slang

Frank Ocean is a similar artist in some respects. Channel Orange is a lot poppier than his current release, which is considerably more downbeat and introspective (although I haven't listened to it extensively yet). So LDR and FO have a similar artistic progression going on, and it will be interesting to see how much Blond(e) sells. They're both sensitive souls, but LDR's artistic intentions are more cinematic and nostalgic. FO is more hip-hop (which is more mainstream) and he was also the darling of the Grammy's when Channel Orange was considered. The quality-appreciating demographic is highly capricious in the sense that there are a lot of albums out there that don't sell but still have a lot of quality. It is simply the case that some types of quality sell more than others. Maybe Florence's last album is a good comparable to HM (although I don't know it very well). Maybe HM didn't do quite as well as that, but still given the type of music on HM (which is considerably more deviant from the mainstream), the fact that it's at 60 or 70% of HBHBHB would be significant to me. And I don't think HM sales are all "momentum" effects of previous albums but reflect the quality of the songs, which are outstanding relative to average artists. Hopefully HM will surpass Enya's last release (which is now somewhere between HM an HBHBHB).

They gave Cedric an award for making an original song less original and this is ironic given LDR's "authenticity" issues. I'm sure she appreciates the irony, and if there is a "feud" I think it's all on Cedric's side. Also glad to hear she got royalties, as I don't think she actually got a grammy as part of his win. Also I doubt it's her most recognized song among fans; among non-fans I don't know.

All I've heard is the infamous song introduction to SS at one of her concerts when she referred to the remix. Nothing else. She did thank the Grammys on Cedric's win: https://twitter.com/lanadelrey/status/428840552851709953 It might have galled her that the remix did so well; however, SS the original did well too (at least as far as streams), and I can wonder whether SS would have done as well if a cheesy remix wasn't around to make people curious about the original. She might have also been pissed if her MV for SS was remixed too, when the remix played on MTV, as I seem to remember happening. Also she didn't win anything for the Prisoner collabo with the Weeknd; she was only nominated by virtue of the album of the year nomination for the album that contained it. Taylor Swift (and Imogen Heap!) won AOTY grammys.

To tell you the truth, I don't know, but I did find an academic essay about it in google. Though I don't think it's a very good one, I still like the title (and the last paragraph). Enjoy. http://www.buzzbinpadillacrt.com/if-variety-is-the-spice-of-life-diversity-is-the-main-course/

The interesting thing about comparing her to a male is how hard it is to do, given the femininity of her music and the fact that males tend to run in packs (bands). Chris Isaak has been brought up frequently, probably mostly on the dimension of his lyrics. On the sedative dimension of singing (which I don't abide by as characterizing LDR's singing) I ran into some vocal Chet Baker recently, and think I see why LDR likes him (if she does), but he seems pretty bland (and sedating) by comparison. LDR is closer to Elton, especially if her unreleased bops are considered. It's also possible to compare LDR albums to certain *male* albums that you are reminded of because of abstract similarities (or just idiosyncracies in your taste and way of grouping albums, idk). This way of doing it at least gives people specific targets to listen to, although this is probably a topic for Lana Thoughts (and I seem to remember a thread on "male LDRs" there, though it wasn't restricted to musical dimensions). As a for instance, for some odd reason I see BTD as similar to Electric Light Orchestra's (Jeff Lynne's) Eldorado. I haven't really studied the lyrics of the latter (which seem to be about some guy carousing about in some fantasy world with some dangers) but the quality/similarity of the melodies within the album on most of his songs suggest the quality/similarity of melodies of BTD, notwithstanding the great difference in male/female perspectives (and the actual type of melodies) on the two albums. As for HM, what male albums are similar to it? That's a tough one. A sad Frank Sinatra (e.g., When no one cares), Elvis Costello's North?, Steely Dan's Gaucho or Don Fagan's Nightfly? The plaigarism/influence issue: The reason LDR doesn't sue Taylor or Halsey or anybody else is that she is pretty guilty of the same sort of thing. I mean Big Eyes references Sounds of Silence, Salvatore -- Careless Whisper, Old Money -- Nino Rota, Gramma has a verse melody similar to Ozzy Osbourne's I just want you ....). Some of these are just tonal collisions; some of these are intentional postmodern references. However, sometimes I think she's taking a political position (i.e., Communism) with respect to tonality being a shared and limited resource. I have inferred this from seemingly random acts like choosing Sleepwalk for the intro of her endless summer tour, which sounds remarkably like Born Free, a later song that famously won an Oscar for best song. She also likes Pharell Williams's facebook page on her facebook (and I wish I knew the timing on that). Pharell was successfully litigated for being too close in vibe (#@!) to a Marvin Gaye song (which I think ludicrous), and given the small number of pages LDR likes and the fact that she's never worked with him, I interpret this as a show of support for Pharell's case position. Simply calling a (short) sequence-of-notes-overlap or a vibe similarity plaigarism potentially (and I think actually) "hamstrings" the space of possible pop songs one could write. It also ignores the importance of the unique aspects of a song. However, this is still a difficult issue for me, and my opinion of how much an artist rips off another artist critically depends on the quality of stuff happening outside of the overlap. Oh and if we're still opining on what the original inspiration of Stairway to Heaven is, check out Gentle Giant's Nothing at All. Some suspect a very heavy influence of that song; however, Led Zeppelin did more than enough to generate a distinct song (and both songs are great).

