HARLEQUIN Discussion

[juicyjuicy 1,659]

I actually love Harlequin. It grows on me with every listen. NGL at first I wasn’t a fan because I thought “oh wow, a jazz album?!” but realised it’s not. It’s much more than that. It’s really a Broadway/musical theatre album mainly comprising Great American Songbook music reimagined to be modern and working in the concept of what Lee Quinzel hears in her head. It’s rock, it’s soul, it’s blues, it’s gospel, it’s big band, it’s doo wop, and heck yes, it is mainly jazzy throughout, but that’s what makes it cohesive sonically.

I like the direction she took with this and if she is happy, then so am I. I am still hoping for a rock/metal album, but let’s see.

[julz 5,545]

"THERE'S ALWAYS A JOKER... IN THE PACK.."

[HeardASine 413]

6 hours ago, Bobina said:

The way That's Entertainment has grown on me so much. This song's over here getting me hyped 

The doubt while the jury is out

Or the thrill when they're reading the will

Or the chase for the man with the face

That's Entertainment! 

YESSS ME TOO! 

The gag may be wearin' a flag

That began with a Mister Cohan

Hip hooray, the American way

[Raivo 135]

Finally had time for myself on a 2hr bus ride home. It's a sunny morning so I gave a listen to Harlequin, and boy does it serve. Even starting with Good morning, it really wakes you up for the experience. Love this classy but very fun take on these classics. The album does tell a story. It starts with a commentary on emotions and happiness, then goes onto comment about entertainment, then gets more serious and darker, sader before finishing again on a more soulful lighter note. I will listen to it for sure.

My favorite non pop Gaga's album. 🫠

[Reez 443]

This album gives me so much joy. I turn it on every morning to start my day with "Good morning". If someone told me a week ago I would be enjoying jazz music I would tell them they are crazy 

[ChromaticaBoy 800]

I’m kind of sad about the fact that “Happy Mistake” probably won’t be made a single… it has the potential to be the next ballad hit from Gaga, but it needs more exposure

Edited September 30 by ChromaticaBoy

[Nite 4,798]

The Joker sounds so theatrical in the second half, like she's working towards her Broadway musical writing 

[SimonBaetens 6,745]

From Belgian newspaper De Morgen, who give the album a 3/5 review:

Lady Gaga seems to want to capture her character's schizophrenia with different guises of her voice
★★★☆☆

Her “six and a half” album Lady Gaga called it: Harlequin is an interlude from album No. 7, a “companion album” to Joker: Folie à deux, the upcoming film duet that features her as Harley Quinn alongside Joaquin Phoenix' Joker. On Harlequin, Gaga tackles jazz standards and old show tunes.

'I wanted the songs to come completely from my character, and not from myself,' Stefani Germanotta - Lady Gaga to friends and foes - told the Venice Film Festival a month ago. The occasion was Joker: Folie à deux, the sequel to the super-successful villain movie Joker (2019), in which Lady Gaga plays the role of Harley Quinn: the female counterweight to Joaquin Phoenix' Joker.

Do the songs on Harlequin, some of which are similar to those also sung in Joker: Folie à deux, also come from the character Harley Quinn, or from Lady Gaga after all? Yet rather the second, we suspect as we listen to Gaga's “six and a half” album - the full-fledged seventh record should arrive in the spring. “I've been trying to unlearn all the singing techniques I know again,” she had also said in Venice, ”and forgetting how to breathe when you sing.”

There's not much of that on Harlequin; the record is a showcase for Gaga's singing talent. The reverberating diva voice of Shirley Bassey (who actually performed the song from the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint herself, in 1988) permeates the potty-mouthed “The Joker,” and on “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” Gaga pulls out all the vocal tricks: her fragile, husky voice in the hushed intro, scat-singing after rumbling jazz drums pick up the pace in the Cy Coleman song, and sandpaper vocal chords in the finale.

It's a song that sums up all of Harlequin: Indeed, Lady Gaga seems to want to capture the schizophrenia of her character with the different guises of her voice. It ranges from clamorous (in the jazzy “That's Entertainment”) over lived-in (the excellent Frank Sinatra cover “That's Life”) to hoarse and fragile (the beautiful and melancholy “World on a String”).

CROSS POINT
That Gaga turns out songs that serve her flawless voice is nothing new. In 2014 and 2021, Lady Gaga recorded two studio albums with jazz singer Tony Bennett: for Gaga, it seemed like a way to take a break from the crazy outfits, theatrical shows and electro pop songs with which she had made a name for herself, and put her voice front and center. A way to show that she could actually sing, old-fashioned, classical. She nestled herself at the frantic intersection between commercialism and credibility. Her fourth album, Joanne (2016) - an americana record for which she collaborated with Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Kevin Parker (Tame Impala) and Josh Tillman (Father John Misty) seemed to belong in the same row.

