IT’S a stunt pairing of an octogenarian crooner and meat dress-wearing androgynous pop icon. But is that a bad thing? Well, no. Not really. Turns out for all her headline-grabbing headwear, Gaga can really sing.
It may be difficult to hear when it’s buried under autotune or synthesisers, butHere, with an excellent jazz band and a legendary jazz singer, she’s given the chance to prove she’s more than a Madonna knock-off. However, for an album of jazz standards, it never quite manages to get over the strength of its opening number – the always superb Anything Goes. Elsewhere, Nature Boy has a warm fuzziness to the music and exhibits a lower range from both artists, while Goody Goody sees Gaga whining playfully between Bennett’s enthusiastic verses.
I Won’t Dance showcases Gaga’s vibrato and playful imitation of jazz darlings, as does the race through a surprisingly up tempo Let’s Face The Music And Dance and It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Thing). Yes, okay, this is definitely an oddity. But it could just open up the classic jazz songbook to a whole new generation.
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