slang

I would have thought a Lana song (on the Downside? wtf) would have gone with a Danny Elfman score (on the Upside). Slightly out of place? Wonder if the styles (film score/song) are really that divergent.

I don't think Eminem's reference to LDR is a joke or there is very little in the way of humor in this rap. There may be a lot of wit and art to it, but the emotionality is all wrong for humor. Rob Grant may have nailed it by referring to the rap as an anger managment issue (or an exorcism of sorts). BTW I got lyrics from youtube user: Muhammed Atas (a true hero of the Internet, imo), who left it as a comment, which will probably be buried very soon. lyrics : I just turned Slaughterhouse to a quintet Began to trend-set, murdered the friend's pet Made shit as ill as it can get went in depth Like a fucking vignette and two bars skins wet I'm already covered in sweat And I wasn't even ready to come in yet AHH, let me set this drink down Beat up a gal, start beef with her pal Probably be wild 'til I'm wrinkled and senile And "Rap God" was a freestyle Off the top of the dome piece while I was sleep on the couch And I'm freestyling now I need a towel, sweat leaks from my brow It's burning my eyes, my cerebral is foul Cause shit I'm thinking about should be illegal I need my head banned like the guy who left Cleveland Ohio And went to South Beach with his talents Scream "fuck you" on the way out and wink with a smile This whole game can eat a dick, I'm going back deep underground But right now I'm back on that bullshit and you I'm singling out Cause you're so fucking outdated you should mingle a while What the fuck is this clusterfuck of busters Bunch of Buster Douglas', motherfuckers is one hit wonders One swing and you're crowned Knocked one out the park, one catchy jingle and now You think you fucking with me cause you sold like 300 thou Bitch, I can jump without my feet ever leaving the ground Reach up, swing from a cloud with 3 thousand people around Evil and vile enough to leap in the crowd And heave a child in a sink hole on Cinco De Mayo When I'm sprinkled in pico de gallo Mardi Gras beads in a towel I just made that up I don't know much Spanish, I'm not bilingual But I'll show you a Mexican stand off Between just these two amigos Cause neither really wants to say what we're thinking out loud But I sure as fuck think I know how rebody English, no doubt Cause we're trying to kill each other, but lyrically The fuck is humility? What is a real emcee? Royce, he came up in the shit with me Never spit that hustler shit, it wasn't a fit for me Let them adjust 'til they just get the gist of me Just not giving a fuck and plus with the history Of muscular distrophy, it wasn't a mystery Why this middle finger was stuck in this upward positioning So what in the fuck is a list to me? I'm used to not being on it, I expect it out 'em Heck wit' em, I get my respect without 'em Ain't really been into diamonds since I put my first record out But I could put a chain around my second album And wear it as a neck medallion Became a millionaire, went downhill from there Became civil, office swivel chair, sterling silverware Screaming life is still unfair til I get a real career The fuck am I gonna do until then? This job is too fulfilling Two gazillion pairs of super villain shoes to fill in And a mood to kill till I plow my Coupe de Ville To some children at the food pavilion at Build-A-Bear Warrior's mind, I’m pro-hydrocodone euphoria In the drug emporium line, I'm soaring I'm pouring Vicodin four at the time ignoring the warning signs on 'em fore I go four wheeler driving Gory and violent and horrifying You surely won't find no one more appalling Than I am with this retaliatorial rhyming for Gloria Steinem But I finger her like a witness, show me a line-up I usually am abusive, but excuse me, ma'am I guess I must've threw you for a loop like toucan Sam When I said I could use the sample cause you'se a tramp But look how you react to this trigger like When I call you a bigger dyke than the Hoover Dam You playing right in Lex Luthor's hands It's such a ruthless