Bear in mind I'm just trying to make the conversation interesting. I don't have as low opinion of TS and A as you do (although I'm forced to the Ryan Adams version of 1989 for assessing it albumwise). Also TS had Imogen Heap co-write one of her songs (and she won a grammy when Taylor did for AOTY, woo hoo!). But if LDR's HM is more diverse than the two top-selling albums of the recent past, it's at least good for her as an artist. What about most recent Chelsea Wolfe and St. Vincent, and note we're talking diversity and not quality (i.e., both CW and SV are pretty tight stylists on their last releases). What about the most recent Bjork or Kate Bush (also tight stylists)? Elsewhere I said Back to Black was a great recreation of new exemplars from an older era. http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/6841-honeymoon-post-release-and-discussion-thread/?p=322310 HM being "futureretro" is not so much into recreation of specific era songs but more into synthesis old/new. I don't see as huge a production overlap among songs such as HM, TBD, SS, R, 24, F, AD, TLY as you do. They seem to emphasize different instruments (real or synthetic), though they are all tight and intimate songs. Adele's 19 is really good too; however, I wouldn't say the production or cohesiveness or whatever, as great as it is, is very ambitious or original. For instance, it doesn't have any of the elaborate vocal production (harmonizing and overdubs), nor the vintage strings (HM), nor horns (24), nor soundsamples/vocal distortion (S, MTWBT) that HM has. HM seems more experimental (and LDR is the lead producer). Finally, if you compare LDR to Ella Fitzgerald (at least the songs I suggested), it is also true that they use the same instruments repackaged on songs (essentially piano, sax, bass, maybe even some electric guitar, and big band orchestration) to achieve a variety of songs without overdubbing (everything's live).

If she didn't forget, then it was an attempt to engage the crowd in some fashion, or shake them out of a perceived complacency, which I tend to believe is the situation. I see LDR as having an adaptive mindset (some would say delusion) of viewing any concert (no matter how large, outside lands 75k?) as an informal (small venue) setting. This is not to deny that she seems to do better at small venues; however, I think she's attempting to get over that. Or maybe she did forget, but her style of recovery was intended to make me (and others hopefully) come up with the explanation I just offered.

If that's your perception, fine. But I still think the interesting question is diversity "relative to", with lots of comparison choices. So for instance, if you listen to Adele's 25 or Taylor's 1989 are they more diverse in some way? IMO, no.

