Lady Gaga announces new album Harlequin to accompany Joker: Folie à Deux

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Lady Gaga has confirmed that she will release a 13-track album to accompany her new film,Joker: Folie à Deux.

The pop star and actor first teased the news on social media and on billboards earlier this week. She has now revealed that the album, titled Harlequin, will be released on Friday 27 September.

The tracklist suggests that the record will include covers of classic songs that feature in the film such as “Oh, When the Saints” and “Get Happy”, along with new original material.

“I wrote a waltz for the movie,” Gaga, whose previous film credits include A Star is Born and House of Gucci, told Vogue in a recent interview. “And I had a live piano player, Alex Smith, whom I asked to be with me for my scenes.

“There are moments in the film where I’m playing an adult woman who sings like a little girl. And she’s moving through the world with this kind of immaturity, which I thought was interesting.”

Gaga stars as Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the musical sequel to director Todd Phillips’ psychological thriller Joker.

Released in 2019, the original film won two Oscars and was a box office smash, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics.

Harlequin’s release will coincide with another Joker album, Joker: Folie à Deux (Music from the Motion Picture) by Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir.

Gaga had already told fans that the first song from her forthcoming seventh album, the title of which is yet to be revealed, is scheduled for release in October. The full album will be released in February.

The tracklist from Harlequin is as follows:

01 “Good Morning”

02 “Get Happy” (2024)

03 “Oh, When the Saints”

04 “World on a String”

05 “If My Friends Could See Me Now”

06 “That’s Entertainment”

07 “Smile”

08 “The Joker”

09 “Folie à Deux”

10 “Gonna Build a Mountain”

11 “Close to You”

12 “Happy Mistake”

13 “That’s Life”

Gaga is currently at the top of the Billboard 200 with her Bruno Mars duet, “Die With a Smile”, and recently took part in the opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Joker: Folie à Deux will be released in cinemas in the UK and the US on Friday 4 October.

In a four-star review for The Independent,critic Geoffrey Macnab wrote: “Certain plot elements remain jarring. The lines between fantasy and reality aren’t always made clear, for instance. But overall Folie à Deux is just as edgy and disturbing as its forerunner, replicating the idea of modern American cities as terrifying powder kegs perpetually on the cusp of explosion.”

He continued: “The darkness at the core of the film is underlined by its very brutal ending, which rejects comic book conventions in favour of psychological depth. Phoenix’s performance remains powerful and stirring, too. The genius of it is that we can’t help but care for Arthur despite his neediness and derangement.

“Even during the film’s most apocalyptic and violent moments, we’re always aware that, underneath Joker’s gaudy warpaint, lurks little, feeble Arthur. Against the odds, this ingenious and deeply unsettling film even turns into a bit of a weepie by the final reel.”

Read the full review here.