Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

I'm no stan or anything, but if memory serves these were the kinds of dismissals that her first (or whatever) album got. But now she's five or so successful albums in, and sells out arenas, so clearly people like what she's doing, and it must be for something other than how well she would fare on American Idol.

My current take on the album (which I like) is that it's this year's Golden Hour

only makes me wish this record sounded as good as golden hour

I hated this and at points wanted to tear off my skin but... I still liked it more than I thought I would? For starters, I got through the whole thing.

She also, surprisingly, doesn't sound fucking awful on every single goddamned song

I consider this the greatest victory for Lana that we could have expected



it's not just needless and lazy cussing, it doesn't suit this style of music. it sticks out and calls attention to itself and like DJP tweeted comes across as "check out how fucking edgy I am"

I like the lines "Fresh out of fucks forever*" and "You fucked me so good that I almost said 'I love you'" on their face, think that te reverse bathos of "I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown -
24/7 Sylvia Plath" works, and can't remember any other particular fucks bar the titular ones.

* lol turns out she wasn't

Josh, read the subset of my thread starting here:

I admit that my extreme antipathy for Lana Del Rey's music sometimes makes me feel estranged from others in my music appreciation circles whose tastes run otherwise concurrent to mine. I keep giving her chances because I respect the opinions of many of the people repping her.

— DJP (@djperry1973) September 6, 2019

Ha. I still think the secret to liking this album is (in my case) this literally being the only LDR I've ever heard. That said, who knows if I'll listen to it again.

only makes me wish this record sounded as good as golden hour

Antonoff at least refrained from his worst tendencies (he saved the martial drums for Taylor). But yeah.

* lol turns out she wasn't

LOL - v good point.

my fave f-bomb on the album is How to Disappear's "Joe met me down at the training yard / cuts on his face 'cause he fucked too hard", both for the delivery and the bizarre relationship it establishes very quickly

DJP, your "ASMR aversion therapy" comment made me wonder if you've listened to Billie Eilish yet?

I have! That album fucking rules.

Ah yes it’s that point when an artist gets enough attention that people already disposed to dislike the art feel compelled to barf their dislike, instead of ignoring the art and its thread. Maybe this is why I don’t read music criticism.

If you would like an all-positive circle jerk, I'm sure you own a mirror

given that this thing got a 9.4 from pfork i think it could stand to be criticized a little

especially since everybody i know who loves it has a customized tracklist lol

Ah yes it’s that point when an artist gets enough attention that people already disposed to dislike the art feel compelled to barf their dislike, instead of ignoring the art and its thread. Maybe this is why I don’t read music criticism.

― L'assie (Euler), Friday, September 6, 2019 8:59 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

If you would like an all-positive circle jerk, I'm sure you own a mirror

― brigadier pudding (DJP), Friday, September 6, 2019 9:01 PM (twenty-seven seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

i am basically palpatine as vader and skywalker lock lightsabres rn

if I were LDR's manager I would suggest booking ten studio days, each two weeks apart, armed just with Antonoff and an array of upsetting news stories for inspiration. there's the next album dusted

incidentally, anyone who wants to envision what a relatively upbeat LDR record could/should sound like, I recommend the new Lower Dens, which is out today

my own criticisms of this album could probably stand to be moderated, honed and softened a little. i did get through the whole album and i didn't outright hate it. but i have many problems with it, and with the adulation it's receiving. it has the trappings and scope of a grand artistic statement but i can't find the substance anywhere. as art it feels, by the standards of what i like, extremely surface-level and basic. there's (to me) little careful sonic consideration, surprise or songwriting depth, but instead superficially pretty melodies, a vague gesture towards capturing some sort of (suspiciously luxurious) existential malaise and above all the desire to seem extremely cool within her bourgie artistic milieu of names who call each other 'norman fucking rockwell' as a form of hyperbolic approbation. the flipside of this is a spoilt kid who won't take criticism, viz. her absurd and revealing recent outburst.

the album frontloads its most effective material (the preview tracks) but even they fail to lift me as their dreamy multiplicity begs - there's just not enough spark, passion or ingenuity. i will admit that the sublime cover thing appealed more than the rest of the album, probably because putting her in a kitschy throwback trip-hop context actually gives her a persona. which, as she vigorously protests, she is otherwise in want of

it is probably corny to say it but it's screaming to be said: the weyes blood album is everything good that this record is not quite. and pitchfork, unable to hang their hat on an easy signifier of greatness, chickened out and gave it 8.5. because weyes blood isn't a name

pitchfork, unable to hang their hat on an easy signifier of greatness, chickened out and gave it 8.5

thanks, dominic cummings

The number of people who think my reason for disliking "Doin' Time" is invalid because it's a Sublime cover makes me think white people are really, really stupid

LDR and Weyes Blood both tend to be too much of the same thing, however good that thing may be.

I currently have someone on Twitter saying it's odd I tweeted about the album without researching the tracks because I didn't immediately peg that song as a cover, which is seriously the dumbest fucking thing I've read in a while (and I've been on the politics thread)

xxp i didn't...suggest anything about your reasons, i was just calling it that because that's what i think of it as :(

xxxxp good post, imago

the cussing thing seems fairly normal to me on this and I'm not entirely sure why I'm fine with it here when, say, Amanda Palmer does it it makes my skin crawl. But there it is.

imago, for a change I am not talking about you

The Ann Powers review that inspired your track-by-track review is researched thoughtful criticism. You cited it as your reason to listen to NFR! (Or at least Del Rey’s reaction to it). Then you didn’t research the material. It just seems like a strange thing to do.

— Andy (@MrAndySC) September 6, 2019

ah right gotcha, i'd just called it a sublime cover and i'm usually p defensive after writing criticism of music based on 13 years of my own overexcited ilxing so i hope a forgivable misread

xp why don't you do more research before you tweet, you're ruining the discourse

I am unfamiliar with the Sublime song but not Summertime and was trying to figure out what LBC stood for and automatically went to the worst option to sing.

xxp

Lol, do you know that guy or is that some random drive-by to chide you about "research"?

it's pretty hilarious that someone who named herself "Lana Del Rey" says she doesn't have a persona

I think she meant no personality

As far as I know, I've never encountered or interacted with this person before.

Just needed to swoop in and explain some stuff, Twitter in a nutshell

lana's counting on him

she's fucking counting on him

now I'm hoping White Hot Forever will feature a song about how she's in love with a toxic reply guy

also apparently she did an album's worth of material with Miles Kane/Last Shadow Puppets but only "California" was salvaged

it is a little surprising to me that you didn't recognize the sublime song given that it was on commercial radio every four minutes in the late 90's but I also admit that may have been a california-centric thing. Is this song as instantly recognizable to people in other regions?

I know Summertime, did not know for weeks that the Lana song was not quoting it directly

The first time I heard it on the radio, same, I thought she was just referencing it because I had never heard the Sublime song.

wikipedia tells me that "The song is featured in the soundtrack for the 2001 video game Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2." How on earth can you not know that? j/k

it was 87 on the modern rock chart!

I'm v familar w/the song (and hate its guts), but whatever.

(I also didn't live in CA when it was on the radio)

Sublime s/t is classic SoCal, overplayed to death but far better than its reputation.

it was 87 on the modern rock chart!

the what now

today in "someone you probably don't want support from":

They don’t deserve you. Brush that dirt off your shoulder. You’re a master song sorceress and we hear you .

— Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) September 6, 2019

yeeeikes

Omar otm, “Doing time” is a solid jam

think I’ll pass on this thread