plan, might even lose a fan But fuck it, Superman wouldn't change in a phone booth for Stan I'm a brand new being like Grand Puba's band Happy as Anderson Cooper having a tuba crammed In his pooper with lubricant...wait, that's too... I can't Since honesty is the best policy I'll give you the old college try Try to acknowledge my mistakes, probably won't qualify As a gentleman and a scholar, but it's time that I swallow pride And say that I'm sorry, sorry that I can't apologize I think of all them times I compromised my bottom lines And thought of rhymes that sodomized your daughter's minds Then I'm like dollar signs But I may fight for gay rights especially if they dyke It's more of a knockout than Janay Rice Play nice, bitch, I punch Lana Del Rey right In the face twice like Ray Rice in broad daylight In plain sight of the elevator surveillance Til her head is banged on the railing Then celebrate with the Ravens Never date an assailant that self-medicates with inhalants I meditate, but I may need a better way to escape The aggression, rage and the anger Cause them restraints on the ankles Heavyweights and an anchor with handcuffs in chains This ain't enough to contain it But I still get the same respect as Jay if I came on Stage in a fucking negligee everyday and Liz Claiborne Devastated from breakup with Kate Hudson Wait slut, your friends, what are they gonna say Cause makeup ain't gonna cover That eye that's seven-eighths of the way shut Peppersprayed with your face cut Made my bank like a lay up Off these effing skanks on the way up Oh, bitch thinks she's heaven sent It's evident that she ain't never been with seven inches Yes, I said seven, I measured it Seven inches from the floor While I'm standing on the fourth floor balcony At the Sheridan when I'm stretching it Bitch, I'm a pimp so a limp dick is all you'll ever get So if she's hesitant to get the hint I'll bet you that I get the message sent who she's messing with Hella quick when I tell a chick not to never use sex as a weapon When I step in and beat the wretched wench with a crescent wrench Existential detriments to a lesbian devil In the unpleasant stench of an estrogen level That separatists like a Chechnian rebel Impressionist with a pencil A pessimist, with his lips pressed against The edge of this Red Bull Pedal to the metal I'm rippin' this shit cause right away I'll give it to a bitch like a pedestrian, deadly as ever You see what kind of effects she has on the opposite sex when I push her flexible little sexy ass through a plate of plexiglass SHADYXV as perplexing as The last fifteen years and I'm predicting my next relapse When I spit these lyrics so don't look at me weird When I start shifting gears and shit re-smears all over Britney Spears And these little Disney queers Who use chicks for beards? Just made that up too... Oh and the Shady 2.0 We wrote it in roman numerals like they do for the Super Bowls Cause it's supposed to confuse you hoes The flows lose you as usual, so juvenile 2 year old when I go to the studio It's only music but don't be foolish though You don't know me through it ho but you can blow me to it though In my homie's Buick Been known to lose it though so if I overdo it you drove me to it When I step in the vocal booth like I'm supposed to do And I murder you on a fuckin' track like Tony Stewart In one take, if I fuck up I don't redo it You couldn't sound grown on a beat if you were moaning to it The day I don't say fuck you all, you can throw me through it Rootinest-tootinest, shootin' this from the hip With the sentiments, Eminem isn't penning them for the women I'm an enemy to them and the epitome of an inconsiderate idiot But they consider me equivalent to chlamydia They tryna get rid of me gadzooks But I stiggity stand for the fliggity flag Of the United States and the freedom, I distribute these raps through And if I catch you doing anything Hindering or prohibiting that after I give me that Tattoo of your lips on my ass I'mma be literally Pickin' up and deliberately whippin' the Statue of Liberty at you WOOOOH! Fuck it Got it somewhere in there probably

