Lana Del Rey

It's weird because Video Games is by no means a technically demanding song. It's repetitive, has a small range, short phrases, no held notes, etc. It's more about atmosphere and personality than technique, and the arrangement and recorded performance already set us up to expect that sort of approach, so it would seem to be the sort of song that an unrefined singer could work with, but she still manages to mangle it.

Aside from the messy timing and pitch -- and she's not badly out of tune, she's just sloppy, sliding all around on every note as a sort of defense against having to commit to any pitch, similar to her mush-mouthed diction, and maybe this is supposed to be in service of her kind of detached, pill-popping-Hollywood-glamour affect, which I think she pulls off on the recording but misses badly onstage -- I found her breathing to be the most amateurish and distracting aspect. Some people upthread were talking about poor breath control, but to be more explicit about it, the problem is the way she keeps breathing in the middle of phrases, where she really shouldn't be. It breaks up the meaning of the lyrics, ruins any smoothness of line that she achieves with all that slurring, contributes to her loose timing, and just makes her sound unpracticed and unprepared. Part of the first chorus of the SNL performance goes like this:

I heard that you like (breath) the bad girls honey (breath) is that true?
It's better than I ever (breath) even knew
They say that the world was built for two
Only worth living (breath) if somebody
is loving you

There's a point in the second verse where she actually sings "Video (breath) games." Now being nervous can do this kind of thing, but she does the same thing to a greater or lesser extent in every live video I've seen of her, and again this is not a hard song to sing, the phrases are already short. And she doesn't even have to play an instrument.

This is stuff that any high school choir director would fix in a single session. It's weird to me because for all the marketing and grooming that's ostensibly being put into her career it seems like nobody bothered to hire a vocal coach, as though how she sounds onstage really is not a priority.

this i more amusing now because all i think of with DLR is "david lee roth"

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2659/3769712047_714d284449.jpg

i was thinking earlier of how many suggbans i could get just by posting with the display name "LDR's DSLs"

Eleven

St3ve otm

St3ve deserves the first phd in LDR tbh

morelike land del GAY amirite?

Results 1 - 10 of about 256 for gaydiohead. (0.28 seconds)

morelike DUMB BOOB amirite?

it's spelled gey.

dying @ DUMB BOOB

merdeyeux morelike merdepost

the problem is the way she keeps breathing in the middle of phrases, where she really shouldn't be

unfortunately practically every modern pop/R&B singer, including the "good" ones, does this

think all modern pop and R&B singers should stop breathing

^^^ old-skool ILX post

whiney could help with at least one or two

This entire thread I've been misreading LDR as DLR. When is SNL going to book Van Halen? Have they ever done SNL?

Beside's the Schmitt's Gay ad?

Huh, here's GE Smith w/ EVH on SNL!

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/musical-performance-eddie-van-halen/1354211

(Column on the side has a "people who watched this also watched" list, which lists ... Lana Del Ray!

I really don't understand the hub bub about the SNL performance. To me it seemed like she was failing to convey the "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" image rather than poor singing IMO. I've seen her past performances on Youtube and this is consistent to what she does. I'm not saying it's good, but for people to complain now is kind of silly.

I think she either has to forget about the image per se and improve her performance (which would require her to actually convey showmanship) or find a way to convey to mix both showmanship and the image. If she chooses the latter, it would prove difficult since creating an image for music is seen as "fake" or "inauthentic" nowadays. Also, people are so hung up on her background which really bugs me. Rich people don't bug me unless they are affecting my paycheck. And since her or her father aren't anywhere affecting my (or anyone else's) financial situation on the Internet I just don't see the hang up on that.

I say good luck to her. I'm still going to listen to the album.

If she chooses the latter, it would prove difficult since creating an image for music is seen as "fake" or "inauthentic" nowadays.

this is def not true. lots of artists create images for themselves. they're just competently executed. lady gaga isn't particularly 'authentic.'

Well considering how she was first came attention through the "indie" market and the fact that her record label tried to wipe out any information about her Lizzy Grant cd caused alarm for people to scream "fake." What they should've done was acknowledge her past image and album and be more forward about the image (a la the Ziggy Stardust situation) to create a better marketing campaign. Rather than try to pretend her Lizzy Grant stuff never happened.

And her Lizzy Grant album is exactly the same music she is doing now which puzzles me about this whole LDR thing.

I really don't understand the hub bub about the SNL performance. To me it seemed like she was failing to convey the "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" image rather than poor singing IMO. I've seen her past performances on Youtube and this is consistent to what she does. I'm not saying it's good, but for people to complain now is kind of silly.

This is the first time I'd seen her and the second time I'd ever heard her song.

How's the guitar practice, Dan?

docklands light railway

I'd listened to "Video Games" lots, but this is the first time I'd heard her live. The disconnect was jarring.

someone did post a video where she seemed p good. i feel like its an act that needs an old pro though. the problem w/ buzz cycles is that in this case they're demanding something that is hardly realistic.

Makes sense that she's getting a crazy push now when music programmers are figuring out how to fill the place currently held on radio and at the mall by "Someone Like You."

most interesting thing about being away from ILX is coming back to find out what people have been losing their shit over for the past six months. turns out it's jocelyn wildenstein doing chris isaak covers. cool.

I still haven't heard the studio version--this is all I'd seen/heard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOP2Yd_jpYQ

Is this one of the bad ones?

You can only compare the live versions with the studio version if you actually hear the studio version

That Jools clip considerably less lolzy, just drowsy.

contenderizer killin it

orm

Ha, I meant otm

ormless

im glad to see contenderizer back

jocelyn wildenstein doing chris isaak covers

A+

This is the first time I'd seen her and the second time I'd ever heard her song.

Emphasis on "people"

turns out it's jocelyn wildenstein doing chris isaak covers.

Love it.

I mean, Marianne Faithfull is no less drowsy.

another strong defense

as long as there are nice people who haven't heard much of Lana Del Rey but have certainly heard worse, there remains hope for her yet

lilsoulbro surely there are more 'people' who saw her perform for the first time on SNL than people who watched every live youtube before the show

Well I think the people who complain are the ones who keep up with music news on the internet and are aware of those NYC performance/European TV performances or seen the videos posted during her Lizzy Grant days. For people who mostly get their exposure from TV and the like of course they wouldn't know.

i wonder, honestly!

xp

i guess that depends on if you're talking about people commenting on the performance itt, or on the web in general. pretty unlikely on the latter front, more likely but still not all that certain on the former.

Well I can't speak for other people, but since I took a day or two to see what LDR is all about I chalked it all up on bad media campaigning on the Lizzy Grant thing and lack of performance training given to her (Do they still do that btw? For god sakes, if you spend all that money on clothes and shit they can throw a few dollars with a singing and/or performance coach).

But since most people think the music industry is a conduit to their fantasy rather a business like everything else where the product (i.e. artist/group) is successful or not of course people think LDR is the worst thing ever and represents all what is wrong with America. Meaning a pretty, rich white girl who has no talent getting media exposure. Though things are not always that clear cut.

I think she has talent but she needs to figure out how to improve

Mrs. Redd just informed me that Brian Williams either blogged or tweeted his negative opinion of the "brooklyn hipster" under discussion in this thread. This thing has gone worldwide!

Supposedly it was in a private e-mail to Nick Denton that Gawker, for some reason, decided to publish.