Lana Del Rey

Peter's kind of OTM. Not in the sense that there's a pop vs alt binary that needs policing but with the idea that vast numbers of people writing about LDR think there's a pop vs alt binary that needs policing.

I never managed to download those alt binaries.

that vast numbers of people writing about LDR think there's a pop vs alt binary that needs policing.

isn't he buying into this binary by fixating on it so much?

i mean, that's a sense i get from pj quite a lot - pop works Like This and indie works Like That and you have to choose one or the other

I'm not sure he's fixating on it, it's more a recognition that the discussion of authenticity has completely overtaken the discussion of the music. There's an element of pop tribalism, as there often is with PJ, but it reads much more strongly to me as send-up of all the people tying themselves in knots over whether they should like her, rather than whether they do like her. The idea that they should let it go and leave the music to the people who are going to enjoy it regardless seems reasonable.

'Radio' is the keeper; just flat out fantastic. i can't imagine if you like pop music in any way at all that you wouldn't think it was absolutely incredible.

― piscesx

Yeah this is the one that stood out for me too.

I like the album a lot, even the bonus tracks. It reminds me of The Facts Of Life album by Black Box Recorder in a lot of places.

They're forming in a straight line
They're goin through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds... Video games

Oh Dracula comes from Transylvania
Stevie nicks books about kleptomania.
Johnny looked out of his bedroom window.
And shouted to his mum ... Video Games

"This sounds like a 90s UK album feel to me due to the trip hoppy beats and strings."

Totally. And piscesx OTM about Radio. Beyond the singles that and National Anthem are the highlights. Interesting takes on fame and desperation.

Could have done without the cruddy Rick Nowels filler tracks though. Shows a failure of nerve on Interscope's part when her regular collaborators are so strong.

PJ is right in that a lot of the criticism of LDR stems from a misunderstanding about how she's pitching herself (or being pitched). If it was clear from the start that she was trying to be a pop star rather than some indie siren the terms of the debate would have been completely different. She still wouldn't be able to sing live though.

the album sounds a bit like kanye west's mbdtf, in a weird way. who produced thsi? those sampled hip-hop background shouts.

i think this LP so far (listening now) is the epitome of what we can achieve in 2012 insofar the disparity amazing / meaningless

Turns out two of the producers worked on Kanye's Runaway.

"This sounds like a 90s UK album feel to me due to the trip hoppy beats and strings."

all of her songs have sounded like this to me.

http://i.imgur.com/pu8HW.gif

hahaha

If it was clear from the start that she was trying to be a pop star rather than some indie siren the terms of the debate would have been completely different

it's that entire binary i want to reject though! any debate that takes it as the starting point - she has to be either/or - is doomed to shitness (as indeed the majority of the LDR debate has been). what do "pop" and "indie" even mean in that context? how do they affect her music?

how is anything about her "indie"? this quote says it all:

Grant's management chose her stage name, "I wanted to be a band but the label I was with and the team I had around me absolutely wanted me to be a solo artist. Lana Del Rey came from a series of managers and lawyers over the last 5 years who wanted a name that they thought better fit the sound of the music."

5 years of name negotiations with lawyers!

'ihow is anything about her "indie"?'

exactly, she never did. it was just an assumption people took up because of the self-produced video for video games. i think it was a wrong assumption.

'ihow is anything about her "indie"?'

exactly, she never did. it was just an assumption people took up because of the self-produced video for video games. i think it was a wrong assumption.

― akm, Wednesday, January 25, 2012 7:18 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

??? that video didn't just accidentally play to indie sensibilities and audiences, though. i refuse to believe that LDR's marketing has been that entirely guileless. it seems to me that she was originally pitched to blog-happy indie culture as a way of creating a sense of "specialness" and building word of mouth. it worked like a charm, but the inevitable reveal that it was all just savvy brand positioning was bound to bruise overearnest indie hearts.

saw this piece of urban folk art on the way to work today http://i.imgur.com/I84Ke.jpg

so what if actually she came up with that name all by herself, and instead spent that 5 years badgering trentemoller and bonnie prince billy to work together to producer her album..... what then?

Let's have a toast for douchebags
A toast for the assholes
Video gaaaaames

I don't care what focus group came up w/ her name, I care that most of her songs suck

and that I see a darkness
and that I see a darkness
and that I see a darkness ... video games

Grab somebody sexy
Tell them hey
Video gaaaames

fuck washing a hat
hi dere how is it made
video games...

save us Johnny Fever
again, save us Johnny Fever
video games

Ball so hard
Motherfuckers wanna find me
Video gaaaames

They see me rollin'
They hatin'
Video gaymz

I fed a fish to a pelican at Frisco bay
It tried to eat my cell phone, he ran away
Video games...

Shaggy's little boys look just like Shaggy
And my little boy looks just like daddy
video games...

the album is a masterpiece of marketing, totally stays on gangsta-nancy-sinatra message. she manages to be front-and-center in big productions without evaporating like on SNL, and her schtick works when she isn't violating the show-don't-tell maxim. unfortunately the lyrical clangers are pretty brutal.

carmen carmen staying up til mornin'
only 17 but she walks the streets so mean

lou reed ghostwrote the whole thing

i am the root, i am the table
i am video gaaaaaaames

she's indie in the sense of indie being a cultural code word for dwelling over your low self-esteem + emotional wreckage, but the indie/pop division hasn't meant much since 1991 so

she should do a collab album with ghostface killah and destroyer

Cuz when the blood begins to flow
When it shoots up the droppers neck
When I'm closing in on death
Video gaaaaaames

You gotta lick it
Before you stick it
Video gaaaaaaames

i'm a bad bitch
i'm a cunt
video gaaaaaames

I like this album in a slow-motion car crash sort of way. Which I genuinely mean as a compliment.

you need to crawl
before you ball
video games

hahahahahahahaha

that was just for you.

you can hide beside me, play your video games;
and I won't tell no-one your name

Can't tell if this NYT piece is meant to be a review of the album or not but if so then he might want to try discussing the music for more than a couple of paragraphs, fun though talking about memes and quoting Brian Williams doubtless is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/arts/music/born-to-die-lana-del-reys-debut-album.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimesarts

music writers not writing about the music at hand is such a bugbear of mine. tons of em do this ;_;

caramanica, as i said on twitter, is the dude who gifted us a PRRs profile piece in the NYT. RIP music journalism

IT’S already difficult to remember Lana Del Rey, but let’s try.

OH RITE WHO? LANA DEL WHO, YOU SAY?

why do people keep calling her "gangsta"?