Lady Gaga – Seventh Album

[#LisaRinna]

Sept 27, 2024 8:51:12 GMT -5 Rose "Payola" Nylund said:

What a fun album! My expectations had dropped a bit based on first reactions from others but the covers are so fun! She sounds great!

Her musical talent is really shining through on this album. I bet she had a great time crafting this.

[ObhiDonna]

I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to the album now. The first three tracks takes time to digest but from the 4th onwards feels like a journey. FAD, The Joker, Happy Mistake are career highlights.

Happy Mistakes could have easily nabbed an Oscar nomination had it been part of the film in some way.

[Choco]

This is really not for me but there's no denying she's an artist and a great vocalist and I'm glad she dropped it. Just talented and creative as always. I'm excited for whenever LG7's campaign starts.

[👑 Eloquent ™]

Harlequin only once again proves why GaGa stands heads and shoulders above her industry peers. She is able to embody and transmute characters in a way few other artists (singers/actors alike) can. Harley as a character suits GaGa and her persona perfectly and she wears her brash insanity so exquisitely. Artistry like this gives me an absolutely incredible rush and exhilaration that only further signifies the absolute importance and ability of music altogether. "The Joker" is empassioned, exhilarating, immersive. Listening along you feel what she sings as if you're envisioning yourself in the role. It's electric. And leave it up to the genius of GaGa to pair this film with her own fatalistic version of "Creep", "Happy Mistakes". I love it's initially subtle, yet anthemic, building to a wonderous wallop of a chorus. It's hauntingly reviting. She even managed to hold my Interest and attention through now grossly oversaturated standards like "Smile", "That's Life", and "World On A String". The overall imagery is just as immersive, substantive, and beautiful as the music it accompanies. This is Oscar-level artistry at play in my humble opinion. You can absolutely tell she dove headfirst into this project with the implicit intention of losing herself in this universe where the film and album are reality and she is living through this character even in voice and song. Just brava all around for her. And of course such an amazing project would be a mere side excursion for our queen. She really is becoming one of my favs through the sheer brute force of her talent. There really only is one GaGa!

[Love Plastic Love]

This isn't really the cd for me and I won't be like...playing this non-stop, but man, does her talent shine through here and also her joy for music.

[Albie]

Pretty much in full agreement with the general sentiment in-thread. She definitely did what she set out to do with this and it works well for what it is. The production shines and she sounds stunning. Definitely taking "The Joker", "Happy Mistake" and "Smile" with me. The album as a whole could be a mood for a certain rainy day.

Sept 27, 2024 0:06:11 GMT -5 andrebra said:

I’m thoroughly shocked this woman has never been on Broadway.

I fully expect this to change sometime in the next decade. There is no way she doesn't give us not just a starring role but a production of some sort.

[munx 🐒🎯]

Not my cup of tea, but still happy for her nonetheless. Excited for LG7 though.

[Taylor.]

Starts at 65 on Metacritic with 5 reviews so far.

www.metacritic.com/music/harlequin/lady-gaga

[shakemaki]

Only Artpop has a lower meta for her, so that’s a bit of a rough start. But this is nice enough for what it is for me personally. She was absolutely right though to make sure everyone knows LG7 is imminent. I think she may have gotten a bit of a backlash if she dropped this with no word of LG7 given the gap in music from her.

[#brayden]

Isn't Brat the most acclaimed album of the year on MC? Literal proof that critics have brain rot and shouldn't be taken seriously.

[Ryan]

[Ryan]

Sept 27, 2024 13:52:17 GMT -5 #brayden said:

Isn't Brat the most acclaimed album of the year on MC?

[Choco]

Y'all take scores too seriously. It's a bunch of 7/10 and 6/10s. Fitting imo.

[leonagwen]

Sept 27, 2024 10:39:18 GMT -5 munx 🐒🎯 said:

Not my cup of tea, but still happy for her nonetheless. Excited for LG7 though.

Gaga is older now. There's no guarantee that she's gonna have upbeat songs on LG7. It's possible that the songs could be slow tempo Hot AC songs.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Sept 27, 2024 15:28:50 GMT -5 leonagwen said:

Sept 27, 2024 10:39:18 GMT -5 munx 🐒🎯 said:

Not my cup of tea, but still happy for her nonetheless. Excited for LG7 though.

Gaga is older now. There's no guarantee that she's gonna have upbeat songs on LG7. It's possible that the songs could be slow tempo Hot AC songs.

Lol

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

www.metacritic.com/music/harlequin/lady-gaga

Metacritic cites Rolling Stone's review as being 70 but RS's rating was 3 and a half stars out of 4. I haven't followed how Metacritic transfers a publication's review over to its rating system but how is 3.5/4 = 70/100?

[Love Plastic Love]

It has a 67 and is in the green-I'll take it, especially since it is really niche and self-indulgent lol.

[Nick]

I'm really liking the new album, the vocals are so good.