BTW, he also smears Britney Spears in the same rap. There's a link to the whole show (a couple of rappers perform) in the article below. E is in the last 7 mins or so of it (the finale). http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/11/10/eminem-shady-cxvpher-music-video-watch/ Don't know Eminem's work. However, saying "like Ray Rice", a person universally condemned in the media right now (thanks @@Viva for first pointing that out) doesn't simply imply pro-mysogny. Still there is a lot of anger (and abusive imagery) in his rap. I think it's one of those what-should-the-limits-of-art be conumdrums and I'm sure he doesn't bear LDR any ill will (I mean why should he?). She was just the person that worked the best in the lyric. He could deflect things quite a bit by just tweeting the song has its own agenda and people should not conclude he would do in real life what he raps about.

I can't really see her kissing her sister as one of the more problematic things Lana does/say. It's homoerotic, if that is the right term, but this is not supposed to be any better or worse than heteroerotic, provocation wise--at least in an enlightened society. What they end up communicating to me is that they are exceptionally close sisters.

I can remember getting into PJ Harvey just because a youtube comment compared Noir to her work. Hit and Run was the song that shouted Gaga-esque pretentions to me. Then I started to pay attention to the song's lyrics and it made more sense.

Going out on an unpopular limb, I wish LDR would be even *more* influenced by Taylor Swift. She should release the AKA album on Spotify, and she should cull her leaks/unreleased catalog and release a killer country/folk album.

If pop has to do certain things in order to be pop, I doubt LDR would like the idea of doing a straight pop album. But I see no reason she couldn't have come up with tracklistings with a lot of light pop *heavily laced* with her special subversions of it (sort of like AKA light). Anyway, while I was archiving her leaks for myself, this playlist fell out of what was being leaked at that time. It could illustrate what I mean. Lot of great songs there (and many many more left out). Noir Dynamite Fake Diamond Back to the Basics Butterflies pt. 1 Butterflies pt. 2 Break My Fall Is it Wrong? Making Out Us against the World You and Me Pinup Galore Also is Go Go Dancer and Behind Closed Doors really that conventional (or like Britney or anyone else)? They still sound like LDR, or at least I can't imagine them easily done by anybody else.

It doesn't seem they broke up vindictively though, so I'd be really surprised if she wasn't on the track (which must exist by now as the album is in the can). If it turns out like Brooklyn Baby in execution, that's fine too (hopefully she'll at least have a writing credit). Anyway, Barry announced it directly from his facebook, which makes it different from other rumors that might be out and about right now (e.g., Kanye West one).

I don't think there's anything wrong about being curious about this, but if you're going to take a few lines out of a few songs as evidence for something there is a danger of concluding too much from too little. She also talks a lot about drinking in her songs, so BDSM may be something like that? I think she likes obsessive-love related themes (I prefer the term obsessive to submissive), and her highly emotional style makes her seem a bit more subversive (aka authentic) than average. She may have been involved with badass males as one gets involved with drugs (also in her lyrics). However, she is also ambivalent about male badasses (e.g. Butterflies pt. 1 and 2) and likes to play a badass herself (Kinda out of luck, serial killer, playing dangerous, she's not me). The badasses in Ride where remarkably not depicted as such. She emotes feministically (Scarface, Noir), and while she wants to be "one of those girls" in MariIyn Monroe, she also knows she has us totally enthralled (in Dum Dum, where we linger even though she's mean). I just don't see her art as too heavily fixated on any *one kind* of obsessiveness. As for her real life? Neither Barrie nor Francesco give me BDSM vibes, and neither does LDR, tbh, when she tweets stuff like the Ertha Kitt video on relationships and compromises. As for the "Boudoir Bible" that was referenced as being in Francessco's apt (RollingStone) @@ilovetati & @ mentioned, here's a youtube advert/video for it: There is some BDSM referenced in the diagrams, but the goal emphasized is enhancing pleasure and not hurting the partner.

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, idk. I want the Marilyn Manson, Eli Roth, LDR collabo video to be released from its vault. Maybe it'll be the new video promised this week. Maybe it's even a Christmas video.

Well at least there is a controversy in people's mind about UV (one I don't understand, but I see the argument, abandonment == lack of promotion). However, AKA doesn't have a controversy and remains an enigma (one I don't understand). I'm wondering if she wouldn't have had as much "authenticity" woes, if she would have just left that on iTunes and gone ahead with BTD.

UV sold well relative to other artists whom I like enough to buy, like St. Vincent, Blondie, and Kimbra. I'm sure these artists, who also had releases about the time of UV, would have liked to have sold as well as UV did. Another interesting comparison is Arcade Fire's Reflektor, which sold very well, but I think UV exceeded it salewise (at this relative point). Finally, Born to Die did better than UV (at this relative point). The data for these statements are based on: http://www.mediatraffic.de/previous2.htm where I've been casually tracking numbers. So it's all relative to who you want to compare her to as to how well she's doing, but I don't think LDR wants to become big in the Taylor sense. I think she just wants the kind of acceptance Arcade Fire has. I'm sure the label wants her to go further ($$$), and the cancellations are interesting as they seem mostly promos and not concerts proper. So they might reflect a kind of warring between LDR and her label or maybe she just changed priorities (both better scenarios than health issues, imo). UV also had lots of plot twists and turns (West Coast, the lead single, was originally not going to be on it, according to one interview I remember), and lots of random factors (leaks, Auerbach, breaking up with Barrie). Despite this and minimal (but ingenious?) promotion, I think UV's worth stanning for as much as the other artists, I mentioned, at least, if you're interested in stanning for a more diversified pop. I also can't help but use the closing paragraph of the NYTimes review of Taylor's "1989" to sum up (rather eerily, imo) what I think about LDR's UV (I'll substitute LDR for TS, of course). "But by making pop with almost no contemporary references, LDR is aiming somewhere even higher, a mode of timelessness that few true pop stars — aside from, say, Adele, who has a vocal gift that demands such an approach — even bother aspiring to. Everyone else striving to sound like now will have to shift gears once the now sound changes. But not LDR, who’s waging, and winning [?], a new war, one she’d never admit to fighting." http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/arts/music/taylor-swift-1989-new-album-review.html?_r=0 Interestingly, the LAtimes was less convinced by "1989", and look who's in LA and who's in NY? Maybe "Hit and Run" should be the next single for an extended UV?

