slang

I agree, she's not an enigma that has to be rationalized, but I think there is enough ambivalence (and clear statements) in her lyrics that she *can*, in her current UV album, be rationalized in feminist (or humanist) terms. I mean what if LDR had said something like this: "the major theme to UV is that these (submissive?) toxic relationships I've had with my men parallel the toxic the relationships my men have had with drugs, but like my men I can't (easily) stop it." Maybe she doesn't mean this in UV (although that's my preferred interpretation), but her lyrics have enough flexibility or vagueness to allow interpretations like this. There's also a lot throughout UV that suggests she doesn't enjoy the relationships she's singing about, but that she was addicted to them. I mean sure there's the song Ultraviolence, but doesn't that strike people as a sad song? And there are songs like Cruel World and Pretty When You Cry where she is more explicit about not liking the situation. Zoladz doesn't connect the dots as I would wish. From PWYC: All those special times I spent with you my love They don't mean shit compared to all your drugs But I don't really mind, I've got much more than that Like my memories, I don't need that I'll wait for you, babe You don't come through, babe You never do, babe It's just what you do

Money Power Glory at about 1:57 for about 15 secs seems to phase in to a slowed or maybe key-altered version of "Us Against the World". In fact, the words seem conceptually related to UATW at that point too.

I wasn't impressed by the article either. The comments about SNL performances were biased. The "truth" is that there is a fence and about half the people on one side of it like the SNL performances and on the other side of the fence they hate it (actually the likes exceeded the dislikes something like 60/40 on youtube when SNL performances were on LanaDelReyVevo). I for one see those performances as the official start of my fandom. The other thing the article did, which was kind of shameless, is represent Lizzy Grant's persona with the performance that best illustrated the idea that the LDR transformation from Lizzy Grant was "inauthentic". If they'd have used her 2008 NY Living Room performance of Yayo instead, people would be much more confused about who would win a fanciful bitch fight (Lizzie Grant vs. Lana Del Rey). However, the article does provide the SNL Video Games performance, which is surprising to me because I thought LDR shut them all down. I predict that video will be gone soon, so enjoy it (or not) while it lasts!

Maybe a 70 or better is overstating a bit. But on a really quick read I really did get the impression he liked it. I put some of the paragraphs that I think gave me this impression below. The double asterisks where you see them are mine. It's pretty clear, imo, in the last paragraph of the article that he's working out his own shit, as there is nobody at LB who doesn't know the answer to this question: "Is Lana Del Rey able to have feelings this embarrassing and overwrought and still mean them and have them meant?" Everybody here would say yes, but he seems to be having an epiphany (or a breakdown) in that final paragraph, which is pretty rare for a review (even if it says it's an article). I truly cannot tell if he's praising or criticizing LDR in that last paragraph, so if I were metacritic, I'd ask for a number. Some quotes: "On its face, LDR’s politics might be broken, but her lyrics and persona have the potential to embrace a kind of Lynchian feminism, one that explores the power behind desiring something hurtful by exploiting images of women in trouble. But even that representation is problematic (especially on a massively mediated scale like radio music), because its meaningful exploitation will itself be exploited and then (deliberately) misread as sexy, backwards, proper, fake. So, there’s no real room for subversion, and it all becomes about Lana Del Rey’s personal fucked-upness, which still feels unreal. Her lyrical commitment to being dominated emotionally by the men in her life and swept up in red dresses is not that out of step with most of her contemporaries, but her aesthetic drags her into the past, away from progress narratives or play or irony or defense. We don’t know if the detachment is hers or ours, from reality or sincerity. She sings from a Twilight Zone of political irresponsibility, in which the singer’s self-obsession forces our gaze toward the possibility of our complicity in this broken present we pretend to know we can’t escape. And still, somehow, Ultraviolence **doesn’t** feel like a retreat or forgery. ..... "So, this is the mythology she revels in. For all the talk of her opportunistic artifice, there’s not much here to draw a bigger commercial audience or to readapt LDR for a pop landscape that doesn’t, say, clamor for a star as fucking brooding and Gatsbyphilic as she plays. It’s a bad act or maybe not an act at all, but either way, we should be listening intently because Ultraviolence finally finds the right sound to make Lana Del Rey’s everlasting sadness **feel significant** by the end of its 50 minutes." ..... **Most of the songs come with pop hooks, memorable bridges, bells, whistles, and impressive vocals from LDR.** The way “West Coast” slips into slo-mo for the chorus makes it a boring single, but it clicks as a show-stopping mid-album track that throws the momentum from bright standout “Brooklyn Baby” into clumsy confusion, a series of awkward restarts with a menacing barely-there synth that creeps up behind the verses. **There’s real bite to her delivery and the bluesy, surfy Badalamenti guitar.** Elsewhere, we get deadpan ambition (“Money Power Glory”), sneering resentment (“Fucked My Way Up To The Top”), and **genuine** heartache ([every song]). ..... Is Lana Del Rey able to have feelings this embarrassing and overwrought and still mean them and have them meant? For those feelings to be so strangely articulated, on an album that’s too stuck in its ways to be a good fit anywhere, is the sort of topsy-turvy uncanny realness (we were born) to die for, or at least to take a second look into, and to maybe see the flicker of our own fake/real selves in the way we might linger on the right selfie: politically bankrupt, disarmingly genuine, captivating and alienating in its perfect composition. What we’re looking for isn’t there until we take a long look, where we find in the subject’s blanked-out fakeness the reassurance that either we are real and the subject is not, that we have the power to be as real in as many ways as the subject does, or that we are powerless — even in this moment as witness — not to be fake or a part of the spectacle."