[shakemaki]

Gaga has gone out of her way to state on multiple occasions at this point that LG7 is a pop album. So no, we’re not getting Joanne pt 3, no need to speculate.

[Enigma.]

"In recent days, Lady Gaga has been referring to Harlequin as “LG6.5,” placing it as a “half” project ahead of her seventh studio album. It’s a description that feels correct; Harlequin is interesting and stylistically excellent, but at the same time, it probably won’t float to the top in conversations around Lady Gaga’s best work. The irony there is that what might be just another another bright feather in her cap is on a level that many artists would aspire to create some day. But hey — that’s life."

Oh the spill!

consequence.net/2024/09/lady-gaga-harlequin-album-review-joker/2/

[munx 🐒🎯]

[Maximillian]

Gaga has set the bar so high that she’s in a league of her own. Her only true competition is herself.

While other artists may achieve greater commercial success at times, Gaga’s unique projects are what keep her relevant and evolving. If she were to only release pop albums, people would still tune in, but there’s a risk of stagnation (think: Katy Perry). Instead, Gaga continues to deliver her signature style while exploring acting and expanding her musical versatility, allowing her to connect with new fans who wouldn’t have been drawn to her earlier pop work.

It’s similar to when Taylor Swift released Folklore, shifting away from her ‘breakup albums’ and ‘pop star’ persona, which helped her reach an entirely new audience, and create more excitement (and fan base) when she did shift back towards pop.

Gaga’s ability to reinvent herself is key to her lasting impact and legacy. And what a legacy she already has.

[ObhiDonna]

This did 7.4 million global spotify streams, I must say this is on par with what I had expected and I am very happy. They fucked up the release a bit it seems as physicals are not shipping right now I believe.

[Taylor.]

^ Her site says ships Oct. 2 so still within this tracking week.

[shakemaki]

I definitely agree with the sentiment shared in here already that this was framed poorly. It’s essentially Cheek to Cheek: Solo Edition, not some high concept character album with her playing Harley Quinn.

I wish she would've marketed it a bit more in line with the Bennett albums, though I get that it’s still tied to Joker so obviously she couldn’t just leave that out of marketing.

All of the artwork around it though couldn’t possibly seem more wrong for what this album actually is, for example.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Sept 28, 2024 13:03:04 GMT -5 shakemaki said:

I definitely agree with the sentiment shared in here already that this was framed poorly. It’s essentially Cheek to Cheek: Solo Edition, not some high concept character album with her playing Harley Quinn.

I wish she would've marketed it a bit more in line with the Bennett albums, though I get that it’s still tied to Joker so obviously she couldn’t just leave that out of marketing.

All of the artwork around it though couldn’t possibly seem more wrong for what this album actually is, for example.

I don’t see this as in line with the jazz albums at all. I guess they’re all jazz but this one is more showtunes and to me, so much more vibrant and fun than those albums, which were classic and clean. It would have been a mistake marketing this as like those. Granted, using “the joker” as the advance sample was a bit misleading too, given it’s the only song that has a rock tinge to it, but that was still theatrical and is closer in sound to the rest of Harlequin than anything from her jazz albums.

[Choco]

This is essentially a mixtape so... whatever. I hope we do get the single soon.

[Enigma.]

Sept 28, 2024 13:51:52 GMT -5 Rose "Payola" Nylund said:

Sept 28, 2024 13:03:04 GMT -5 shakemaki said:

I definitely agree with the sentiment shared in here already that this was framed poorly. It’s essentially Cheek to Cheek: Solo Edition, not some high concept character album with her playing Harley Quinn.

I wish she would've marketed it a bit more in line with the Bennett albums, though I get that it’s still tied to Joker so obviously she couldn’t just leave that out of marketing.

All of the artwork around it though couldn’t possibly seem more wrong for what this album actually is, for example.

I don’t see this as in line with the jazz albums at all. I guess they’re all jazz but this one is more showtunes and to me, so much more vibrant and fun than those albums, which were classic and clean. It would have been a mistake marketing this as like those. Granted, using “the joker” as the advance sample was a bit misleading too, given it’s the only song that has a rock tinge to it, but that was still theatrical and is closer in sound to the rest of Harlequin than anything from her jazz albums.

Agree, half of the songs are definitely NOT jazz by any means - and the focus track Happy Mistake is an ASIB/Joanne style ballad even. It's getting nice traction on streaming services too, charting in 39 countries on Apple Music and got 1.145M streams on Spotify - something anything from her jazz albums with Tony was never able to achieve, not even close.

[Nick]

This is not the Gaga album I was waiting on, but I'm enjoying her vocals a lot here. Definitely some campy moments, and it's nice she is giving her fans 2 albums in a short period of time.

[ampersand]

It's a surprisingly warm record with few exceptions, which I don't think really tracks with what I know of the character from the comics (though I suppose I haven't seen Gaga's interpretation in the new film yet, so it might make more sense to me then). This is a nice surprise release, but I don't know if I'll return to it very much. Excited for the new pop album.