Lana Del Rey

I bought Lust for Life on CD (I’ve only ever streamed her first four albums)… I enjoy listening to it in the background while I work, so I thought it may be a good candidate for really bumping in the car.

It’s not, unfortunately… for all its 2017 chart-pop affectations (Max Martin on one track; features by The Weeknd & ASAP Rocky (twice)), the album’s almost as dreary a listen as the two before it.

There are a few bright spots, particularly the Sean Lennon duet (I really like that song). But the songwriting’s not strong overall, and Lana’s still singing in that voice that sounds like she’s half-awake… zzzz

In that interview I linked to above, she credits Antonoff as the driving force behind her artistic shift that started w/NFR! —

I give credit to Jack Antonoff. I think that his production style has such an intelligence to it that vocals have a better chance of being read correctly. There’s a little more room to process it. It was that record (Norman Fucking Rockwell!) where all of a sudden things were really different.

(To be more precise, she credits Jack A. with her change in critical fortune… although it seems like Lust for Life was pretty well-received)

Blue Banisters is her (un?)intentional Joni Mitchell masterpiece.

it's odd that BB holds together as an album as well as it does considering it's mostly (all?) outtakes

It’s about half outtakes, and yeah it’s still my absolute favorite (even allowing for Tunnel’s greatness), and speaks to the power of serendipity (or whatever). As a side note, Antonoff didn’t happen to touch that one…

yeah I think he deserves some credit but she's selling herself short, she also became a better singer and songwriter by the time NFR happened.

The interviewer in that THR piece brings up songwriting in the next question, but Lana sort of brushes it off…

Big new Harper’s Bazaar feature (I haven’t read it yet)

She released music first under her own name, as Lizzy Grant. But when that failed to chart, she chose a stage name and a new look

this isn't quite accurate, but whatevs

Blue Bannisters is an underrated album

Huh, I guess she's not engaged anymore(?) It sounds like she's not in a relationship. Anyway, not much about music in the profile.

Pretty poor article, all ‘what is her game, this is all a facade type bs”. She looks great in the photos though.

It’s a little funny how much the writer frets about Lana’s house being “stage managed” (or whatever), when she straight-up says in that Hollywood Reporter interview from September: “I bought this fucking couch for this photo shoot. It’s fire.”

is Lana single why because her new photos look intersting

I think a dozen years in folks would stop trying to be suspicious of her and her persona, I think it's really not much of a mystery anyway. Finally bought Ultraviolence on vinyl yesterday, think it might be a lesser pressing but it sounds good nonetheless.

Great photos imo

goodness her “take me home, country roads” cover is amazing. talk about a song she was born to sing…

Yeah it’s really nice

thanks for that, missed it somehow. amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muWEOXE5zeQ

Great photos imo

Hmm …

https://open.spotify.com/show/0Hop2v5dxE4EPBifmGQHml?si=ZXFYJcDRT5SC1quA8IGIWQ