Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

I mean iirc that would put it pretty much in line with her previous records

It’s very obviously going to get the best score of her career. I’d gamble 8.8-9.0

we should actually have a pitchfork scores betting thread (actual pfork writers banned)

Stunning album. So many great production details and some of her best lyrics. As others have said, her vocals have come a long way. I love some of the things she does with her voice here. How she belts out the chorus to The Greatest, the way she sings "Malibu" in Next American Record, and especially that stutter in Bartender. I can't get that out of my head.

Agree with everyone saying this is her best album. I've enjoyed all of them, but this is the first one where I wouldn't change a thing. Lust For Life and Honeymoon needed trimming, Born To Die should have swapped out Million Dollar Man for Without You and I could never get behind Cruel World as an opener on Ultraviolence.

That Billboard ranking of her songs piscesx posted upthread is an interesting read. Can't really argue with any of the songs in the top 10, but there's some low placements for some of my favourites. The Blackest Day (80), Swan Song (56), Radio (46), Dark Paradise (45), Tomorrow Never Came (43) and Sad Girl (33) would all be much higher on my own list.

loved Video Games, didn't care for some subsequent singles, liked several subsequent singles, didn't hear various subsequent singles, flipped for Mariners and Venice a year ago, have never listened to a whole Lana album.

this album a) fucking rules and b) feels exactly like a good album by the eight-years-older writer of Video Games

if the production on the vocals here is as different as ppl are noting, that's really heartwarming to read - this captures her weaknesses and idiosyncrasies in a really sensitive and supportive way.

we should actually have a pitchfork scores betting thread (actual pfork writers banned)

― Simon H., Saturday, August 31, 2019 7:15 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Please let’s not do this, thank you

Anyway, the cover art is fantastic

art's fine, "NFR!" sucks

Although I'm really loving most of this, I find that the album sags a bit in the middle, between "Love Song" and "California", where songs get kind generic. Maybe I just need to spend more time with those songs. One thing that bugs me with her vocals is a certain tendency, esp on choruses, to shoehorn lyrics which don't really fit the melody (eg "If you come back to California, you should just hit me uuuuuup" or the stuttering on "Bartender").

yeah, I ended up snipping "California" and "Next Best..." in my edit not because they're bad songs but because they don't really add anything to the record texturally or conceptually

oh Next Best is one of my favorites

I like it, but it feels like it could have slotted in too easily on one of the previous records (which makes sense as it's been kicking around a while), and imo it drags a bit

also it's been bugging me, but I finally figured out who "Looking for America" most reminds me of: Marissa Nadler, esp the harmonies near the end

After spending some time with it over the weekend, I'm still not familiar enough will all the songs but overall it is great (and arguably better than UV indeed).
I could maybe do without "Love Song" and "Happiness is a Butterfly" (not that they are bad but they didn't hit me as much as the other ones).
"Doin'Time" sounds a bit out of place but I like it and it brings some variations.
At this point, the album is basically two parts for me : from the beginning to "Love Song" (the I-know-these-songs-already part, which is also a bit more varied musically) and the rest which is more piano-ballads driven.
Although the 1st part is great, I might actually prefer the second one (the run from "Cinnamon Girl" to "Bartender" is fantastic).
Also fwiw, it's only 5min shorter than Lust For Life.

really don't get the appeal of this. it's pleasant enough but the songs leave my head as soon as i hear them

loved Video Games, didn't care for some subsequent singles, liked several subsequent singles, didn't hear various subsequent singles, flipped for Mariners and Venice a year ago, have never listened to a whole Lana album.

this album a) fucking rules and b) feels exactly like a good album by the eight-years-older writer of Video Games

This is EXACTLY how I feel about this. It is far too long like every LDR album I have ever listened to but at the same time I'm not sure what parts of it I would cut. And her voice sounds so expressive and her roles so well-performed.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lana-del-rey-norman-fucking-rockwell/

!!!!!!!!

ok even I think that's a little overboard

yeah it's very good but it's not a masterpiece or the best album released in the last 5 years lol

Best reviewed solo female album of the decade I think? Each LDR album has had a better review than the one before. They knew they were wrong wrong wrong right from the start about her (5.5 for Born To Die) so this is a bit of a mea culpa.

