Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

I hadn’t listened to it yet even though I’ve enjoyed her work before. This is better than the other ones, right? It’s also even more detached and meta—like this completely arch presentation, but utterly beautiful songs. In terms of like the overall gestalt it seems more lynch than warhol.

I think it's her best album, yes.

IT'S NOT ARCH TREESHIP HER LOVING IS HER ART

I was hoping her live Chris Isaak cover would be from Forever Blue or something but I looked it up and nope, Wicked Game.

The production on venice beach is so engrossing

Venice Bitch, sorry

The album seems kind of lost in time, which makes me like it more. So much atmosphere, so many layers, even hising behind the Lana del Rey construct, feels like an older lind kf idea about postmodernism, when ennui was thought to be the worst thing about late capitalism, like the album exists inside a Don DeLillo novel or something or maybe just 2009.

Like, the nostalgia isn’t for the period she allegedly evokes, but for the period when people were nostalgic about that.

Wait she said earlier in this album cycle that she didn’t hbe a “persona”? Sry i missed this.

Interesting.

fake it so real i am beyond fake

“If he’s a serial killer then what’s the worst that could happen to a girl whose already hurt? I’m already hurt.”

There’s no irony in this? It’s not playing with the idea of lana del rey and archetypes of femininity? It’s not provocative?

Come on lana

treesh

lol so I hate the album now right?

*U not I

No it’s fine. I’m just confused about what kind of art pop this is.

giving this threadbump 5 bags of popcorn and a web browser full of lana del rey interviews

It’s just funny watching you go through diving into the record and then getting to the interview and backlash in real time itt

Isn't this what Facebook and Twitter are for?

i mean maybe i'm the only one but i find her statement about persona both objectively falsifiable and completely truthful.

Maybe Father John Misty can clear this up!

“There’s something innately false about performance. I wanted to be authentically bogus rather than bogusly authentic.”

Thats good. And yeah, i dont think there is authwnticity on the one hand and “persona” on the other

I'm not going to open up this huge thread to find the answer (because I no longer care what people's opinions are on this album, no disrespect) but I do want to be reminded what Simon H's preferred track order was so that I can try it.

Simon?

Off the top of my head it's something like:

NFR / Cinnamon Girl / Doin' Time / How to Disappear / Love Song / Fuck it I Love You /Happiness is a Butterfly / Mariners Apartment Complex /Bartender / Venice Bitch / Looking for America / The Greatest / Hope is a dangerous thing...

thanks.

such a badly sequenced record!

father john misty was authentically boring as shit when I saw him live

well yeah. he’s got some tunes but they’re all pretty samey

Just unbearable, swanning around onstage like oh this is so post modern ok dude you're wearing sunglasses inside congrats on the half loaf soggy nilsson

the more i listen to this, the better it gets

her season of the witch cover verges into self parody

her what now

These days whenever I listen to LDR I keep hoping she'll do a Wonder Woman spin and transform into:

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SomberShockingArkshell-size_restricted.gif

nah, that cover is good

By "good" do you mean "bad and boring"?

if you don't like Her General Thing, I can't imagine soundtrack loosies are gonna change one's mind

her season of the witch cover verges into self parody

Obligatory: 'but isn't self-parody her whole shtick?'

original is pretty crap too tbrr

did I ever mention I saw her on tour recently? me and my friend, both of us 40ish years old

it was pretty ok? the stage dressing and framing was so-so

kinda burnt myself out on this album so I took a long break and it's still great and not in some corny "predicted the 2020 vibe" sorta way. I confess however that I slightly preferred the gonzo "cuts on his face 'cause he fucked too hard" to what I only just realized is the actual lyric, "fought"

Yeah I still love this album. and that song !

also I thought she was releasing a "spoken word album" but it turns out to be the audiobook version of a poetry collection? for some reason though the concepts are sonically identical, this configuration irks me less

wait, sorry, also does this mean pitchfork is going to review an audiobook

yo this album is fucking beautiful

i spent a long time today looking at the sleeve before playing it on my crosley suitcase player. (need to fix my better turntable). it's a really interesting image--the sky looks painted, with thick brushstrokes, while the rest is a photograph. LA is burning in the background.

I'm ashamed to admit that I never looked at it closely enough to see that it was fire and smoke in the background. In my mind I just imagined it to be the orange of a sunset in the background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK1YiArMDfg

this might be my favorite track

Last year at this time, I took a long drive listening to this for about the dozenth time, and got a strong prophetic feeling about this record being the last glimpse of a crumbling society before a worldwide disaster. Fortunately 2020 has been completely eventless.

this album manages to take on the idea of america as not just a declining empire, but one that is already over, we're like living in its corpse. somehow the album sustains this big idea. it doesn't collapse under it.

The culture is lit and if this is it, I had a ball
I guess that I'm burned out after all
I'm wasted
Don't leave, I just need a wake up call
I'm facin' the greatest
The greatest loss of them all
The culture is lit and I had a ball
I guess that I'm burned out after all

Bought this a couple of months ago, played it in the car two or three times through. The thing that most struck me was how front-loaded it was--the first three songs were easily the best, I thought.