I understand fans being disappointed that she doesn't tour where they are, but I don't know if 3 videos and some touring with UV material is a token gesture. However, it all depends on whether she's using her down time now to produce something new, or is going to be absorbed in another depressive cycle. I'd also be in it for her to release more of her older stuff. Now that Taylor's gone full pop, maybe she should dust off May Jailer? And she could still do new stuff at the same time, muse willing.

"Narco swing" was the it-phrase for UV, not Jazz. Not to beat a dead horse, Jazz-influence is a relative thing. LDR has it more than Taylor or Katy, and it's more of an even race for Lady Gaga. To my mind the artist that wins the "I'm serious about Jazz" war is the one who collaborates first with Esperanza Spalding, who is serious about jazz (i.e., both doing it and trying to get it more into mainstream pop).

A lot of rock is jazz influenced. In LDR's case, she does a lot of slow scatting (Brooklyn Baby, Shades of Cool), which is definitely something I could see as being closer to Ella Fitzgerald's style than Lady Gaga's. Lady Gaga appreciates jazz too, although I don't know if she does any scatting outside of her Bennett collab. Also let's not forget AKA, For K part 2, Mermaid Motel, and Yayo, seem pretty jazz-oriented to me.

One of my favorite interviews talks a little about why she wanted fame early on. Fame seems to be providing her the kinds of things she expected it could, so I would think she'd be happy about that overall. As for the negative aspects, I think she's pretty resilient about them. http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/Lizzy_grant2.shtml [she's asking about the AKA EP, which if I believe the chronology came out 2 years before AKA LP] Brea: How do you feel about how it came out? Lizzy: I am pleased. The funny thing is, if it was exactly the way I wanted, then I would say that I am completely pleased, but because it's different than I expected, I'll be pleased if many other people like it too. I feel like a shithead saying that...but I hope it gets some kind of recognition just so that I can move on and do some different things. Brea: What type of things would you move on to? Lizzy: I always expect that once I do something, I'm going be able to transition into this better life, like maybe move somewhere else or get to know more people. Ideally, I would like to move back to a little part of New Jersey or Coney Island and have people to work with on little projects like music videos, because I do much better in a box. Performing is really, really hard for me, so I would just like to have more people and more money to do more sexy projects. Brea: Sexy projects! Lizzy: Yes, I just want to have something to do all the time-- and it's easier to do when people think you're great.

Is there some kind of definitive source for these submissions and for other artists as well? West Coast - Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance Shades of Cool - Best Music Video Ultraviolence - Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album Tropico - Best Music Film If these are what they submitted, they make sense to me. If she were to nominated in all these categories it would be a pretty significant "win" even with no grammy win, because it would say she was a contender. If she got no nomination it would be a snub for saying the opposite. I see Best Pop *Vocal* Album and Best Music Film as most likely (i.e., if she were to only get two nominations). Pop makes sense from the vocal attribute as well as the attribute of being popular (i.e., sell, which UV did ok on relative to contenders in "alternative" type categories).

Is this the first full live "Cruel World" people know of? I like her more adventurous singing style on it.

So I'm not getting a feel for whether they know a camera is taking their picture or not? Am I the only one that's uncertain?

