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Choosing to record an album entirely of standards in 2024 seems like an Arkham Asylum idea. Nevertheless, if you’ve ever wanted to feel on the edge of madness while listening to Good Morning, or Get Happy, Lady Gaga has the clown thing down. Harlequin, a batch of big band looney tunes which she describes as her sixth-and-a-half album, is a companion piece (though confusingly not the soundtrack) to the film, Joker: Folie a Deux. And while Gaga is in her Velma Kelly bag here, it is a decidedly halftime harlequinade. Most of the songs play it straight save for two original, heavier compositions (Folie a Deux and Happy Mistake) which double down on the nuthouse rock feel of the film. Harlequin is screw loose and fancy free, but it’s a sideshow attraction at best.
