Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

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

it's an alright song by sublime, a band I otherwise loathe (ok I don't mind What I got either)

ryan adams please go away

in contrast to LDR:

I’ve always enjoyed criticism well-rendered and the 0.0 had some humor to it- enjoyed it more than others I can tell you 😘 https://t.co/92teLHmanh

— Liz Phair (@PhizLair) September 6, 2019

Phair is ten million times cooler than LDR but in fairness she does have the benefit of almost two decades’ worth of of perspective on this

It’s a contrast in many ways, I guess

I don't fucking practice santeria

It's not the worst thing for an artist to say they don't see themselves in a review that focuses not just on the album but a perception of who they are.

i will say she has good judgment when it comes to her fellow artists:

Grande’s name is one that crops up a few times during our conversation and is clearly someone Del Rey respects. When discussing the long flow of singles in the run-up to ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’, she credits Grande’s “reactiveness” for making her feel “more comfortable putting things out as I wanted to and as they happened”. Later, after having the “the culture is lit” line from ‘The Greatest’ recited back to her (she responds by repeating it in a voice that can only be described as valley girl on spring break), the pop star is one of two artists she cites by name as getting her approval (the other is Billie Eilish, someone who has done a similar thing to Del Rey and carved out her own inimitable cultural niche).

“Ariana’s baseline energy is super interesting to me,” she offers as one reason why she likes her. “She’s really fast. There’s not much time between a thought and a manifestation. There’s something for me to learn there.”

a manifestation

Edmund Fucking Husserl

my favorite line on the album (today anyway) is "I was one thing, now I'm being another"

take that, Twitter!

I’m finally reading Kim Gordon’s excellent memoir, Girl in a Band, and came across this very timely assessment pic.twitter.com/ETeLYquQ9R

— Philip Sherburne (@PhilipSherburne) September 8, 2019

I don't know about writing LDR out of feminism, though

Pretty useless passage tbh

a dude using a passage from a book by a woman to assail another woman's feminist bonafides is "interesting" let's say