If you just mean diversity in tempo there's no argument, but diversity in color and mood there's certainly variation in HM. TBD, HM, SS (my top tier) don't seem alike to me. F,AD, R, S, TBD, 24 (a consecutive stretch) seem pretty varied. HM and TLY have varied production (as only TLY is really stripped back). But again if tempo's the lionshare of diversity for you there's no arguing that. It's more useful to compare her to others and ask if the amount of diversity she shows (even in tempo) is less (or more). So how diverse is she relative to Adele, White Lung, Bat for Lashes, to pick some random examples from my pop music consciousness? Ella Fitzgerald is an interesting artist to compare LDR/HM to, given LDR's posturing as a "jazz singer". So, for instance, I have a "best of the songbooks disc 1 CD of Ella, which has some slow, saddish, songs and fewer uptempo ones, and it's on spotify (as well as HM of course). If I create a playlist that alternates songs from that CD and HM, the songs mesh well, imo (can't remember if I altered Ella's song ordering a bit to do that, but it doesn't seem like I did much). Considering Ella is one of the greatest pop/jazz singers of the 20th century and had some of the greatest songwriters behind her (Gershwin, Porter, Ellington), I stan for LDR quite well to say that even if she doesn't blow Ella away in terms of singing or song quality; neither is she blown away (i.e., the plot of Rocky I). Of course, your opinion may differ, but my main point is that it's an interesting comparison (i.e., possibly relevant to LDR's artistic intentions) for determining how much variety (or quality) there is in HM songs. Here's the playlist, if you'd like to do your own assessment of cross-generational singing. They don't always alternate as sometimes there'll be two shortish tracks of the same artist preceding a longer track of the other. Some of the transitions seem conversational (e.g., HBTB and Miss Otis Regrets are both revenge songs). Also there are provocative lyrics across *both* generations on some songs (Love For Sale, what the heck is that about?) Something's Gotta Give Love Is Here To Stay Honeymoon Bewitched, Bothered, And Bewildered Music To Watch Boys To I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm Terrence Loves You The Lady Is A Tramp God Knows I Tried I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) High By The Beach Miss Otis Regrets Freak 's Wonderful Art Deco Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea Burnt Norton (Interlude) Religion Love For Sale Salvatore They Can't Take That Away From Me Midnight Sun The Blackest Day Hooray For Love 24 Why Was I Born? Swan Song Cotton Tail Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

While I'm in full agreement about the desire for streaming, the need for DVDs, and switched up playlists etc. On the upside it does seem like she's exercising her backup singers more this concert (judging from the Blue Jeans and other performances). Gives me hope that a live Axl Rose Husband is possible. The Honeymoon performance was really badass imo, meaning she's doing live the way live is supposed to be done relative to studio. Also performances are beginning to trickle into youtube. Not quite sure what is referenced by "National Anthem Parody", @@PlaceboHoliday, but if it's New Americana song that's unfair given NA is often criticized for being like another song (Bittersweet Symphony, a Verve song?). I think Halsey getting into OTTR is a good sign. At the very least it shows she enjoys the song, and thinking speculatively she may want to be well regarded by LDR (also the scowling brunette in the background, maybe she's trying to rile her, lol). BTW, great work covering the concerts @@PlaceboHoliday.

Well anything's possible given the absence of any discussion about it. But if she wanted to re-release and her (new) label prevented it (i.e., it was certainly not 5 points as they had the most to gain from it), I'd be curious as to how their motivations were stated (and LDR might have talked about that to give closure to the album). However, my default position has to be that it was LDR's call, as she's said on occasion that the label let's her do what she wants. Perhaps her reasons are similar to why Alanis Morrissette and Tori Amos never re-released their initial work, although I'm not too clear on their motivations either.

Don't think you mentioned that she briefly considered re-releasing it, then changed her mind. That is she did, in fact, have the rights to re-release it whenever she wanted too, but then elected not to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lana_Del_Ray_(album) "In January 2012, upon the release of her major-label album, Born to Die, Del Rey stated to the BBC that she recently bought back the rights of the album and was planning on re-releasing it in the Summer of 2012." She remarked that "it was pretty good" (i.e., the 2nd article, wikipedia references for my quote, has that statement). I'm sad she doesn't have it on catalog, but respect her decision to keep it suppressed, if that's what she really wants to do. Although I do wish she were more like Tyler the Creator and just release it on her website (i.e., I got Bastard at oddfuture.com, which if that was an illegal download, it sure fooled me).

