Harlequin (Lady Gaga album)

Harlequin is a soundtrack album by the American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga, released on September 27, 2024 by Interscope Records. It is musically inspired by and includes alternate takes of songs from the soundtrack for the musical thriller film Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), in which Gaga portrays the DC Comics character Harley Quinn.
Gaga stated that Harlequin serves as a "companion album" to the film, while some publications have referred to it as a soundtrack album, alongside the film's official soundtrack released a week later. Thematically, however, critics described Harlequin as a concept album about Harley Quinn, depicting the supervillain from Gaga's perspective. The album consists of covers of American jazz standards, as well as two original compositions by Gaga, expanding her venture into jazz music following her collaborative albums with American jazz singer Tony Bennett: Cheek to Cheek (2014) and Love for Sale (2021). Gaga characterized Harlequin as a "vintage pop" album.
Upon release, Harlequin received mostly positive reviews from music critics, who praised Gaga's syncretic interpretation of Harley Quinn and the Great American Songbook but felt the album was not much of a creative departure from her works with Bennett. Commercially, Harlequin has reached the top 10 in Austria, France, Germany, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland as well as the top 20 in Belgium Wallonia, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Additionally, it topped the US Jazz Albums chart, marking Gaga's third number-one album there.
Following the completion of The Chromatica Ball (2022), Lady Gaga took a step back from social media and promotional activities while she focused on preparing her role as Harleen "Lee" Quinzel (Harley Quinn) in the American musical thriller film Joker: Folie à Deux (2024). In a lengthy Instagram post made on June 16, 2023, Gaga shared that she had been spending alone time "healing" while editing her concert film Gaga Chromatica Ball (2024), filming Joker: Folie à Deux, and creating music for a "special project". Throughout the rest of the year and into 2024, she occasionally teased upcoming music via social media, sharing photos from within the studios where she was working and offering insights into the process.
At the film's red carpet premiere in London, England, on September 25, 2024, Gaga discussed the inspiration for the album, stated, "When we were done with the movie, I wasn't done with her. Because I'm not done with her, I made Harlequin." She also described it as an "indicative of a complex woman that wants to be whoever she wants to be at any given moment."
Harlequin marked Gaga's first jazz standard record without Tony Bennett, following their collaborative albums, Cheek to Cheek (2014) and Love for Sale (2021). In an interview with Rolling Stone, she emphasized that it was not a sad experience; instead, she felt his presence throughout the entire process. Gaga also reflected on her artistic choices, stating, "In a funny way, if I had put rock & roll chords over production in a record that I did with Tony years ago, I don't know how he would've felt about that. Tony didn't love rock & roll. But he would've said, 'Wow, that's amazing.' He was somebody who loved how risk-taking and different I am, and I always thought that was so cool."
According to Billboard, Harlequin is a concept album about Gaga's "manic characterization of Harley Quinn". Gaga stated in an interview with the Associated Press that the album consists of music from the film as well as original pieces written for the film, and one original piece created for the album titled "Happy Mistake". In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the singer explained the meaning of the latter song:
Gaga posted an image on September 20, 2024, containing a "grainy" red background with a white text displaying, "I'm ready for my interview". She later uploaded four more "cryptic" images with three containing sound through Instagram, with many fans believing to be her seventh studio album or related to Joker: Folie à Deux.
The artist revealed the album to be titled Harlequin and shared the cover artwork via Instagram, on September 24. In the same post, she referred to the project as a "companion album" to Joker: Folie à Deux and linked to pre-order the album's CD, vinyl, and digital formats on her web store. The following day, Gaga utilized Instagram once again to announce a collaboration with the Louvre Museum in promotion for the album. The post featured an 80-second preview of "The Joker" set to an accompanying visual that shows Gaga exploring the museum at night. Towards the end of the clip, she uses red lipstick to draw a Joker-inspired grin on the Mona Lisa. The clip also promotes the upcoming "Figures Du Fou" exhibition that will open at the Louvre on October 16, 2024.
After the film's premiere in London, Gaga hosted a "secret" intimate listening party where her fans got a chance to listen the soundtrack album. Gaga later appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and performed "Happy Mistake" on October 1.
The album's standard cover features Gaga standing in a shower sporting orange hair while wearing a white clothed-dress with a flotation device around her neck. An alternate cover used for an exclusive vinyl sold only on Gaga's web store shows her in a messy bedroom lying on the bed facing the ceiling. She sports orange hair once again while items present in the shot reference previous moments in her career, including her collaborations with Bennett and her concert tour, the Joanne World Tour (2017–2018). The back cover of the album features a photograph of a messy bedroom with the 1862 painting Stańczyk by the Polish painter Jan Matejko hanging on the wall.
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Harlequin received a score of 73 based on ten reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? compiled eleven reviews and gave the album an average of 6.8 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.
Many critics praised the "fun" and the lively, uninhibited mood of Harlequin. Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield, Sputnikmusic's Dakota West Foss, Tony Clayton-Lea of The Irish Times, and Consequence's Mary Siroky complimented the album's musical style, boldness, and Gaga's passionate rendition of the jazz standards. Robin Murray from Clash described Harlequin as "unique, fun, and wildly over-the-top", and dubbed Gaga a "360 artist for the modern era." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine and Melissa Ruggieri of USA Today regarded Harlequin as an album demonstrating Gaga's vocal prowess. Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic labelled it a fresh, "no-skips effort" in Gaga's discography.
Some reviews were lukewarm. The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick and Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of Financial Times felt Harlequin is "more of the same" of Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale, but opined Gaga adds her own personality to the jazz standards. Michael Cragg for The Guardian thought Harlequin as a product of Gaga's Jazz & Piano concert residency whilst channeling Harley Quinn's different moods, but regarded it as a prelude rather than a fully-conceived record. Helen Brown of The Independent opined that the album does not capture the madness of Harley Quinn as much as an album inspired by the character should. Thomas Green of The Arts Desk picked the renditions of "Smile", Close to You" and "Oh, When the Saints" as "throwaway bits". Sheffield considered Gaga's original songs as the album's strongest moments.
Harlequin debuted at number 20 on the US Billboard 200 issue for the week dated October 12, 2024 with 25,000 in its opening week, becoming Gaga's lowest debut on the chart for a full-length album. It debuted atop the Billboard Jazz Albums and the Traditional Jazz Albums charts, becoming her third number-one on both charts. Harlequin earned the biggest debut week for any jazz album since Gaga's own Love for Sale, which opened with 41,000 units.
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Credits adapted from album liner notes.
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