Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (2023)

Candy Necklace; up there with Tulsa Jesus Freak as my favourites from 21st century Lana.

I wuz unaware of these cover connections:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsZS4FFXsAAYH0M?format=jpg&name=large

I didn't know about the blue bannisters one but the new one I saw mentioned elsewhere. that's obscure enough I don't think most people will have ever seen the original

Interesting that the new Boygenius record has the following lyric (in a song called "Leonard Cohen") – must be something in the air:

Leonard Cohen once said
"There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in"

Lana’s IG acct is public/followable again (for the moment)

Listening now - pretty but dreary, may reveal itself more on future listens.

Weird stupid thought that just popped into my head: I would love to hear a Polly Jean Harvey cover of this record.

Looks like LDR is playing a bunch of festivals this summer… I wonder if she’ll tour in the fall.

Still digging into the album but I'm enjoying it...I was going to say something lazy like "not up to the standard of NFR" but then I went back to that for the first time in a while and wow her writing has come so far since then.

(so many references to skinny dipping and otherwise disrobing - why does Lana hate clothes?)

yeah she's doing Outside Lands in SF; I hate festivals so no thank you, but I really liked the last smaller show of hers I went to (the NFR tour)

The back-to-back hit of "Paris, TX" → "Grandfather" is so absurdly lovely, it almost feels like a put-on... like when a filmmaker does something (in a movie) so audacious & virtuosic, your reflex is to laugh in disbelief.

Her vocal on "Paris" on remarkable – that clean, pure tone; I can't think if she's sung like that on a record before?

Here's a really nice (and early) example of an LDR artist name + lyric callout:

The headlights from passing cars
They illuminate my face then leave me the dark
The voice of Nirvana says, "come as you are"
And I will
The nighttime is almost ours

not new album related, but my kid pointed out too me that "Dealer" ripped off "us and them"

this is a few years old obv, from the NFR tour, but I was at this show and it was amazing; take a listen to this, particularly when the band pick up toward the end of the song and see how she sings along. I'm pretty positive this was a really pivotal and transformative show for her, since she referenced it at least twice in the lyrics of songs on the next album (she also did Diamonds and Dust with Joan Baez). Look, do I think LDR is the next Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, or Joni Mitchell? No, not really, but I really appreciate that she aspires to that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI8gg-PextE

she could, thoughm pretty easily be the next Bobbie Gentry

That was really nice, thx for posting it (I had never seen video of her performing; other than that old SNL clip...)

Anyone think the album should have led with the title track? It's got that sweep.

I’m ok with « The Grants » as an opener but the track list could have clearly been edited and structured better.

I like how it begins with a rumination on death & memory; works its way through various treatments of these topics, in often transcendent ways; turns its attn to love & marriage; and eventually closes out on an "earthy" note – like a long night talking to someone, where profound conversation diffuses into stoned goofing around.

I also keep coming back to the "intertextuality"... this is an album that namechecks John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" at the very beginning (in a context where you would not expect that song to come up!); cites a specific timecode of a Harry Nilsson track; builds entire new songs off an existing instrumental composition and a rap hook... I don't know how to articulate it, but it feels remarkable how deeply she incorporates other artists' work into her own, on levels both transcendental and "everyday" ("Me and my boyfriend listen to the Chili Peppers").

I mean, just a verse like this:

There's a girl who sings "Hotel California"
Not because she loves the notes or sounds that sound like Florida
It's because she's in a world, preserved, only a few have found the door
It's like Camarillo, only silver mirrors, running down the corridor

(apparently she's mentioned that song / the Eagles in lyrics, several times before)

And (sorry last thing), I also have to mention this verse:

They sang folk songs from the '40s
Even the fourteen-year old knew "Froggie Came A-Courtin"
How do my blood relatives know all of these songs?
I don't know anyone left to know songs that I sing

It's like there's a deep connection for her between music and experience, and music and memory, and people "living on" in others' memories (which is of course the theme of the first few songs).

apparently the boob pressing of the record omits the judah smith interlude

That's the dream track-listing. I don't really mind the second interlude now as it kind of works as an extended outro to Candy Necklaces and I like how the music swells towards the end. I don't think I've listened to the Judah Smith one more than once and I've played this album a lot already.

I listen to it every time (including around an hour ago, in the car)… but I can understand how others may skip.

Something weird about it (and maybe part of what keeps me listening) is that you assume it's just a voice note she recorded of the sermon, with music dubbed over it... but there are little bits that stick out, like applause that comes in at weird times, and (of course) the effects on her voice. Like it's just "worked over" enough to be slightly psychedelic, or whatever.

yeah i have no time for that interlude; if it were half the length, maybe.

I was going to order this but (not to sound pervy) why did they censor the boob? ffs, she posted that on instagram. I'll deal with the interlude I don't like on vinyl; I deleted it in apple music

Fwiw, the album cover itself is uncensored:

It’s just the website guys 😭 pic.twitter.com/vqc1uTClf9

— Jack Donoghue (@tulsa_lanafreak) April 12, 2023

it's kind of interesting that she hasn't unleashed an onslaught of videos for this album (so far). also, after living with this through what's easily one of the most trying periods of my life, I'm pretty comfortable saying it's one of her best.

it kind of bugged me that venice bitch made a reappearance here, but now I like it, mainly because this time it has the lines "get high, drop acid" included

Taco truck venice bitch sounds amazing on headphones. I don’t mind her covering herself because it feels like a wildly different tone.

this is a dumb observation but revisiting an old song on the last track is the second thing this album has in common with the Boygenius record; the last song on that one revisits Me and My Dog (the other common portion being the same Leonard Cohen reference).

Re: "Venice Bitch" redux... three of her albums end with covers of songs (by other artists), so maybe it kind of tracks with that impulse.

(I think "Get high, drop acid, never die" is a great way to end the album, and undercut the seriousness of its themes involving death, etc. Think I said this above, but I like how the album "lightens up" at the end... it's like a reminder that despite all the heavy stuff on her mind, she still likes to get silly and party.)

the last part of that is "lake placid" which is where her uncle hanged himself though

Lake Placid is where she grew up, no? I believe she had a teenage boyfriend there, who later died in a car accident… her uncle’s suicide was more recent, and in Colorado (according to Genius.com).

ah you are right, reddit or whatever mislead me

https://www.al.com/life/2023/07/lana-del-rey-spotted-working-in-alabama-waffle-house-she-was-super-lovely.html

OK, I will not click on the link because the story could not possibly measure up to that url.

This video came out and I missed it until the other day, very well done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2e0H6MUWyU

She was recording at Muscle Shoals over the weekend (the pics are online)