The same goes for the acting career she is very deliberately building. Unlike, say, Mariah Carey, Gaga did not indulge in prefab junk like Glitter, but chose focused roles in prestige projects, often close to her own personality. For her role as a rising pop star in a new interpretation of A Star Is Born, she was nominated for an Oscar. On paper, House of Gucci, from Blade Runner and Alien director Ridley Scott and with classics like Adam Driver and Al Pacino in the cast, also seemed like a smart choice, though that film fell thin. Still, Lady Gaga was one of the few who did not sink into the morass of the failed crime and fashion epic House of Gucci.

Lee Quinzel/Harley Quinn, her character in Joker: Folie à deux, also rubs close to Gaga herself, she emphasized this week in Rolling Stone. “I felt so connected to her. And when we finished shooting, I wasn't done with her,” Gaga said. “I basically say: as a woman, I choose to be whatever or whoever I want to be at any time, no matter how I feel. And no matter what you want from me, I will be myself.”

KARAOKE
Yet on Harlequin, it is often difficult for Gaga to bend the songs to her will. “Oh, When the Saints” is an update of the gospel classic ‘When the Saints Come Marching In,’ but the rocking soul that Lady Gaga brings out is quickly kitschy. In the musical classic “Good Morning” (from Babes in Arms as well as Singin' in the Rain), the lyrics are updated to a Harley Quinn setting (“When the inmates began to sleep...”), but Judy Garland's shadow lingers over Gaga's version.

In fact, on that other Garland classic, “Get Happy,” the lyrics are almost completely rewritten and there are electric guitar licks that make the melody a bit more modern, but a certain karaoke element remains attached to the cover. And Charlie Chaplin's “Smile” may be very pretty, but it's also a bit slippery: it lacks the abrasive tristesse of the original.

No, then Gaga shines more in a song like “Folie à deux,” not coincidentally one of the two original songs on the album. “They might say that we're crazy / But I'm just in love with, you're so in love with / Insane in love with you” she sings over an arrangement that could have come from a classic but more messed-up Disney movie. Even on that other original, the largely acoustic “Happy Mistake,” which beckons to Lana Del Rey, Gaga manages to be herself for a moment. It is in those moments that Harlequin becomes more than a foil between album six and seven - that Gaga shows that she herself is the most interesting character.

https://www.demorgen.be/tv-cultuur/lady-Gaga-lijkt-de-schizofrenie-van-haar-personage-te-willen-vatten-met-verschillende-gedaantes-van-haar-stem~b1a565e8/

[Emily 601]

Massively back tracking here I know but what is DWAS to do with? It's not part of Harlequin and isn't part of lg7 so wtf was it for? 

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,337]

after watching the movie I cannot stress HOW MUCH Gaga was SMART releasing Harlequin. It’s honestly something you want to hear before the movie because you’ll appreciate the movie a bit more and when the movie is over you just want to run RIGHT BACK to Harlequin. at least is how I felt it.

She really predicted that people would be unsatisfied with the movie because it’s not really a happy story.

I honestly can say without a single doubt that IMO the best outcome of her being cast in this film is having her release Harlequin.

Edited October 1 by Battle 4 Ur Life

[Emily 601]

1 minute ago, Battle 4 Ur Life said:

after watching the movie I cannot stress HOW MUCH Gaga was SMART releasing Harlequin. It’s honestly something you want to hear before the movie because you’ll appreciate the movie a bit more and when the movie is over you just want to run RIGHT BACK to Harlequin. at least is how I felt it.

She really predicted that people would be unsatisfied with the movie because it’s not really a happy story.

I honestly can say without a single doubt that the best outcome of her being cast in this film is the album Harlequin.

Is she really not in it much?

[Edonis 28,608]

number 17 debut predicted, 26K sold oh

Spoiler

I've said this already but, it was never going to be a commercial smasha but PLEASE stop asking her to surprise drop things with no promo and no physicals. This is abysmal. 

 

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,337]

6 minutes ago, Emily said:

Is she really not in it much?

actually she is in pretty much 90% of it. the problem is really how the narrative develops. some people will actually really like it because there’s lots of discussion to be had about this film. if it lives up to those discussions is another story. people want to pay to see a film to get a sense of achievement from the story or the action.

my point is she probably felt the need to lighten the mood and brighten us up after we’d sat through Joker 2 because it’s as dark as it can be.

prob ran off topic but I still wanted to stress how much she felt Harlequin was needed and she was every bit right. that’s what I mean.

Edited October 1 by Battle 4 Ur Life

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,337]

On 9/29/2024 at 5:35 PM, Bobina said:

The way That's Entertainment has grown on me so much. This song's over here getting me hyped 

The doubt while the jury is out

Or the thrill when they're reading the will

Or the chase for the man with the face

That's Entertainment! 

mte! such a vibe! such a feel good and start-your-day song. also great to play while you dress up to go somewhere. pure real vintage glam.

[southpaw773 2,343]

21 minutes ago, Emily said:

Massively back tracking here I know but what is DWAS to do with? It's not part of Harlequin and isn't part of lg7 so wtf was it for? 

Bruno had been working on something and they had been meaning to collab one day so when she was finishing her own album he invited her to his studio.  They stayed up late and finished what would become DWAS together. I think it was in June, and then video in early July. They rushed the release to build buzz for his tour promo and likely for Gaga ahead of the Joker era.