it's the same length
― ufo, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 12:57 (five years ago) link
'hope is a dangerous thing' is one of my favorite songs of hers, the lyrics are incredible.
― akm, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 13:09 (five years ago) link
the pre-chorus on fuck it i love you is so lush and beautiful, i just wish the actual hook was stronger
― devvvine, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 14:19 (five years ago) link
Au contraire: "Bartender" boasts some of the album's sharpest lyrics.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 14:20 (five years ago) link
Yeah the pre-chorus on "FIILU" is the best part of the song (but the part right before, in a kinda of staccato, is also great to enhance the rhythmic contrast of the song).
― AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 14:26 (five years ago) link
Goddamn it Alfred, when you're right, you're right.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 28 August 2019 14:47 (five years ago) link
the stutter in that song is such a great choice
― devvvine, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 16:25 (five years ago) link
Yes! Unexpected.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 17:02 (five years ago) link
The first verse of "Bartender" is like a particularly vicious parody of Joni Mitchell. And just in general this album is a master class in how to record vocals.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 17:56 (five years ago) link
Yeah on the whole this is her best album. I think the mix on Venice bitch is slightly different but only barely
― akm, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 18:18 (five years ago) link
I haven't found quite the words to articulate this yet, but the lyrics on this one just feel much more consistent and contiguous than ever before, less shticky/persona-driven than anything she's done before. Not just the contemporary references (although the Kanye kiss-off is very satisfying), but the constant circling back to a couple of main themes, esp the simultaneous allure and terror of retrograde romantic ideals, as well as the scattered references to alcoholism and recovery. It's truly affecting, not simply affected!
― Simon H., Wednesday, 28 August 2019 18:33 (five years ago) link
(although the Kanye kiss-off is very satisfying)
Was that line - "black narcissist" - about him? I thought it was about Azealia Banks...
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 18:39 (five years ago) link
she's said the "black narcissist" line (thankfully) explicitly does not refer to race, I think that's just a metaphor for her own bad impulses. "The Greatest" features the line "Kanye West is blonde and gone."
― Simon H., Wednesday, 28 August 2019 18:42 (five years ago) link
I’ve never paid much attention to LDR after ILX clowned Video Games so severely out of the gates, but Venice Bitch is such a good song. That vulnerability and longing in her voice on the chorus is something else. Where do I go next?
― Mazzy Tsar (PBKR), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 18:47 (five years ago) link
Work your way back.
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 18:50 (five years ago) link
Yeah, honestly just start with this one (out Friday if you're not into l33ks)
― Simon H., Wednesday, 28 August 2019 18:54 (five years ago) link
Album ranking:
Norman Fucking RockwellUltraviolenceHoneymoonLust For LifeBorn To Die: The Paradise Edition
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:01 (five years ago) link
The timing is perfect to release such a great album. This might just cement her as a top 3 artist of the 2010’s in the inevitable decade revision. She was consistent throughout the decade, her lows weren’t abysmal and she’s closing the year with what feels like a mature statement record.
I honestly didn’t think she had such an album in her after “lust for life” which felt to me like her blandest record.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:08 (five years ago) link
(xpost) I'd agree with that ranking. Make sure you do listen to the Paradise Edition though because it has Ride on it which is one of her all time best songs.
― akm, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:09 (five years ago) link
"her lows weren’t abysmal"
well her SNL performance was but maybe people don't remember that so much now.
it's interesting (to me anyway) to compare/contrast this album and her career with Marina Diamandas'; they both started out around the same time with slightly similar types of debuts, but where Marina's output has gotten (IMO) worse with each release, culminating in an incredibly dull and boring 'adult' sounding album this year, LDR also has released what might be called an 'adult' album but it's , well, not boring. Not sure where I'm going with that but it crossed my mind just now.
― akm, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:16 (five years ago) link
The curse of Sean Lennon.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:18 (five years ago) link
I might be the only person who kind of loves that song lol
― Simon H., Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:22 (five years ago) link
I'm sure Yoko likes it.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:27 (five years ago) link
I like LFL better than most; perhaps the surfeit of guests softened it.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:32 (five years ago) link
Xxxpost: oh yeah that SNL performance is a potential career killer but SNL usually has some terrible performances, I wonder why it is? Tight rehearsal times? Lack of monitor speakers, terrible engineers?
