As I expected, the tracks with guests are the weakest (except for the two with A$AP Rocky). The Lennon song in particular is one of the worst things she's ever done. But holy shit, "Get Free."
― grawlix (unperson), Friday, 21 July 2017 13:47 (six years ago) link
the Nicks and Lennon collabs are definitely standouts. This is on track to being ridiculously back-loaded.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.)
Coachella to Get Free is a brilliant run of songs.
― kitchen person, Friday, 21 July 2017 14:09 (six years ago) link
I still don't like "Coachella" and I'm not that wild about "God Bless America" just yet either
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, 21 July 2017 14:24 (six years ago) link
I don't like Coachella or God Bless America either!
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 21 July 2017 14:25 (six years ago) link
God Bless America was an instant highlight for me. I didn't really like Coachella when she put it out last month as it seemed a bit clumsy, but I'm really enjoying it on the album.
― kitchen person, Friday, 21 July 2017 17:38 (six years ago) link
love to listen to trip trap in my flip flops
― mh, Friday, 21 July 2017 17:40 (six years ago) link
"Get Free" is a reminding me a lot of Radiohead's Creep
― silverfish, Friday, 21 July 2017 20:31 (six years ago) link
i thought the same
― just another (diamonddave85), Friday, 21 July 2017 20:33 (six years ago) link
The track with Sean Lennon is my favorite one in here on first listen.
I would've preferred Get Free to be a major lazer cover instead of a creep ripoff.
― dance cum rituals (Moka), Friday, 21 July 2017 20:45 (six years ago) link
I would be interested to see the results of a poll for best Lana album
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Friday, 21 July 2017 21:59 (six years ago) link
this is really good
― just another (diamonddave85), Friday, 21 July 2017 23:12 (six years ago) link
part of LDR's thing has always been a love letter to the history of rock n' roll, this album especially so. i've noticed nods to iggy (obv), radiohead, motley crue, neil young, simon & garfunkel, and more that i've probably forgotten
― just another (diamonddave85), Friday, 21 July 2017 23:24 (six years ago) link
call me naive but I honestly don't think the Radiohead thing is intentional. they didn't invent that chord progression.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, 21 July 2017 23:42 (six years ago) link
yeah def. a ton of references here!
also Beach Boys "Don't Worry Baby" (Love), The Angel's "My Boyfriend's Back" (Lust for Life)
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Friday, 21 July 2017 23:53 (six years ago) link
― Week of Wonders (Ross)
I was thinking that earlier. I honestly have no idea which one would win.
― kitchen person, Saturday, 22 July 2017 01:25 (six years ago) link
anyone game to start it? :)
I'm not overly familiar with this record yet but I would say the weakest link on some of these songs is the sonics - summer bummer, groupie love and In My Feelings just feel more empty sonically than her other material. However, on a track like "In My Feelings" Lana's performance is so great it carries it imo.
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Saturday, 22 July 2017 01:31 (six years ago) link
like "Summer Bummer" isn't really convincing on a melodic or rhythmic level to me at all - it's very hollow and generic
incidentally I am listening to the Sevdaliza album and it's such a dead ringer for LDR that I couldn't not plug it here
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 22 July 2017 01:37 (six years ago) link
(but replace the hip-hop influence with trip-hop)
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 22 July 2017 01:38 (six years ago) link
Ultraviolence is clearly her best album to me but this might be second-best on first listen? definitely seems like it could be cut down a few tracks though
― ufo, Saturday, 22 July 2017 01:40 (six years ago) link
Ultraviolence is definitely my favourite. It strikes me as the meeting point between Mazzy Star and Portishead at times, which is a great thing. A very fine comedown album.
For sentimental reasons I would say Born To Die is my 2nd choice, but this new one may overtake it
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Saturday, 22 July 2017 01:42 (six years ago) link
I'd probably still say Born To Die but it's extremely close now.
― kitchen person, Saturday, 22 July 2017 01:54 (six years ago) link
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.
― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Monday, January 16, 2012 7:25 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
most interesting thing about digging into ilx from times past is sometimes seeing posts like this
― nomar, Saturday, 22 July 2017 16:04 (six years ago) link
Loving pretty much of all of this with the exception of the two ASAP tracks and the Sean Lennon ones. album is a real grower
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Saturday, 22 July 2017 17:37 (six years ago) link
What? The Sean Lennon one is cool :( it's like a reworking of Something.
― dance cum rituals (Moka), Saturday, 22 July 2017 18:07 (six years ago) link
Yeah, I adore the Sean Lennon song. I'm still not sold on Summer Bummer as it just seems like a rewrite of High By The Beach. Groupie Love has grown on me a lot. I'm having a hard time getting my head around Cherry. Definitely the weirdest song she's done thanks to those bizarre backing vocals.
― kitchen person, Saturday, 22 July 2017 18:35 (six years ago) link
Moka - i'm into the lennon one now :)
this album rules
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Sunday, 23 July 2017 02:55 (six years ago) link
life rocked me like mötley / life rocked me ultra softly
― just another (diamonddave85), Sunday, 23 July 2017 16:05 (six years ago) link
Just listening to Ultraviolence again. It's definitely not my favourite album of hers but that run from the title track to Sad Girl is really incredible. If the second half had been that strong, it would be my favourite no problem.
