No doubt Lady Gaga takes her biggest risk of the venture singing solo in Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life," one of the most revered and demanding ballads in the jazz repertoire. Some listeners might find her reading hyper-emotional, and indeed she lavishes too much vibrato on select notes. But she clearly has studied the dramatic structure of the song and conveys it eloquently. Yes, there's a great deal of Ella Fitzgerald's gauzy sound in this "Lush Life" and elsewhere on the album. Yet there's also a gutsiness to Lady Gaga's interpretation, a willingness to lay emotions bare, that cannot be denied...
....But that's the rare misfire in "Cheek to Cheek," which amounts to so much more than a marquee commercial partnership. Lady Gaga and Bennett have created a jazz album that will reach far wider than most and, more important, has something valuable to say.
That Chicago Tribune review is seriously one of the best album reviews I've ever read He actually seemed to dislike Gaga to an extent (at least her "antics"), but looked at this album completely subjectively and loved it.