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:35 (five years ago) link
Maybe they provide some bad quality drugs backstage.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:38 (five years ago) link
shitty sound in their setup is (or used to be) a common complaint
― Simon H., Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:38 (five years ago) link
not that i really give a shit about her politics but theres still something validating abt her worldview seeming as facile to me as her music
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:39 (five years ago) link
I prefer Lust For Life over Honeymoon
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:45 (five years ago) link
I can't argue w/ unperson's ranking. Born to Die really has not aged well for me, for the most part.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:46 (five years ago) link
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles),
same
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:49 (five years ago) link
I bet Stevie NIcks kicks herself every morning for never coming up with "Beautiful People Beautiful Problems."
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 19:50 (five years ago) link
Bartender has a very beautiful melody, as does NFR. I do think having so many excellent songs released far in advance throws the listening experience off, somewhat.
― Funky Isolations (jed_), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 20:04 (five years ago) link
"My baby used to dance underneath my architecture"-- what an opening line...
This is wonderful all the way through, but not better than Ultraviolence or Honeymoon for me yet. Her cover of Doin' Time is such an outrageous flex...
― J. Sam, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 20:15 (five years ago) link
born to die still pwns yall are nuts
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Wednesday, 28 August 2019 20:43 (five years ago) link
It's a great album though I'd snip some songs off it and it certainly sounds of a time.
― akm, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 21:08 (five years ago) link
NFR and Ultraviolence are pretty easily her two best, the other three are all quite inconsistent but have their moments. i'd probably put Lust for Life as her worst since it's way too long and has some real clunkers on it
― ufo, Thursday, 29 August 2019 00:18 (five years ago) link
For the unitiated she has the best, most popular pile of unreleased songs of any artist i've ever heard of, some gold in here, especially Pawn Shop Blues and Serial Killer which she plays a lot live
https://nylon.com/articles/best-unreleased-lana-del-rey-songs
― piscesx, Thursday, 29 August 2019 02:12 (five years ago) link
Driving in cars with boys is still one of her greatest songs.
― akm, Thursday, 29 August 2019 06:08 (five years ago) link
I don't know of any American pop stars with non-facile politics, but this is a good quote imo
In reply to a photo of West in a MAGA hat, Del Rey said that Trump's election was "a loss for the country," but that West's support of Trump was "a loss for the culture." Prior to that, she had performed at West's wedding to Kim Kardashian.
― Simon H., Thursday, 29 August 2019 09:19 (five years ago) link
"Lana Del Rey on Trump, Kanye and the Right Time for a Protest Song"
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/arts/music/lana-del-rey-norman-rockwell-album.html
― ... (Eazy), Thursday, 29 August 2019 09:22 (five years ago) link
The first verse of "Bartender" is like a particularly vicious parody of Joni Mitchell.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, August 28, 2019 12:56 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
Lol is it now?
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 29 August 2019 13:18 (five years ago) link
I don't hear it as parody. She's revisiting some of her motifs to show how some things never change.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 29 August 2019 13:25 (five years ago) link
yeah I mean she uses all sorts of Cali iconography all the time, if anything it seems like a shot at the Coachella crowd still dressing like Laurel Canyon
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 29 August 2019 13:31 (five years ago) link
The video version of "Doin' Time" adds what every Sublime cover needs: a 45-second string interlude
https://youtu.be/qolmz4FlnZ0
― Simon H., Thursday, 29 August 2019 18:08 (five years ago) link
The beats in Doin' Time are bad. It didn't really bother me when I listened to it in isolation but it sticks out like a sore thumb in the context of the album.
― Funky Isolations (jed_), Thursday, 29 August 2019 18:18 (five years ago) link
I don’t know how anything sticks out on any of her albums it’s all one long gauzy monorhythmic ig vacation phitkb
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Thursday, 29 August 2019 18:22 (five years ago) link
*photo
no, it's a phikb
I like her cover of doin' time now. I particularly like the 'she's evil' background vox bit. I think the song adds some needed levity (if you can call it that) to the album though yeah I'd probably rather Season of the Witch be on there.
― akm, Thursday, 29 August 2019 18:37 (five years ago) link
but one thing I think that interview, and 'looking for america' makes clear, is that she an antanoff can bang some quality shit out very fast. I'd like to see her not constrained by 'album' releases going forward. I'd be happy if she dropped a song a month again.
― akm, Thursday, 29 August 2019 18:38 (five years ago) link