Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

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

Does Kim's take come from anything real beyond LDR's lyrics?

Is she referring to LDR's once-rumored involvement w/Axl Rose ("gross older men")?

She dated Marylin Manson too I think which is almost as equally gross as dating Axl.

I wasn't very aware of her love life but googling around (https://www.whosdatedwho.com/dating/lana-del-rey) I've found out she mostly dates gross looking men.

Wait, Moby? Really?

kim was married to thurston who treated her like shit and is an apparent dog. do we hold that against her?

Axl is legit cooler than Thurston, lol

Anyway I’m not an LDR fan, but critiquing her on the basis of whom she dates feels kind of uncool.

kim is probably talking about her lyrics circa born to die

"transient biker queen" def refers to the Ride video and there is fetishization of "gross older men" both fictional (object of off to the races) and not (literally harvey weinstein) on BTD and paradise

i'm not a "BTD is compromised juvenalia" guy tho, an important part of/launching pad for her project imo

LDR's lyrics + LDR's videos + LDR's persona in interviews + LDR's rumored dating life + the collapse of Kim's marriage = Kim being less than charitable to another female artist over her dating choices and how they may or may not manifest in her art

Wait, Moby? Really?

https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/moby-on-being-politely-shut-down-ny-lana-del-rey.html

Finally got around to listening. I actually quite like a lot of it, but relate to the people way above saying it’s worth creating its own playlist of selected songs—there are tracks I could probably do without, but maybe on more listens they’ll lock into place.

A couple of people up above were praising Venice Bitch, and I don’t hate the track but I could probably find like two and a half minutes in there that I would cut and probably feel fine.

Paging morrisp: LDR covers "Break up with your girlfriend I'm bored" around 128 mins in here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0008914

Haha, thanks... I’ll “scrub” ahead to that timecode and check it out

tbh the main thing this has taught me is that no one is good at defining what a "persona" is

dumbest comments I've seen have to be "oh, so you _really_ fucked your way up to the top, like that song title?"

I never got the impression that Lana Del Rey (persona on top of the base Lizzy Grant personality, or maybe just her now) was speaking literally and not sarcastically/ironically

dumbest comments I've seen have to be "oh, so you _really_ fucked your way up to the top, like that song title?"

*bows*

hah, I hadn't seen that coming from you, Alfred!

regardless, the cynicism that I thought I've heard in LDR songs all these years may have been overstated, even if the lyrics clearly aren't autobiographical

I'd addressed similar comments to her fans, not LDR herself.

fair!

her fans seem young and impressionable, and I do kind of wonder if there's a segment that take things a little too literally

This is as appropriate a moment as any to repost this rather unsettling tutorial:

https://www.wikihow.com/Emulate-Lana-Del-Rey

that article pushes her a few places higher in the 'worst fans in music' stakes

You're speaking your mind, even if it is not popular. Such a Lana thing to do.

That Ariana cover is pretty good !

^^^^classic Lana statement

I hadn't seen these lovely 2018 versions of "How To Disappear" and "Venice Bitch (well, Chick, actually !)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9WK6olGkDY

Actually "How To Disappear" is one of my favourite songs from this album atm.

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/09/8483496/sean-larkin-lana-del-rey-boyfriend-cop

there's little that needs to be added tbh