Let me apologize in advance for tldr, but in broad strokes she's had several different kinds of impacts: To Pop music: Attention to detail, as in lush orchestrations, melody, emotional expression in melody, and the patience and confidence to go slow. Details are also historical in the sense that she is the fan of older-era music and thinks that there is more to be mined there in terms of extending styles and in terms of dropping references. She's certainly not the first artist to do any of these things, of course. I think she shares with Kate Bush a kind of courage to break from the mainstream and a conviction to do the kind of stuff she likes, and as with Kate Bush, to the extent she succeeds, she encourages other artists to do the same. Also as with Kate Bush, her videography is significant. Comparing LDR's videos to others often seems like comparing The Seventh Seal to The Revenge of the Nerds pt. 3. To Music criticism: BTD debunked music criticism in the sense of showing the critical community could be against something that the general public actually liked. In effect, the critical community could not predict or understand why people liked her music, and as such showed itself woefully deficient at doing their jobs. The issue of "authenticity", while people made a big deal of it, always seemed to me to be a red herring. It was the singing and the music, not an implied message or musical pedigree, that people responded to (and critics did not). I recommend looking at the Tiny Mixtapes reviews of BTD, UV, and HM to see an especially eventful evolution in a critical opinion of her. To Feminism: I think when the smoke clears it will be the case that LDR's ambivalent stance on feminism actually made her a feminism poster-girl, simply because she did all the stuff expected from males but got blamed for it far more than they did. As such she implicitly defines someone who should be given positive attention by feminists, not negative. Liz Phair made this point about LDR well before LDR's feminism-quote faux pas (I wonder if she still holds that opinion). Another way of stating the argument is this: LDR has songs where she's hung up on a guy, but you don't think Van Halen, Chris Isaak, Frank Sinatra (or countless others) have similar amounts of songs about obsessive love interests? Well if you're ragging on her but not them, then you are in some sense anti-feminist by not supporting gender-irrelevancy in freedom of choice for (legal) human behavior. I think videos like Ride complicate the issue, but they don't undermine them. There the issue is whether art has any moral or social obligation to promote feminism, or any other kind of humanism or pro-social cause, no matter what. Certainly a lot of art does this, and that's fine, but the deeper issue is whether it's a requirement for something to be art (e.g., a lot of people think Nabokov's Lolita is a great book, but the book was still banned by some on moral grounds and/or was not considered art by some). Shout out to Morrissey: I might cite this guy as an "influence" on LDR, but in fact he is just a great precursor with respect to her, meaning he's similar to LDR, imo, but much much more extreme on certain dimensions of behavior. It is therefore interesting to compare his experiences with the media with LDR's. I think he's a great singer/songwriter. He's also sadcore like LDR yet more often upbeat musically. However, his sadcore lyrically is so much more extreme than LDR's, that he's one of the reasons I don't get why people refer to LDR's songs as being sad (I mean compared to him, LDR seems closer to Kimbra). He's also VERY unfiltered with respect to what he will say to the media on issues that are important to him. In particular his comments on suicide are just mind-boggling (e.g., "it's admirable" though he would not elect to do so himself--Larry King 2015 about 16:30 into the interview, and he was one of the few people, in 1995, to have ever said he admired Kurt Cobain's suicide). He is an acknowledged depressive, so the media goes easy on him. He is male too, of course, and I suspect that also helped him. He doesn't like current pop. Larry King 2015 asked him about Sam Smith and Noel Gallagher (17:30) into the interview, he basically declined from saying anything other than he didn't like anything at all; however, when Larry asked him about Sinatra, Morrisey did a shout out to Nancy Sinatra, which makes me wonder how he would have responded if Larry had asked about LDR. Probably very disdainfully, but we'll probably never know. Just some minor quibbles. Chris Isaak on the influencee list: I recall LDR being compared to CI many times but not the other way around. I vaguely remember a video interview where LDR said she liked him (around the same time I heard about the French referring to LDR as CI's "granddaughter"--wish I could find the cite for that). I think it makes perfect sense that LDR would like CI quite a lot, as he's kind of an evolved Elvis, and CI cites Elvis as a major influence. Name Dropping as an LDR influence on others: I see LDR's name dropping as part of her assimilation of a general hip-hop/rap influence where name dropping is common (e.g. Tyler the Creator dropping Bruno Mars' name in Yonkers, in 2011). I give LDR credit for doing name-dropping especially good, though sadly she does this the best in her unreleased (e.g., Last Girl on Earth, Axl Rose Husband). On the other hand, it may be the case that name-dropping became more popular in pop after her, idk. Lana bringing retro back: I think both LDR and Adele have cited Amy Winehouse as the main influence on that. But ditto my last "on the other hand".

