Lady Gaga just threw fans a major curveball. After leading fans to believe that she was teasing her upcoming seventh album with a string of cryptic posts on Instagram, the superstar has announced that she’ll soon be dropping Harlequin, a companion album to new movie Joker: Folie à Deux.
On Instagram Tuesday (Sept. 24), Gaga revealed that Harlequin — named after her character in the upcoming Joker sequel, Harley Quinn — is set to drop Friday (Sept. 27). She also shared the LP’s cover, which features her standing in a shower fully clothed, the water washing away bits of clown makeup.
The musician included what looks to be the album’s tracklist, which appears on the back of a Gayle Valley Farms milk carton in a second photo. The 13-title listing features a number of recognizable song titles, including “Get Happy,” “Oh When the Saints” and more.
Billboard has reached out to Gaga’s reps for more information.
The news comes one day after fans noticed mysterious billboards reading “LG 6.5″ and ‘LG Six.Five” in Los Angeles and New York City. The red lettering on the advertisements matched the scrawl on a slew of cryptic posts that Gaga has been sharing on Instagram over the past few days, the first of which read “I’m ready for my interview.”
Since then, the star has updated her feed with several more messages, including “Moon dust gets everywhere” and “Still not October.” The two new messages also each feature snippets of music fans hadn’t heard before. The first is a wobbling Western guitar riff and the second is a faster-paced rock progression.
Gaga didn’t say in her post whether Harlequin is indeed “LG 6.5,” but that definitely seems to be the case. The 13-time Grammy winner previously confirmed that her seventh studio album is coming in February, led by a lead single in October. Billboard has reached out to Gaga’s reps for clarification.
See Gaga’s announcement and the “LG 6.5” billboards below.
