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The role of sexy, freaky Harley Quinn is tailor-made for Lady Gaga. Interviewed about her part in Todd Phillips’s musical sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, the 38-year-old star born Stefani Germanotta described how Harley Quinn has created a supervillain persona to unleash a “soul built on obsession and fear”.
It was not dissimilar to the way in which she conjured up her “Gaga” persona after “something bad” happened to her as a child. The fans she calls her “little monsters” love her for celebrating weirdness, darkness and queerness in big, shiny pop songs. She’s also proved her vocal chops by recording jazz standards with late crooner Tony Bennett – a covers project she now replicates alone on her new album Harlequin.
Splashing the Great American Songbook with blood is an old – but effective – trick. Martin Scorsese has made it his calling card, contrasting the image of his nation’s superficially sharp-suited, wisecracking financial success with the systemic violence that underpins it. Folie à Deux deals a similar hand in the comic book universe. Its narrative revolves around the criminally insane couple, Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) and Harley Quinn, who cast themselves as the stars of their own twisted version of a golden age musical.
On Harlequin, the only cover that really seems to dial into the film’s twisted heart is a cover of Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 tune “Smile”, the title of which brings to mind Joker’s painted, psychopath’s grin. Gaga sings over a cocktail piano in a breathy, melancholy register. Towards the end, the brass section turns murky and a guitarist scuttles their fingers down the fretboard, like a thief slipping into a dark alleyway. These are deft sonic nods to the madness of Harley Quinn – it’s a pity there aren’t more of them.
Elsewhere, Gaga belts and smoulders her way through upbeat songbook classics such as “Good Morning”, “Get Happy” and The Carpenters’ “Close to You”. All are recorded with flair, backed by a slickly arranged big band. The singer stays on the straight and narrow, sounding like she’s still on stage at her Las Vegas residency – there’s no suggestion of a bad romance with Joker. The perkiness packs a powerful punch when contrasted with the more shocking events on screen; listening to the recordings in isolation makes them feel solid but superfluous. Even the addition of a rocky electric guitar to “Oh, When the Saints” doesn’t really shift the mood.
There are just two original songs on the album, all of which have more success in projecting an off-kilter tone. “Folie à Deux” is a wonky waltz on which Gaga confesses that she’s “crazy in love”, as the orchestra swirls around her like a full silk skirt. “Happy Mistake” might nod to Radiohead’s “Creep”, but its soft strums of acoustic guitar seem better suited to her Oscar-winning 2018 film with Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born.
She only truly lets rip on her cover of Shirley Bassey’s version of “The Joker”, an all-out bawler on which she growls and roars over a ragged guitar riff and battered drum beat. “This queen needs to sing to ruffle the scene of the crime,” she declares in an aside, before hurling herself into a mighty chorus, howling: “The Joker is MEEEEE!” It’s funny, full-throttle, and the only essential track on an otherwise perfectly serviceable record.