Unpopular opinion 1: As for LDR's performance... Given she is a writer first and a performer second I take very little offense at her imperfections, which others have often pointed out can be endearing relative to the typical pop juggernaut. I sometimes think she drops lyrics and cuts off her ooohs (see Freak at Moscow) just to prove she's not lip synching. However, I do wish the backup "singers" were more prominent and seemed less like they were lip synching to stems on some songs (Lolita?), although on the second part of the bridge to Freak (in Moscow), it seemed like they were actually harmonizing with her (but it's very fleeting). Hopefully, she's breaking them in and has more extensive plans for them later. Unpopular opinion 2: Who needs TV and radio exposure when whole concerts are on youtube and all the streaming services, including the free ones, have her albums. Another thing that occurs to me is that the artist probably isn't paid much for either, as both types of exposure can be likened to commercials for the artist. By that logic, maybe it's the case that artists need to pay to be on TV shows? Unpopular observation?: Live Yayo was beautiful, but also a good example of the poetic licenses she takes with songs. It's about a friend in New Jersey, she now says, yet it's only 2 hours to Nevada by black motorcycle? I don't think it's even 2 hours by commercial plane. However, not criticizing, just pointing out lyrics can be fanciful about whatever situation has inspired it.

Maybe she has come to realize that capitalizing the Del in her name is like a grammatical error and is trying to make the "cultural appropriation" of her stage name (not that I'm hung up on that) a bit more veridical, as using "del" seems comformant with other usages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_del_Rey interestingly his original name seems to have been Leonard Knapp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_del_Rey,_California Or maybe she is making her stage name more into the sentence Lana of the King (Elvis long-lost illegitimate daughter? Poor Rob. Or maybe she refers to Rob as the King, who knows).

I've yet to hear any booing from all the social media samples and youtube I've been catching; however, it occurs to me that I really don't know why she was angry or sad. It could have been because they said no way/no how for her going into the pit to schmooze with the audience. Or it could be that it's dawning on her that those kind of days are over in view of Christina Grimme. And even if it were a crowd-response thing, she did not let that effect her performance, which is good training for her. I mean she did Yayo (which I loved) in spite of the crowd (or maybe she decided to throw it in as a response who knows). Hopefully, she does Yayo more fully as a jazz cabaret-type piece in Montreux. Still looking for HM (the song performance) from TW on youtube. If anyone saw it on periscope, did the back up singers harmonize at "Dark Blue"? I saw a decent UV. It's hard to tell, but if the dancers sing well (which I hope they can), she could have used them more for that nice chorus-like backing on the bridge of the song.

I forgot or maybe just didn't even know she had played this venue! Here's National Anthem from 2012. But this time around she's at a higher position and less intimate venue, the Stravinski Auditorium. Same place Muse, ZZ Top, Neil Young, Herbie Hancock, and PJ Harvey are playing at the festival. Interesting how the festival has diversified over the years.

In the periscopes I saw she mentioned wanting to see Bruce's show on two separate occasions (?) in her audience banter. So she did mention him. So American might have been an interesting choice. Anything that breaks down her inhibitions and makes her more comfortable and varied in her performances on stage is great in my book. So if the backups work for that I'm fine. I'm also hoping that they take on more non-trivial backup singing, because I think, as @@Flipflopfan suggested, some of her songs really need it (e.g., TBD, 24). Hopefully, we'll hear more of them at Montreux, where singing a vocal line to an album background stem (?) is not going to be a palatable option.

