Lana Del Rey

I saw her at the Shoreline in the Bay ARea last night; first of all the traffic getting there and leaving is a fucking nightmare beyond words now, don't ever go there. I missed Courtney Love except for the last two songs and those I saw over a screen in the bar area; she sounded surprisingly great. As for LDR: she was wonderful live, she's obviously moved well past that nervous stage period that almost doomed her, or maybe she's just more captivating live than she actually seems over video. I could not believe she sold out a place this size, I have not seen this level of slavish fan devotion for a more unlikely person since...the first solo Morrissey tour maybe? There were a lot of fashion fans, to be expected, but there is some other contingent of very devoted young people. I don't know what that says. Either way, I'm glad the show was as good as it was because the 2 hour parking lot traffic jam made me want to decapitate everyone.

that's so interesting. it's cool she's found a passionate cult fanbase. she really is that kind of artist: seeming to exist in a world totally her own, which is a pretty cool accomplishment for someone who came up in the hypecycle, which is so good at flattening differences. gaga tried so hard to be weird in this environment and failed. lana del rey is weird.

anyway, i'm not really that big of a fan but i like the idea of an artist who can produce something as...specific as "video games" and hope she finally found a niche that appreciates her unironically. the new album was good too.

here is another lana del rey song i enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFjqZpZZ5jI

venturing into the field tonight, wish me luck

good luck, report back!

i don't know if it's weirder to be surrounded by a couple thousand teens screaming along to "ultraviolence" or to be surrounded by a couple thousands teens listening reverently to a very straight-up leonard cohen cover (non-hallelujah category). but damn do teens love lana (the one next to me screamed "i love you so much!" completely unprompted in the middle of a song).

it's pretty amazing how much ldr has improved as a singer onstage--totally owning the material, able to change up the melodies easily, etc. when her singing is on she's a pleasure to listen to, and she has a weird but effective stage presence--i don't recall seeing someone get as much mileage as she does out of doing nothing. her band was great--any tone dads in attendance should have enjoyed the guitarist, and the level of taste they brought to the music got me thinking about how much of lana's shtick is that everything is presented so tastefully except for her ridiculous lyrics.

born to die still sucks on a number of levels but i've been revisiting ultraviolence and it's very strong 1-6 before hitting a rough patch. as much as i'm loath to give auerbach credit for anything, portishead by way of a guitar store employee wound up being a smart place to take this music.

I enjoy the fact that much of the guitar heroics on UV come from Kenny Vaughan, who did the same in Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels-era live band.

oh interesting! i wasn't sure how much of it auerbach did himself. there's some nice playing on the record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPU8XJcA__k

would be a killer album closer imo, will probably wind up as the opener

we've gone full torch

I know she covered 'Summer Wine', but I always wonder why she doesn't do 'Some Velvet Morning'.

It took Primus several years to get around to covering "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," even though the song was made for them. She'll get to it.

Shirley Bassey Sings The Chili Peppers

Gorgeous song. Agree that it really should close the album.

really unexpectedly impressed by this

Oh good this is the LDR I fell in love with

"everything you do is elusive to even your honeydrew"

woops honeydew

Marry me, girl
be my fairy to the world
be my very own constellation
A teenage bride with a baby inside
getting high on information
And buy me a star on the Boulevard
it's Californication

http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/lana-del-reys-new-single-high-by-the-beach-is-the-sensual-stoner-jam-your-summers-been-waiting-for

excellent!

proper audio w/ the sweary bits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxjw_8RpoNI

oh yeah it's on spotify with full swears too

once again sounds more "album track" than "single" to me but I'm not complaining

I think I'm at the stage where I love everything she does. This is just great.

Hope the album is still coming out next month.

not only do i love this but i have very belatedly fallen for ultraviolence

It kinda peters out in the back half but that opening run of 5-6 tracks easily the best stuff she'd done up to then imo

Agree that the first six songs are really what make the album but Old Money is one of my favourites too.

New video has twist ending:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnxpHIl5Ynw

Having recently fallen in love w her, I have to say that I find Ultraviolence to be a bit monochrome. While I have a soft spot for productions that are all hazy distorted echo effects—and have little love for hip hop—after a while the songs start to sound the same to me – which is in pretty stark contrast to the quasi genre-experiments of her earlier stuff.

I find it kind of dull but I keep coming back to it. Feels like there's a lot of little flourishes there that my conscious mind isn't picking up on. A subliminal bop.

Am I the only one who hears Dido in this?

i found "high by the beach" a little bizarre at first and didn't like the way the staccato line sounded in the chorus but i'm coming around to it now. kind of hypnotic.

hasn't really worked for me. I guess 'yet' yea but idk

01 Honeymoon
02 Music to Watch Boys to
03 Terrence Loves You
04 God Knows I Tried
05 High by the Beach
06 Freak
07 Art Deco
08 Burnt Norton (Interlude)
09 Religion
10 Salvatore
11 The Blackest Day
12 24
13 Swan Song
14 Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood

I can only assume that track 8 is LDR sing-speaking the entirety of this http://www.coldbacon.com/poems/fq.html

https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11937443_981125398596577_8187802876390429723_n.jpg?oh=27c70226d6e98d3a766b3872bd8bc263&oe=5672D4A9

Lana Del Rey reads the Cantos seems like a money maker. x-post

"Terrence Loves You": https://player.spotify.com/album/4xlfiqbKSVzrbUzjbYe2Ia/3NkWdvbs6xEVk3c0vPGhXN

so this is out now. thoughts? I don't like it as much as Ultraviolence; compositionally it seems a little weak and monochromatic. I imagine anyone who thought UV was boring is going to hate it. I do like Terrence a lot. thrilled she is reading TS Eliot on this.

I am generally pro-LDR but man this is a slog

i had a nice moment to honeymoon the song just recently while stoned on an elliptical but yea im lowkey worried abt this, gonna wait til tmorrow to listen to it all

Yeah, I'm gonna check it out in the morning myself. I loved Ultraviolence.

man this is a languid album ain't it, even by lana standards

Yeah, it is pretty hazy and slow. I like it about as much as Ultraviolence, and better than Born to Die. Need to listen to it a few more times, though.

yup super languid, I like it okay; freak is p nice

Salvatore shouldn't work but it does...really well. I'm wondering if soft ice cream = coke?

xp freak is my favorite

most of the singles are really strong except high by the beach (which is fine, it just kinda sits there), also like religion a lot once it gets going in the second half. almost all the songs tho, including the best ones, are too long

Listened to it on the train this morning while reading; didn't pay any attention to track titles, so it's basically one big song for me still.

Honeymoon has really made me appreciate the variety present on Ultraviolence.

the cover is rotten and doesn't convey at all the haziness of this album. it's grown on me over the past day; still no UV but pretty good. The production choices on BTD seem very juvenile in comparison.

yea i h8 the cover also