chromatica. Harlequin is a tantalizing placeholder, but it’s all her, since Gaga’s passion for Old Hollywood glamour and grotesquerie has always been deep in her fame-monster soul….