― kitchen person, Sunday, 23 July 2017 18:58 (six years ago) link
Just gonna post this here in case anyone's interested (poll thread)
Let me kiss you hard in the POLLING rain - Lana Del Rey poll
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Sunday, 23 July 2017 19:44 (six years ago) link
don't know how I feel about this yet; not crazy about the rap cameos, they seem really poorly integrated. I love the song with NIcks, and like the one with Sean Lennon a lot until the groaner self-referential line. But I listened to this in the car (twice) and it's not very well suited for driving around. Will listen more carefully today. Oh I also hate the 'take off take off all your clothes' line, ugh, particularly since it sounds exactly like the 'hello, hello, can you hear me?" line in 'Without You'
― akm, Monday, 24 July 2017 12:50 (six years ago) link
oh I don't know. Lana and A$AP can be my generation's Marvin and Tammi if they want.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 July 2017 13:38 (six years ago) link
the rap cameos are a better fit than sean lennon
― mh, Monday, 24 July 2017 14:20 (six years ago) link
why? hehas a fairly innocuous voice that blends in fine in that song. granted I have no bias against Sean Lennon, I like him fine.
― akm, Monday, 24 July 2017 14:49 (six years ago) link
yeah i'm not entirely sure how i feel about 'summer bummer' either. would have been a fine b-side, but it feels a bit out of place on the album. i will give her credit for experimenting though: i considered "west coast" and "freak" to be largely unsuccessful attempts at combining trap and hip hop. a combination that she executes successfully all over this album
― just another (diamonddave85), Monday, 24 July 2017 19:06 (six years ago) link
the chorus for lust for life reminds me of kiss me by sixpence ;-/
the opening motorbike sound on that track prolly an intentional nod to shangri las
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Monday, 24 July 2017 19:10 (six years ago) link
"i considered "west coast" and "freak" to be largely unsuccessful attempts at combining trap and hip hop" really? I think West Coast is the best song on Ultraviolence and one of her best songs ever.
― akm, Monday, 24 July 2017 19:54 (six years ago) link
I like Freak
I'm not sure how West Coast sounds like that, seems completely different
― mh, Monday, 24 July 2017 20:55 (six years ago) link
sorry, i meant "high by the beach" and "freak" /-:
― just another (diamonddave85), Monday, 24 July 2017 21:25 (six years ago) link
"west coast" does indeed rule
kind of figured, didn't want to assume
those are actually two of my faves ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
― mh, Monday, 24 July 2017 21:26 (six years ago) link
also meant "combining trap and trip hop" instead of "combining trap and hip hop" heh should've proofread that post a bit
― just another (diamonddave85), Monday, 24 July 2017 21:28 (six years ago) link
I've liked individual tracks in the past but been bored by the albums -- they have tended to blur together for me. This one holds my attention more, I think maybe there are more hooks scattered through that make the songs more distinct from each other. The hip-hop flourishes actually work better than I expected. (It may also be that this is the first LDR album I've listened to while under the influence of David Lynch -- with Twin Peaks on, this feels like the right album for the summer.)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 14:58 (six years ago) link
'cochella' uses, I think, the same kids-cheering sample that was on Off to the Races.
― akm, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 16:27 (six years ago) link
anyway I spent more time with this listening more carefully. I think it's a good album, backloaded certainly. The earlier tracks def relying on her sad girl persona and the rap bits still seem...kind of like an afterthought to me. The second half is a lot more like Honeymoon, but lyrically I think she's writing about more interesting things as well; there is nary a red dress, nail polish, high heels or summertime in the second half of the album.
― akm, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 16:28 (six years ago) link
She's also writing about decadence being less fun in Heroin
"Oh, makes me feel like I can changeOh, ho ho ho, all of my evil ways and shitOh, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sick of it"
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 16:47 (six years ago) link
I usually go out of my way to ignore lyrics, but I find hers very interesting. The line "And when he calls/He calls for me and not for you" from "Shades of Cool" has always stuck with me.
I really like the way she employs multiple versions of her own voice to comment on each other. Like, the verse will be sung through one type of hazy reverb, and then the background vocal will be filtered some other way, and the chorus a third way, so they all sound like different women.
A lot of small sonic touches on this new album remind me of Tricky's Pre-Millennium Tension - there's a track where LDR sounds uncannily like Martina, and another where a background vocal sample sounds like the demonic-laughter background voice from "Tricky Kid."
― grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 16:51 (six years ago) link
agree w/ you unperson
love the way she sings the chorus on "In My Feelings" which uses the same "yeah" vocal from Cherry, much like she regurgitated that one vocal loop all throughout born to die - which this album reminds me of the most. It doesn't deviate too much into the more solemn and reflective Honeymoon or Ultraviolence without quickly picking back up.
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 16:56 (six years ago) link
anyone else noticed how her enunciation and delivery have really changed over the course of the last few albums? I'm guessing part of this is up to voice coaching, but it makes me wonder how much of it was her own pronunciation versus an affectation
― mh, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 16:59 (six years ago) link
in which ways mh?
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 17:12 (six years ago) link