Sounds like they liked it though, maybe at least a 70. And I think it is an actual review.

I didn't get much of a sense of what the music was like from the review. There is one paragraph about it ("languid desert rock") and then the rest seems to be about artist attitude. The sense I got was the music might have been great but the artist's attitude spoiled it (the last line in the review actually), so the 6 in 6/10 tells me more about the reviewer's sense of the importance of attitude than the quality of the artist's work. Waiting to see who (if anyone) will review/talk about UV at http://music.thetalkhouse.com/

She's singing this "live", so her sticking to the lyrics as in her notebook is not certain. Anyway, I'm hearing sometimes (not that it matters that much). I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl I'm a sad girl I'm a sad girl, I'm a *mad* girl I'm a bad girl and I'm a sad girl, I'm a sad girl I'm a sad girl I'm a sad girl, I'm a bad girl I'm a *mad* girl Also I'm getting impressed with the number of drug references in combination with the toxic relationship references. This is maybe not strongest in this song, but I'm not sure of that, at least there's: "Creeping around while he gets high It might not be something you would do" and all those fire references. How ironic would it be if there were a strong relationship between drugs and toxic relationships throughout, as that could be construed as a feminist agenda (substance abuse == toxic relationships). Interesting that the super-delux BOX has lyrics. I was thinking she wanted me to think the lyrics weren't as central, although I'm understanding most of what she says.

@@SitarHero - As far as mimicking, look to her new interview for the significance of the hip-hop sound of this song: "I would say the track having more of a hip hop heavier beat, whereas the rest of the album is live and organic…it kind of drives this one particular point home." Hip-hop influence is important here, something she and Lorde share. I mean plenty of sewer rats on LanaBoards.com have attempted to (unconvincingly) compare their sounds, and maybe Lana is surrounded by too many yes men and she believes this, too. I finally listened to the album all the way thru (God bless Amazon autorip). What's not being mentioned is the strangled loon (or is it a baboon sound) that happens at least twice in FMWUTTT. This strengthens the reference to hip hop LDR makes about the song in the article as corresponding to a self-reference (BTD era), not necessarily a Lorde reference, imo. Maybe a little diss to Emile? My point is that it's not necessarily exclusively about Lorde (or Taylor, or Gaga). I also think that So Legit was not (exclusively) about Gaga. On the topic of diss in general, isn't it somewhat "normal" to diss in hip hop? So for instance Tyler the Creator in Yonkers has that love tap to Bruno Mars in it (about stabbing in the esophagus) and his Domo23 seems to have a reference to pointing a gun at "one direction". So spreading the ambiguity further (I like thinking of LDR in uncertain terms), maybe the diss element is reference to hip hop itself.

I'd go with Pretty Baby (from Sirens), primarily to see how well she could sing it and whether she would sing it the same way. She's got a bunch of songs that I like just as much (i.e., that I would consider top tier), so it's the curiousity factor driving the choice, not the idea that it would be appropriate for a single. If the idea behind the topic is which would you choose and it *had* to be a single, I'd go with Serial Killer (because I think the song can be interpreted as about herself relative to her romantic entanglements).

@@evilentity : Hmm, maybe this is about Lorde. If you take the position that the songs are autobiographical then FMWUTTT having hip hop beats could still be referring to herself at the onset of the BTD era. She's addressing rivals in the song pretty obliquely. However, there are also statements about herself and about needing someone too. Doesn't seem very dissful to anyone to me. On the hypothesis of tracks being sequenced as loosely autobiographical, Old Money would be the Paradise era (or post BTD). So what would "The Other Woman" be about? The UV era? She cites that song as very deliberately positioned/chosen.

