AAt the recent London premiere of the twisted musical love story Joker: Folie à Deux, Lady Gaga, who stars as Harleen “Lee” Quinzel/Harley Quinn, was asked about her relationship with the character. Having studied method acting for a decade as a teenager and becoming well-versed on chaotically entertaining press tours for House of Gucci and A Star Is Born, Gaga described “a complex woman who wants to be whoever she wants to be at all times.” . If the fusion between Harley Quinn and herself wasn’t completely clear, she added, “And doesn’t let anyone pin her down.”

And so it is that, after announcing an upcoming seventh album of pop bangers for early next year, and with its first single apparently due out next month, Gaga is now releasing what was touted on billboards as the “LG6.5.” , a jazzy album, 40-minute big band curio consisting of 13 songs. Touted as a “companion album” to the Joker sequel rather than an actual release from Lady Gaga, “Harlequin” contains two originals as well as a number of cover versions. In the context of Gaga’s discography, it stands more alongside “Cheek to Cheek” and “Love for Sale,” her two jazz standard albums with Tony Bennett, than her last album, 2020’s cyberpunk-influenced electropop opus “Chromatica.” .

In fact, it’s basically Gaga’s latest glitzy Vegas residency, Jazz & Piano, turned into an album. Opener “Good Morning,” a cover of the 1939 Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney classic, sets the scene, all brass, jaunty piano and thunderous double bass. Gaga sounds completely in control and skips through the song with verve, but there’s a strong hint of big band week in “The The obviousness of the song choice doesn’t help, which I think makes more sense in the context of the film, but Do we really need more versions of Get Happy, That’s Entertainment or the closer title That’s Life? Also, do we need more evidence that Gaga can actually sing and actually comes from a jazz background? Thank you?

Much better is the more relaxed “World on a String,” recorded by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Jermaine Jackson, and based on a tightly wound guitar figure that soon relaxes into a warm swell of organ and reverberating drums. There’s a lightness in the way Gaga glides through the tune, especially when she sings, “Can’t you see that I’m in love?” (Her fiancé Michael Polansky serves as the album’s executive producer.)

After teasing fans on social media in recent weeks with photos of her playing near-electric guitars, it’s a relief to hear her perform her full-blooded, ragged version of “The Joker” (most recently as the Australian sitcom’s theme song and enduring Listen to meme creator Kath). & Kim), which sounds like it could have fit in well with 2016’s country-rock opus Joanne. When she lets go with a loud growl, “it’s the Joker MEEEE“Towards the end you wish there had been a bit more of that energy everywhere. Oh, When the Saints, however, lifts the amnesty towards pop stars and guitars with a truly awkward solo that reeks of fretboard fingers.

More of a curiosity than a classic, Harlequin will delight fans of impeccably covered jazz standards, big band apologists, and Gaga fans who felt as if she had lost some of her enthusiasm for music during Chromatica’s long evolution. Here she sounds completely engaged, happy and in her element as she jumps back and forth between Harley Quinn’s various moods. Tellingly, on the original “Happy Mistake,” which offers a glimpse into Quinn/Gaga’s psyche amid acoustic guitar and hints of electronic static, she sings: “I can try to hide behind the makeup, but the show must go on.” Still, it is it’s a show that seems like the prelude to a slightly more interesting next act.