Lady Gaga went all in with this Joker sequel. Not from an acting or artistic standpoint but from a commercial presence. Two albums which feel connected to the film, one the soundtrack and another, Harlequin, are surplus to a limited requirement. American jazz standards from Gaga are no surprise for those who tuned in to those exceptional Tony Bennett collaborations. Harlequin is released under the guise of a DC comic character, in the hopes those standards reach a little further, and punch a little harder. We should applaud artists for spinning off into works influenced by other projects. It happens all too rarely these days and harder still is finding the ones worth your while. Jarvis Cocker provided one rare highlight with Chansons D’Ennui, a flourishing tie-in to The French Dispatch from Wes Anderson. Harlequin serves as a tie-in to her Harley Quinn character, but it works without this association.
That is crucial to the success Harlequin offers in bright but brief moments. Good Morning feels relatively tame when it comes to covers but then you realise Gaga has the fundamentals of cover work nailed after so many brushes with Bennett in the studio. Relatively tame but punchy fun covering classics. There is no harm in this, and Harlequin remains a fine example of Gaga as a singer whose voice can reach into the pool of classics and elevate them to neat, new experiences. Charming instrumental work plays its part, too, on Oh, When The Saints. This may feel like a continued experience of Harley Quinn but Gaga makes it her own and perhaps does not stray far enough from the joys she had with Love for Sale. But then why change a working formula? Her compositions of these classics remain fresh and filled with the joys which come from covering the classics.
Show tunes, traditional pop and covers of the Great American Songbook are a rite of passage for established artists. Bob Dylan has clawed his way through most of them but the popular choices he has not yet touched are left to other artists. Harlequin does an admirable job of putting Gaga as the centrepiece to long-running, longer-loved songs. Pieces like If My Friends Could See Me Now and sMILE feel a little less grand than the rest, a slight dip in the consistencies found in this traditional pop piece. Its link to Joker: Folie à Deux is minimal at best. References to a clown and villain on That’s Entertainment is about as close as it gets and, ironically, it serves as one of the weakest portions of this covers collection.
Despite those solid covers, there are moments from Gaga where she tries to derail a very sensible project. The Joker is crawling with a cringe-inducing set of lyrics, thankfully paired with a slick bit of guitar work, which cuts through the goodwill built up by covers of those traditional workings. Gaga gets it back on track just in time with the likes of Gonna Build A Mountain, vaguely religious experiences of building the world around one little pocket of joy. Harlequin works best when it avoids the character study it was created for. An upbeat and rushed feel to Close To You begins dragging its feet and by this point in Harlequin, the goodwill placed in a character study has lost its charm, as it was bound to when tethered to a mediocre film. Some strong covers within, though, well worth capturing and keeping.