Doubt she's at Lana Boards (much), but Lady Gaga's given her thoughts on the general issue of what an icon is. She's being honored at some kind of "fashion party". Told the crowd to shut up while she was singing. http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=887665 here's the quote (occurs at end): "An icon, I believe, is somebody that has a strong message behind their beauty and I think all of the women that are here tonight have that," Gaga said on the red carpet. "I'm not sure that I have it, but I am pretty happy to be on the list with all these super models, so thank you." So what's your message LG? What's Britney's or Madonna's? Are they all the same message? How much is physical beauty (plus talent) the essence of being an icon?

I noticed @ reference points for vibrato is all released work. One thing that might bear on the recent coaching vs. she-just-does-it-just-when-she-feels-like-it issue is whether or not there are any early unreleased songs that have a similar vibrato to ITH. The best I could do in terms of a comparison (and I'm not a musician) is "A Star for Nick" (e.g. the runs starting at about 1:33). I think she's gotten better too, but I guess the question is whether it's practice effects, advice from producers, or owing to mood of the song. I'd love for her to be getting vocal coaching (and guitar coaching). @@Creyk on "the SNL travesty" and coaching thereafter. Two things: yes "in-ear monitors" after SNL by Jimmy Iovine (end of rollingstone 2014). Perhaps J.I. thought she could not properly hear herself (which I think is false). The other thing is "travesty" doesn't apply if a lot of people like these performances. For instance, I liked her SNL Blue Jeans because it had something like an accelerando in pitch (not speed) during the first 90 seconds, which was either intentional or a mistake from starting the song too low. Either way she could hear herself and knew what she was doing because her repair (or intentional innovation) was executed well. I have never tired of that performance.

Just considering LDR's physicality, she looks, imo, like she's from the same planet as Marilyn, or posesses an advanced degree in Monroeness. This is in contrast to Madonna dressing up as Marilyn, which just looks like that. Maybe LDR's photographic history (the amount of images she has relative to everyone else) supports a glamor icon view of her. On the other hand, when one says someone's an icon, one typically means it as an icon for something. So Marilyn is an icon for (dumb, smart, and/or glamorous) blondes. Elvis is an icon for (uninhibited/talented/dumb) males. Or whatever. So what should LDR be an icon for? This seems like the more relevant question. The "what is she an icon for now?" question depends on whether one knows her music well. If LDR goes on to grow as an artist and duplicates the creativity of her last 10 years, it will not be possible to selectively ignore her artistic side, and this would undoubtedly make her an icon for something, or perhaps an iconoclast relative to pop music. It is this sense that I hope she becomes more "iconic". Also: @ : "She is every icon". I interpret this as: she dwells on "the past" (including past icons) and so is kind of a meta-icon, which is a neat role in pop. LDR's interest in the past keeps us aware of both artistic progress and regression, which is a good thing. For instance, I wasn't aware of The Doors or Jeff Buckley prior to LDR's saying she liked them. By making me aware and by my becoming more familiar with these artists, she has raised the bar on artistic accomplishment both for herself and everybody else, imo.

