Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

I meant LDR. This album sounds good to me, but I've never listened to any LDR.

Can't really speak to Cat Power.

I also don't hear much mazzy star, for what it's worth -- they either have energy (much of she hangs brightly) or a hypnotic minor-key simplicity (most of among my swan; "fade into you" probably qualifies)

I don't mean she sounds like Mazzy Star or really any of them just that they all have a vibe that they pursue and perfect that I could see why the thing that attracts some to them could be viewed as samey by others

I am enjoying this album a lot but it also makes me feel a bit for for Tori Amos' Scarlet's Walk which tried the "overly long soft rock feels-like-a-concept-album about America" gambit first but got nothing like the critical plaudits.

(not that they ultimately sound that much alike although you can imagine LDR doing pretty great versions of "I Can't See New York" or "Gold Dust")

I really tried but the middle of this album just ain’t grabbing me. I think I’ll get rid of Lovesong, Cinnamon Girl and How to Disappear from now on.

these are all among my faves, lol
I attempted a resequence upthread that might address the pacing issue a bit

i've never really listened to her since she bombed on SNL but i'm really enjoying this, a lot—album does often seem to get overlong for the four songs before 'hope is a dangerous thing', though. (i.e. about 45 minutes in)

everyone who hasn't really listened to her before much at all really should listen to Ultraviolence too

is that the one that sounds like kyuss

i've never really listened to her since she bombed on SNL

I'm finding it difficult to imagine an SNL performance being a factor in anyone's enjoyment (or not) of any artist. Like, of all things... Did that really turn you off to her? Why?

Ultraviolence is great, but there are almost-as-good Ultraviolence-length records hiding in the two that came after

xp i dunno, it's not like i even made a habit of watching snl then—i think i saw the video when someone pointed it out. so i just formed a permanent association between her audience- and critic-driven rep and her awful performance, and wrote her off. lots of stuff to listen to! and i find i don't have much of a taste for keeping up with popular/praised artists anymore.

I like Ultraviolence but this one is so much better

i've never really listened to her since she bombed on SNL

Funny, I mentioned the new album to someone this afternoon and she said the exact same thing.

just one more thing SNL has to answer for

Lorne Fucking Michaels

The piano-driven tunes like NFR reminded me of the piano-driven tunes on Court & Spark - I know Joni has been cited as a reference point. Interesting to compare the opening lines of both records: "god damn, man-child, you f'ed me so good I almost said I love you" and "love came to my door with a sleeping roll and a madman's soul." They go very different musical directions - Joni has drums, jazzy rhythms and orchestration, and Cheech & Chong. But they both have idiosyncratic voices & phrasing and both cover similar themes about LA, freedom, lust, and troublesome men with incisive, emotionally resonant lyrics. NFR! seems like an instant classic to me.

For me the Mazzy Star influence is pretty obvious, esp on Mariners and the title track, although LDR seems more interested in engaging with the times (like Joni) than a hazy classicist like Hope Sandoval.

About the middle part, I can understand why people might not like it since it's not as great, bright and varied as the first tracks of the album but to me that's he darkest and most moving part of the album.
From "Cinnamon" to "Bartender" (+ the final track), it's emotional punch after emotional punch.
"Love Song" and "Happiness" could be cut out, though.
Basically, I like to listen to the first part of the album in the morning/day and the second part in the evening/at night !

About the weird arrangements and drums, I love how frustrating AND satisfying it is that the beats only come in in the very last bars of "Cinnamon Girl".

Basically, I like to listen to the first part of the album in the morning/day and the second part in the evening/at night !

I like this division!

OK, I'm hearing the guitar now, there's just not much of it and it's there as window dressing.

I do not hear much hazy dream pop stuff on this album (which would have been pretty easy to achieve with the press of a button or pedal), but it's definitely sunlit dreamy-ish.

BTW, teenager test? She said it's "pretty" and "not like 'Summer Bummer.'"

Spouse test: "it's ... OK. Too much whispering."

"Happiness" is essential if only for the "Don't be a jerk/don't call me a taxi" bit

eheh, I haven't really focused on the lyrics yet (so the album still has a lot to give to me !).
As for the guitars, there are plenty ! I love all the guitar parts/solos in "Venice Bitch", for instance.
As an old Suede lover, this long instrumental jam part in "VB" reminds me of the long version of "Let's Stay Together"...
And to stay on Britpop references, there's a part in "Love Song" that reminds me of... Oasis' "Wonderwall" ! Maybe that's why I don't like it as much as the rest...

More precisely it's the "Love Song" part :
"It all comes down to make the sound of our love song"

which reminds me of the "Wonderwall" part :
"Would like to say to you but I don't know how"

That's the "Strawberry Fields Forever" part, right? More Lennon.

fuck it i luh yuh

yeah I loathe that particular affectation

or rather, i loa it

Got to say I’m with imago there, it ruins the song for me

I’m not sure clear diction was one of her goals on this !

I think it's the point that she doesn't say the word in that song, and comes closer to pronouncing "like," but can't actually commit even to that

loaife you

as someone who finds this album interesting & substantial but hardly above critique ... im finding lots of wild takes on both sides of the aisle lol

There are very few occasions where I wish I were still a profesh music critic but I would be very happy to have 2k words to repeat that LDR is hipster lib-centrist trash for the unbearably cynical who are very certain they are the exact opposite, she is basically Beto O'Rourke.

— Joshua Clover (@joshuaclov3r) September 4, 2019

damn.

I've just been calling it a reminder that pumpkin spice season came early this year.

Joshua Clover was an excellent writer and a person who looked like a bean sprout in black jeans who has become an awful troll.

the verso money got to him

also at some point he became friends w michael robbins

wouldn't call it cynical, but you can definitely hear the gears moving behind a lot of her lyrical and aesthetic decisions imo. that's not a problem, it was true of bowie too.

that dude has been trash for as long as I can remember.

Bowie’s a decent comparison tbh

Cynicism = bad faith; using scorn, sardonicism, etc to mask an essential sentimentality. She has flaws, but I never got that from LDR.

Bowie’s a decent comparison tbh

― omar little, Wednesday,

No it's not! Only briefly (1983-1987) did I think Bowie indulged in bad faith. So many of his strategies are to project beyond his physical ability to care like the soul singers he loves.

maybe cynical is the wrong word, or i don't define it that way.

Or, rather, I should say that LDR, Bowie, and Ferry have much in common but cynicism has fuck all to do with it.

Too often "cynical" means "bitter" or "sarcastic" when those words are consequences not ends.

i was thinking more as "a winking manipulation"--basically the knowledge that she has her audience and the press in the palm of her hand, and leaves them lyrical catnip.

Every cynic I know wishes the world were a better place, which only a fucking sentimentalist would believe.

I only agree with the Bowie comparison strictly artistically, not the cynicism!

i was thinking more as "a winking manipulation"--basically the knowledge that she has her audience and the press in the palm of her hand, and leaves them lyrical catnip.

― normal fucking rockman (voodoo chili),

Too many artists at their peak are too distracted to go for this five-dimensional chess. It's like accusing Trump of strategy.

Now waiting for Jane Dark's LDR Hot Take.