Higher than “to pimp a butterfly”

xp idk i revisited born to die recently and it really does not hold up for the most part, the only album of hers that was really critically underrated was ultraviolence

i seem to recall there was a review of bjork's homogenic which had the score 9.9 - that's not on the site anymore and instead there's a review from 2 years ago which gives it a 10. anyway, the homogenic review aside, i think that's not only the best reviewed solo female album of the decade but is a tie with joanna newsom's ys for the highest score ever given to a solo female artist for a new album (i.e. not a "retrospective" sunday review, a reissue, or a compilation / live album like beyoncé's homecoming - which it beats by 0.1 anyway).

loved Video Games, didn't care for some subsequent singles, liked several subsequent singles, didn't hear various subsequent singles, flipped for Mariners and Venice a year ago, have never listened to a whole Lana album.

this album a) fucking rules and b) feels exactly like a good album by the eight-years-older writer of Video Games

yep totally agree

I've started skipping "California" and "Bartender" (t-t-t aside it drags) but I'm confident in giving NFW! a score of 8.9. Opening track reminds me of the last Sundfor album.

Nowman Fucking Wockwell?

Some little things I love : the chorus in "TNBAR", especially the synth arpeggio, the apocalyptic vibe of the strings during the chorus of "California".

Regarding the P4K rating, it doesn't shock me on a site that gave Kanye West's MBDTF a 10 (since NFR! is obviously way better imo) !

hyperbolic review but if it convinces some people to give this a listen who would have otherwise given it a pass, then sure.

After reading the review I thought the writer could almost have written it without listening to the album since she mostly talks about the singles !

sic otm

"Born To Die" was a disappointment for those of us who were hoping for this album

Also at what point do people stop clowning on Antonoff and recognize that he's done some really amazing work these past six years

and to go from co-writing the Taylor Swift album to this!

idk what Antonoff has really done that's worthy of clowning on except for having been a member of Fun and his solo stuff being pretty boring. i guess "look what you made me do" was a real wtf moment but that's about it? earlier on as a co-writer/producer some of the songs he worked on had a tendency to sound too much like his solo material but he's certainly grown far beyond that

He's fine, he's just a little ubiquitous.

Yeah, he must have a crazy overbooked schedule !
I don't know much about him but his work on this and Lorde's latest album is pretty great.

really don't get the appeal of this. it's pleasant enough but the songs leave my head as soon as i hear them

Same. And album needs more drums. Seems like a theme across various genres lately: like producers are challenging themselves to make a complete track with no or minimal drums.

this is nice but seems like cat power lite

isn't cat power already lite??

it's pretty, but wispy, and there isn't anything new on here that comes close to approaching the singles. bartender is great, and i dig the chorus on fuck it i love you.

Well the singles were already half the album !

feel like there should be a but after my comment, and there is--but there's a gauzy middle section that is pleasantly dreamy but not very memorable

Well the singles were already half the album !

― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, September 3, 2019 11:30 AM (fifty-six seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah, by the singles i mean "the songs we've been living with for a year or so" like venice bitch or mariners, not songs like the greatest or fuck it i love you which came out this summer.

antanoff's production work is pretty good. I found Fun and Bleachers incredibly dull and uninteresting though. go figure.

might just have to be in the right mood/moment for this one, haven't found it yet. tried to listen to it Friday afternoon while getting a medication infusion for my colitis (the sexiest venue for noir-pop!) and it just left me sleepy and bored. Mariners was one of my favorite songs of '18 though and I was a Video Games stan from the jump, so I haven't given up hope yet. I did like the Sublime cover, it was my first time hearing it.

courtney love predictably being a werido all over LDR's instagram this weekend re: interscope's promotional tactics (or something)

I’m pretty unfamiliar with LDR’s catalog, but I am pretty into this after the first 4 songs

Lindsay Zoladz's review is my favorite: https://www.theringer.com/music/2019/9/3/20847224/lana-del-rey-norman-rockwell-album-review

Norman Fucking Rockwell just might be one of the best album titles there ever was.

Might be! But I don't think so.

I dunno, every (hyperbolic or not) review I read of this simultaneously makes me want to listen to it and not listen to it. I'll probably get there eventually - I've heard the what I've learned is a Sublime cover, and it's fine - but as someone who doesn't know any of her other stuff (I'm sure I've heard Video Games, but I don't know how it goes off the top of my head) I'm wondering if I can get on board this late in the game. Or if this does something significantly different from/better than the others?

You can definitely get on board any time you like. I've still not heard it (and I'm the dude who started the first LdR/Video Games thread on here...), not found the right time yet. The reviews are great pieces of writing though, I have to say, both the P4K one and Zoladz in The Ringer. But I see no reason why this could not be your first LDR experience? It's never too late.

Ha, just had my Amazon robot put it on and they bleeped the title.

Ooh, Fiona Apple vibes right from the start. Was not expecting that.

I got on board with this album (or, more specifically, with Mariners Apartment Complex/Venice Bitch last year) and I'm a rabid convert now