Well, if you insist ... For all we know, Serial Killer might be Lana Del Rey's most influential song. I wish I knew how to attach a still image to a post. However, I'll just say that what Christina Aguilera does at about 33 secs into her "Your Body" video cracks me up every time I see it, and btw, she also starts the video off by playing video games. I'm not saying she's a rip off; however, the person in me that ships LDR and CA likes to think of the "Your Body" video (released about 2 months after Serial Killer leaked?) as a homage to Serial Killer. And if that isn't enough there's also this. LOL, I ship LDR and these guys too, but man this video is pretty darn dark: Of course, LDR's song isn't as over-the-top and literal as either of these two videos are, which I find ironic, given she wasn't considered a very subtle songwriter during the BTD era. However, at the risk of sounding pretentious, don't most people understand serial killing in the song to be metaphoric for serial relationships, and don't most people assume it's a female "serial killer", maybe someone a little like LDR?

On Spotify, HM has approximately 162 million streams. This may not seem like a lot considering LDR has songs from previous eras streaming at least as much as all of HM; however, using Billboard's conversion 1500 streams == 1 album sold, counting Spotify streams would be an extra 108k albums sold. I'm assuming that wasn't included in your estimate (or maybe it was?), but I'm curious as to whether or not people think it should be, or whether streams are included in eventual sales "certifications". Also does anyone know if she has comparable streaming numbers in other (paid for) streaming services?

Interesting point, but I don't think UV was much about Barrie, or even in reaction to Barrie, but about being the other woman or being in, or addicted to, abusive relationships (at least for the first half of UV). Maybe Barrie "facilitated" things by being dark at the time, but he was definitely not intended as the topic. Also I think she was intentionally shooting for "dark" on UV as a critic-reaction to Born to Die (which we can now understand as her HAPPY album, LOL). Probably Black Beauty was about Barrie, but that's about it. On the other hand, Barrie's (also great) album Cold Coffee, is about Lana, sort of. However, what is most interesting about the album is that it is virtually all about his internal feelings, with nothing much external blamed or referenced as to what went wrong. I also think he still adores her, well at least there's this cryptic tweet (the pronoun "her" is left unspecified): https://twitter.com/NightmareBjo/status/732047059310804992 and some interesting twitter banter from him from time to time. However, at the end of "Thunder" (and admittedly he's very sloppy on the enunciation of that critical word) he makes it a little more clear that he's moved on, imo.

Just thought I'd embellish SOME of your lyrics transcription with what I hear: Untitled 123 Sadness happens again, it’s becoming my friend I’ve not been out for days Oh this food makes me sick Palms are sweaty and thin What is she to you (?) What’s this thing in my mind, things are harder to find And I miss when I was young He hits me with a blow (?) cause he wants me to show Whatever’s on my mind Now as the sun shines bright he’s my only light of day hears me say (?) I take a lonely fight with my lonely mind to say Who’s this devil in my mind? Making love so hard to find I’m looking all the time I made a deal and there's no going home One side is (?) face it on your own And all will be revealed Now as the sun shines bright, he’s my only light of day hears me say Take your lonely fight with my lonely mind to say X2 Interpretation: may be about viewing ones depression objectively and disassociatively with constructive sympathy ("As the sun shines bright, he's my only light of day" as well as the overall topic being about a conversation with himself of sorts) Wherever I go I don’t mean to be shy I want to talk with you Son what have you done? Oh she’s made a mess of you Can it be perfect? Can it be real? Gone, maybe she’s gone Oh You’ve got more time to lose You give, you give all you had Oh but it only works if you Wished to be perfect Wished to be real And is it so simple To live in a feel. Oh I Oh I’m tired And why won’t the sun shine When I really need it to And oh how to be old (?) When everything was new Can it be perfect? Can it be real? And is it so simple To live in a feel Oh but i Oh I’m tired X2 And wherever you go And whatever you do You know I’m always counting for you Honey (?) I feel bad for you And whatever you need And wherever you go You feel life is running so (cold?) Honey (?) I feel bad for you I feel bad Interpretation: pretty self-evident. But "To live in a feel" works much better for me and sort of reminds me of John Lennon. Could it be a reference to a song? Thunder Time’s getting older Whilst I lay under I love the way the night knows Remembered how I found you My crazy baby She’s always a maybe Another way she fooled me You're the girl you can’t be You wake so gentle I wake up mental I want to kiss your eyes babe She blows my fucking mind away Love from a distance She drives me closer Anyways I’ll find you If you really want me to Time’s getting older Whilst I lay under I love the way the night knows I love the way your mind moves <<WHISPERS: What happened? I love her. I love. >> Hidden track Before I sleep and kill the day I wanna kiss your pain away You are my girl the only one in the world And I promise you everything And after this would you spare me a kiss? I need to show you who I am I wanna see you I wanna know you I heard the whisper, it came from the night Said I’m running out of time You’re so beautiful So beautiful So, so, so beautiful I’m sorry honeeee And in the night I started falling out of LOVE Out of LOVE And in the night there lies a girl She’s waiting for me Interpretation: The crucial difference is at the very end, where, even though the whole song agonizes over her, he finally indicates he is over her (or was at least starting to be over her).

