Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

What seems, on the surface, like pop’s oddest couple turns out to be a musical marriage made in heaven. Although there’s a 60-year age difference between Gaga and Tony, there’s real chemistry between the two on this inspired collection of American Songbook favorites. “I’ve been singing jazz standards since I was 13,” says Gaga, “but whatever authenticity you hear in my vocals is because of Tony. I can be myself around him.” The “Applause” singer sounds especially comfortable on “Nature Boy,” showing her smooth side over sensuous strings before Tony joins her on the flute-flecked Nat King Cole classic. Whether dueting on Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” and Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music ...

She’s had a traumatic few weeks, losing her childhood dog and firing her longtime manager, but Gaga is back on top. Her fourth studio album takes the “Applause” singer into new stylistic territory with futuristic numbers about love, sex, fame, fashion and outer space. The latter theme is fitting now that Gaga has announced she’ll sing aboard Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic in 2015, becoming the first artist to perform in space. On the ultra-catchy “Venus,” she’s a goddess of love, singing about astrology and the planets over a thudding disco beat. Other out-of-this-world tracks include two crafted by Russian-German producer Zedd: the buzzsaw-driven “G.U.Y.” and the pulsing fashion-world cr...