Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

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

I hate reading the reviews bc they do that thing where what should be a neutral description becomes another excuse to hyperbolize abt the artists “genius” for making some obvious reference or another rather than looking at how those references are interconnected & marshaled to create some kind of effect

Nb haven’t read Lindsay’s yet

I kind of see what you're getting at, but: reviews should be "neutral descriptions"? Surely you jest.

xp

Ok, that didn't take long. If the rest of the album is as good as the first two songs are I'm on board. I hear virtually none of the references I've seen popping up, though.

and that's ok :)

and here's why

Ok, that didn't take long. If the rest of the album is as good as the first two songs are I'm on board.

Sounds like I'm a few traxx ahead of you... If you can make it through all of track 3 without skipping ahead (never mind bailing on the Sublime cover), I commend you!

And album needs more drums.

...and when the drums do come in, they're so wimpy and almost apologetic-sounding. The instrumentation is v nice overall, but the songs feel almost unfinished with regard to percussion (at least for me).

I never said reviews should be neutral descriptions I said I’ve already read a bunch of meaningless reviews about like paul’s Boutique that argue the tools the artists use are the point and it was tiresome then

I actually really like the subtlety/invisibility of the drums. It allows me to pay attention to other stuff, like the lyrics. Something about her minimally dynamic vocals do the same thing for me.

I didn't realize track 3 was still going until it ended, but I liked it when it was on. I also like the Sublime cover! But I like "Summertime." Though speaking of drums, weird that "Doin Time" features Sublime's drummer and Josh Freese and still sounds like a generic pre-programmed beat.

the end of venice bitch should be 20 minutes long

I'm going to give this the teenager test when my daughter comes home from school.

Didn't really like "Love Song", and because of that "Cinnamon Girl" sounded like more of the same, but if it is, it's more of the same but better.

the end of venice bitch should be 20 minutes long

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, September 3, 2019 3:13 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

The songs are so uniformly slow & sleepy. She's a good singer, and it's a well-made album, but I wouldn't listen to it again (it's just not my thing).