This story greatly increases my anxiety and paranoia about the world. If it was a random derranged stalker that did it, perhaps a background check could have prevented it; however, I would say pragmatically, it was that Christina wasn't treated like an airport security checkpoint, that caused her to die, more so than the lax gun-control legislation did. I mean I'm very much in favor of gun control; however, the local security is something one can control, whereas gun-control legislation not so much. Obviously, you want to do both. However ANY entertainer SHOULD rethink the simple pragmatics of gun control for events like this, and I'm expecting all of them to do so, because of this tragic event. http://www.tmz.com/2016/06/11/voice-christina-grimmie-murder-guns/ I remember Christina Grimmie because I watched the Voice her season. She did an impressive performance of Perry's Dark Horse. She was ultimately a finalist, who got a record deal (I think), so we might eventually hear what was to be her debut record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNNqSf2sxKw

This is actually an argument that she could do just what @@graham4anything suggests. I mean she wouldn't care about preventing it. However, I hope she continues to support the free, non-exclusive Spotify streaming service. I don't know if Spotify exploits artists or not, but as a consumer and occasional overall music enthusiast (pop and otherwise), it's very nice (and the lyrics function, if they ever get that working again, is great too, do other services have that?). The "surprise" tactic for a release just seems to be something people do to prevent leaking before official release. And if she ever did grace us with a surprise, releasing the leaked/suppressed digitally (and maybe use the streaming service to help sell them) would be my wish. Maybe they'd not make as much as any new release would, but they'd make more than they currently do.

So long as it's not the chorus of Salvatore, which I associate with Kurt Cobain (i.e., "A mullato, an albino, a mosquito, my libido" (from Feels like Teen Spirit), and which I really like. but: All the lights are sparkling for you it seems On the downtown scenes, shady blue Beatboxing and rapping in the summer rain Like a boss, you sang jazz and blues is kind of meh, I guess; however, not absurdly bad (if that is in fact what she's singing,idk). Is it because one is lead to think she's talking about a mafioso in the first verse and a street bohemian in the 2nd verse? And for more "shocking" lyrics: "We all know that it's not fashionable to love me" which the critics had a field day with wrt her career, but completely ignores the shady super-criminal she's apparently saying it to (which makes me think the song's character is a prostitute). And yeah, "Dark Blue" is a simple lyric, but I give her some credit for singing it like a Gregorian chant in multi-part harmony. and "you're so ghetto ..." which got people upset (for various reasons). Art Deco isn't meaningless, although the title seems contrived so she can rhyme with that line. Still it's about teenagers who go out at night (I mean she said this in an interview). I guess they have a certain look too. Some here have also compared it to Carmen 2.0. And Freak... I'm reading the Electric KoolAid Acid Test (Tom Wolfe) now, which is about Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and his entourage of acid droppers, who travel across America in a bus. I'm not too far into it, but it does seem related to the song (and more so the video, of course). The word "freak" (along with the word "thing") was an especially important word in the early 60s and Wolfe made a point (in '68) of saying this in the first chapter (pg. 10). "...Thousands of kids were moving into San Francisco for a life based on LSD and the psychedelic thing. Thing was the major abstract word in Haight-Ashbury. It could mean anything, isms, life styles, habits, leanings, causes, sexual organs; thing and freak; freak referred to styles and obsessions, as in "Stewart Brand is an Indian freak" or "the zodiac--that's her freak," or just to [acid?] heads in costume. It wasn't a negative word. ..."