Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

I’ve never paid much attention to LDR after ILX clowned Video Games so severely out of the gates, but Venice Bitch is such a good song. That vulnerability and longing in her voice on the chorus is something else. Where do I go next?

Work your way back.

Yeah, honestly just start with this one (out Friday if you're not into l33ks)

Album ranking:

Norman Fucking Rockwell
Ultraviolence
Honeymoon
Lust For Life
Born To Die: The Paradise Edition

The timing is perfect to release such a great album. This might just cement her as a top 3 artist of the 2010’s in the inevitable decade revision. She was consistent throughout the decade, her lows weren’t abysmal and she’s closing the year with what feels like a mature statement record.

I honestly didn’t think she had such an album in her after “lust for life” which felt to me like her blandest record.

(xpost) I'd agree with that ranking. Make sure you do listen to the Paradise Edition though because it has Ride on it which is one of her all time best songs.

"her lows weren’t abysmal"

well her SNL performance was but maybe people don't remember that so much now.

it's interesting (to me anyway) to compare/contrast this album and her career with Marina Diamandas'; they both started out around the same time with slightly similar types of debuts, but where Marina's output has gotten (IMO) worse with each release, culminating in an incredibly dull and boring 'adult' sounding album this year, LDR also has released what might be called an 'adult' album but it's , well, not boring. Not sure where I'm going with that but it crossed my mind just now.

I honestly didn’t think she had such an album in her after “lust for life” which felt to me like her blandest record.

The curse of Sean Lennon.

I might be the only person who kind of loves that song lol

I'm sure Yoko likes it.

I like LFL better than most; perhaps the surfeit of guests softened it.

Xxxpost: oh yeah that SNL performance is a potential career killer but SNL usually has some terrible performances, I wonder why it is? Tight rehearsal times? Lack of monitor speakers, terrible engineers?

Maybe they provide some bad quality drugs backstage.

shitty sound in their setup is (or used to be) a common complaint

not that i really give a shit about her politics but theres still something validating abt her worldview seeming as facile to me as her music

I prefer Lust For Life over Honeymoon

I can't argue w/ unperson's ranking. Born to Die really has not aged well for me, for the most part.

I prefer Lust For Life over Honeymoon

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles),

same

I bet Stevie NIcks kicks herself every morning for never coming up with "Beautiful People Beautiful Problems."

Bartender has a very beautiful melody, as does NFR. I do think having so many excellent songs released far in advance throws the listening experience off, somewhat.

"My baby used to dance underneath my architecture"-- what an opening line...

This is wonderful all the way through, but not better than Ultraviolence or Honeymoon for me yet. Her cover of Doin' Time is such an outrageous flex...

born to die still pwns yall are nuts

It's a great album though I'd snip some songs off it and it certainly sounds of a time.

NFR and Ultraviolence are pretty easily her two best, the other three are all quite inconsistent but have their moments. i'd probably put Lust for Life as her worst since it's way too long and has some real clunkers on it

For the unitiated she has the best, most popular pile of unreleased songs of any artist i've ever heard of, some gold in here, especially Pawn Shop Blues and Serial Killer which she plays a lot live

https://nylon.com/articles/best-unreleased-lana-del-rey-songs

Driving in cars with boys is still one of her greatest songs.

not that i really give a shit about her politics but theres still something validating abt her worldview seeming as facile to me as her music

I don't know of any American pop stars with non-facile politics, but this is a good quote imo

In reply to a photo of West in a MAGA hat, Del Rey said that Trump's election was "a loss for the country," but that West's support of Trump was "a loss for the culture."

Prior to that, she had performed at West's wedding to Kim Kardashian.

"Lana Del Rey on Trump, Kanye and the Right Time for a Protest Song"

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/arts/music/lana-del-rey-norman-rockwell-album.html

The first verse of "Bartender" is like a particularly vicious parody of Joni Mitchell.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Wednesday, August 28, 2019 12:56 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Lol is it now?

I don't hear it as parody. She's revisiting some of her motifs to show how some things never change.

yeah I mean she uses all sorts of Cali iconography all the time, if anything it seems like a shot at the Coachella crowd still dressing like Laurel Canyon

The video version of "Doin' Time" adds what every Sublime cover needs: a 45-second string interlude

https://youtu.be/qolmz4FlnZ0

The beats in Doin' Time are bad. It didn't really bother me when I listened to it in isolation but it sticks out like a sore thumb in the context of the album.

I don’t know how anything sticks out on any of her albums it’s all one long gauzy monorhythmic ig vacation phitkb

*photo

no, it's a phikb

I like her cover of doin' time now. I particularly like the 'she's evil' background vox bit. I think the song adds some needed levity (if you can call it that) to the album though yeah I'd probably rather Season of the Witch be on there.

but one thing I think that interview, and 'looking for america' makes clear, is that she an antanoff can bang some quality shit out very fast. I'd like to see her not constrained by 'album' releases going forward. I'd be happy if she dropped a song a month again.

I went from finding it odd to fine to basically indispensable on the tracklist

(xps)

D-40 if all you get from "Hope is a dangerous thing..." is "ig vacation photos" I recommend ears

Ppl can make ~profound~ ig vacation photos

I’m not saying her music isn’t about shit just that it’s all very monochromatic musically, feels basically static ... that song may be deep but it’s still breathy vocals, slow tempo, & vaguely sounding like a melody derived from “wicked game”

Idk, I’m not saying it’s objectively bad obv, just the lack of musical dynamism is something that really doesn’t appeal to me ... you know what you’re going to get from a Lana del Rey song and I guess that’s part of the appeal for some but I like to listen to artists who might surprise you once in awhile

I think Venice Bitch counts for that, but tbh gradual refinement can be just as satisfying as curveballs

From Tom’s review

Del Rey has been slowly letting its songs out into the world for almost a year now, and together, they sustain a mood even more than her previous records have done.

Phew another mood sustained

Tom sez album of the year

Is the string interlude a cover of the theme of the movie “attack of the 50 foot woman”? It’d be awesome.

'the greatest' is a jam

she's straight up summoning beth gibbons in the bridge of cinnamon girl

thanks to spotify I now notice the thread title is missing an exclamation mark

I have some news about the MIA and Quentin Manson murder movie threads, but you might want to sit down