Lady Gaga’s new album, Harlequin, dropped on Friday.
Lady Gaga surprised fans this week the announcement — and subsequent release — of a new album, Harlequin. The thirteen-track album, which was released on Friday, is described as a companion to Joker: Folie à Deux and while the album is comprised mostly of covers of iconic jazz standards and classics spanning the past century some of which will be featured in the eagerly anticipated Joker sequel with two original songs — “Folie à Deux” and “Happy Mistake”, there’s still a good bit that we can take away from Harlequin and how music shapes both the upcoming film as well as Lady Gaga’s Harleen “Lee” Quinzel as well.
One of the big takeaways from Harlequin is Lady Gaga’s exploration of identity. The Academy Award winning performer has never been shy about discussing how immersive her creative experiences are, and it is clear that is the same when it comes to creating Lee for Joker 2. For Lady Gaga, it was a matter of the idea of “dual identities” and how she was able to use music to find her character.
“This idea of dual identities was always some that was a part of my music making,” Lady Gaga told Apple Music. “I was always creating characters in my music and when I made Lee for Joker, she just really had this profound effect on me. The film had so much music in it, so much music that I love, and I was able to discover the character through the story, through the music that we did live every day as well as dance and the costumes and the makeup. So, I kind of had this deep experience with the character and she just didn’t really leave me creatively and I decided I wanted to make a whole album inspired by her.”
The idea of finding identity is a concept, even in terms of simply developing the character, that has some strong ties to themes of Joker more broadly. A major theme of 2019’s Joker is Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, in a twisted sense, finding his identity as the Joker as the failed clown and aspiring stand-up comedian’s unsettling decent into mental illness not only sparking a revolution, but finding a new version of himself in the process. The Harlequin album, and Lady Gaga’s use of music to find her character’s identity makes for an interesting parallel.
Lady Gaga has also referred to Harlequin as not just her album, but as a Harley Quinn album as well, further driving the idea that the album, in a loose sense, functions as a pseudo-origin for the character.
“I view this as both, actually,” she said (via Forbes). “It’s a Lady Gaga record, but it’s also inspired by my character and my vision of what a woman can be. It’s why the album does not adhere to one genre.”
“I kind of had this deep experience with the character, and she just didn’t really leave me creatively, and I decided I want to make a whole album inspired by her,” she said. “She’s a really complex woman.”
Outside of Harlequin exploring the character of Lee, the song choices on the album are also interesting in terms of Joker: Folie à Deux. While we don’t know exactly which one of the covers on the album will also appear in some form in the film, it was confirmed earlier this year that the actual soundtrack for the film will feature fifteen cover songs and we’ve already gotten a taste of that with some of the promotional material for the film, which has featured renditions of “Get Happy” — which is also featured on Harlequin — as well as “That’s Life”, “For Once in My Life,” and “What the World Needs Now Is Love”. Since most of Harlequin is comprised of covers in the same vein as those songs, the album also serves to give fans not just an insight into Lady Gaga’s Lee, but also perhaps what the movie itself will sound like — albeit perhaps performed at a “lesser” standard than what fans of the musician expect. Phoenix previously explained he had to convince her to “sing poorly” while making the film to match her character’s energy.
“I encouraged her to sing poorly,” Phoenix said. “I remember asking her to sing without her vibrato. She has a beautiful vibrato — too beautiful. I think she felt naked without it. But as soon as she moved away from technique, she unlocked her character’s voice.”
While Harlequin isn’t likely to offer any major plot insight when it comes to Joker: Folie à Deux, Lady Gaga’s album still offers quite a bit for DC fans by giving them a bit of insight into Lee as well as helping to set the sonic stage for the film. Between this album and the film’s official score – which was also released this week – we’re getting a better picture of what to expect as we catch up with Arthur Fleck when the film opens in theaters on October 4th.