Here's a more direct link to the article: http://www.tovima.gr/vimagazino/interviews/article/?aid=619946 If you're using google chrome, the translation from Greek may emphasize things differently. And yes, the title of the article according to google is "Adolescent depression of Lana Del Rey" The interview has familiar answers because she has stock answers to stock questions, which is fine. The "Johnny Mitchell" blooper suggests LDR doesn't preview her interviews but this could be an error in translation (google makes the error). The translation found by @@GodBlessMe is by a human, so I'll generally quote it. <<Your songs seem to put melancholy in an environment of opulence. Is this your intention or does this happen accidentally? I feel like I make happy songs, but when others listen to them, they think they’re sad. I can’t escape from my life, which has been wavy. Three years after my debut album, I’m still suffering from self-doubt and depression. Ahead of me there’s uncertainty and a feeling of emptiness. I don’t like it when I don’t know where I’m going. My love life, my family – are so fragile. I’m not sure of anything.>> <<google translate: "I feel that I make happy songs but when I put the others to hear me say how sad it is. I can not get out of my life, which has been turbulent. Three years after my debut yet tormented by doubt and sadness together. In front of me there is only uncertainty and a sense of emptiness. And I do not like to not know where I'm going. The love my life, the family is so fragile - I'm not sure of anything. ">> Sounds like a fear of loss, with depression following from imagined loss. Her love life as "fragile" I can well understand, but her family relationships seem extraordinarily good to me (lives with her siblings also compare her relationship to her father with Katy Perry's relationship to hers). Maybe she fears an asteroid strike, idk. "Three years after my debut album...": I really needed a question about AKA right about there. Eternally frustrated. Also, "self-doubt" but about what exactly? I can't believe it's her songs as she says later her music is "quite good", but we're never really clear about the scope of that statement (or which music she is talking about). She also talks about her "muse" being absent for years (below), which I haven't really observed actually. <<<Do you believe in talent? I feel like I have a charisma to make music. However, these last years there were times when I hadn’t written a word I liked and I prayed for my muse to come back to me. And suddenly, last winter, a song like ” Old Money ” came to my mind. ...>>> << google translate: "I feel that I have a gift: to make music. However, in recent years there were long periods when I did not write a word that I loved and prayed to return my muse. And suddenly, this year the winter a song like "Old Money" came to me as epiphany (pp .: with a little help from Nino Rota). ...>>> So I'm wondering if she's talking specifically about not liking Hollywood, JFK, Starry Eyed, and AFFA? Does she mean specifically the lyrics? Is she also including all those weird (but wonderful) leaks that came before (Go Go Dancer, Hollywood's Dead, Live or Die, Dum Dum, Maha Maha ...)? You get the idea of the kind of gaps I'd like filled by these interviews. These interviewers don't know her past work well. <<<Which part of your work is pleasure and which part of your work is torture? Pleasure starts and ends with recording the album. Then the pain starts, touring, promotion, difficult stuff. Because even if I try to convince myself it’s okay, misunderstandings and twisted ideas regarding who I am, are constantly being spread around, and I feel like I have to stand up for myself, like I have to excuse everything I do and I don’t need that. My music is quite good for me to not need to excuse myself. Deep inside, I’d rather keep silent.>>> But the leaks/unreleased mean she can't really keep "silent" ever. She can only ignore them. As far as her released stuff, all she has to do is keep re-stating that her creations are not advocations for lifestyles, etc. If her songs have an autobiographical element, so what? Would people have rather she not make art out of it? The misunderstandings should simply go away, or if not, she needs to start weighing the positive regard (for her work) equally with the negative regard. There is also a comparison issue. Why should she be compared to Swift, Perry, or Adele, and not Kanye, Lou Reed, Dylan, and perhaps some death metal people. What about Liz Phair? If she were compared to the right reference group, neither her work nor herself would seem extreme ("misunderstanding and twisted ideas"?). For instance, I get the feeling that had Dylan written National Anthem or This is What Makes Us Girls, two songs that are pretty Dylanesque, at least in the lyrics, imo, he would have been hailed (again) a genius. LDR writes them and we saw what happened.

She's not getting "critical acclaim" for it, but various media are taking the video as serious and not cringeworthy. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/video-latest-lana-del-rey-722366 http://www.complex.com/music/2014/07/lana-del-rey-ultraviolence-video http://www.nme.com/news/lana-del-rey/78871 http://www.underthegunreview.net/2014/07/30/watch-lana-del-rey-prepare-for-her-wedding-day-in-the-official-video-for-ultraviolence/ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/lana-del-rey-plays-a-bride-without-a-groom-in-ultraviolence-video-20140730

Her diversity in video style is pretty large (not unlike her songs,when you include unreleased). She has splurged on past videos, like Tropico which is a (numeric) failure, but only in comparison to her more epic successes, which obviously had good budgets too. It really is an assumption that she had any money at all to do anything, and if she didn't have any money, what she did really wasn't that bad. If it's a faint for something better later on (I'm still hopeful about that), I don't think she'd divulge anything (I mean why would she, when all she's gonna get are endless "is it finished yet?" questions). So what other videos did she mention might be produced? Also you got to love the way she's jacked Lorde's "anti-popstar" position (i.e., produced by iPhone, she brags), while remaining true to her dark sense of humor and kinky weirdness. The media soundbites on the video are also taking it seriously (they just describe the premise of the video, and usually fairly well, e.g. Rollingstone's). They are curiously non-opinionated (aka haven't slammed it yet). So what gives? Anybody hear any highly negative review from a music industry pundit about this?