Well the parts like 1:15 ... and 2:10 ... seem strong to me (youtube's my source). I agree the production might have been better, but I have to wait and see what the physical or spotify sound like.

Why do you think she wouldn't approve? LDR non-jazz covers are mostly faithful (Chelsea Hotel, Blue Velvet, Summer Wine), as if absolute music in a repertoire. This being a cover of a Jazz type song, it could justifiably have a lot more Lana flourishes (I haven't listened to it overmuch, but more than the other non-single UV songs). I'm guessing you think LDR's version is too overblown in some way?

I think Lorde being the subject of the *potential* dis song FMWUTTT is debatable. So to recap: http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/4780-lana-del-rey-interview-with-grazia/?p=188032 Interviewer: When you got famous like overnight people doubted about the authenticity of your music. LDR: Yeah, a huge topic. I’ve always felt confident about my music. Who doesn’t have to say anything cannot create pop music. I already know that later I’ll tell the whole story of my live to my children on the basis of my songs. Interviewer: Like you do in “Fucked My Way Up To The Top” on your new album? It’s about a singer who first sneered about my allegedly not authentic style but later she stole and copied it. And now she’s acting like I am the art project and she the true super artist. My God and people actually believe her, she’s successful! I shouldn’t continue ranting, it doesn’t get anywhere. My problem with Lorde as the target (other than making LDR seem quite the psycho bitch) is that I can't map this statement of LDR's onto Lorde: "And now she’s acting like I am the art project and she the true super artist." Lorde talked about political correctness of LDR's art but does not make LDR, specifically, into "an art project". Now consider Taylor Swift's Trouble video (which jacks LDR's Ride style) and the song the Lucky One. I'm using this lyrics source: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/taylorswift/theluckyone.html here's the first para: "New to town with a made up name in the angel city, Chasing fortune and fame. And the camera flashes, make it look like a dream. You had it figured out since you were in school. Everybody loves pretty, everybody loves cool. So overnight you look like a sixties’ queen." Sounds like LDR, although Taylor puts in inconsistent details in the song. So for instance, Taylor is writing from the perspective of someone who got famous after this person, which is the reverse wrt LDR. I also like the fact that Taylor's protagonist retires (something LDR threatens repeatedly but never does). Anyway, the inconsistent details make the song more fictionalized and give plausible deniability that the song is specifically about LDR, and maybe it's not, although it still could have been inspired by her. Now FMWUTTT being about Taylor? That is a stretch (with some delicious ironies), but I prefer that interpretation, because I like Lorde.

UNLISTENABLE?! ／　　 ＼ 　　　/　　　　 ヽ 　　/)`　　　　　 |ﾍ 　 ｜|(・)　 (・)　|｜ 　 ｜ヽ　･ ･　　ノ｜ 　 ｜ |＼ ∩　 ／　ﾉ 　 人 ヽ｜∪　/　/ 　｜ |人＿_人 ｜ `　/｜ | ＼　ﾉ ｜｜ My opinion is based on mostly one listen per non-single, and I guess I have to say something reductive like: Trip hop meets the Eagles. It's not that bad really, but I agree with @@whitman that it is the vocal delivery that is emphasized way over the lyrics in some songs. So she's very interested in showing that side of her virtuosity, especially in TOW, where she's stressing herself as a performer/interpreter of a particular style (which is not the style of the rest of the album). I don't get FMWUTTT as being about anybody specific (still think Taylor over Lorde, but I don't see any definitive target). This song seems more of an emotional interlude. PWYC reminds me of May Jailer, so I like that one quite a bit. The rest of the unfamiliar ones I'll have to wait for a final opinion from multiple listens, which I can do with a clear conscious (because I pre-ordered it). UV is on Youtube as single tracks for now. I wonder how fast she'll get it to spotify. In summary, it's possible people who liked BTD may not like this one as much, but then it's also possible people who didn't like BTD might like this one a lot. People that like all of her (diverse) leaks/unreleased will probably like UV. Credit for the emoticon goes to: https://twitter.com/mobile_aa/statuses/472923210770432000 this was retweeted by @Grimezsz May 31 (so was not originally about UV).

Im Titelsong deines zweiten Albums "Ultraviolence" singst du "I love you forever". Ist das ein Barrie-lied? In the title song of your second album "Ultraviolence" you sing "I love you forever". Is this a barrier song? Im Titelsong deines zweiten Albums "Ultraviolence" singst du "I love you forever". Ist das ein Barrie lied? In the title song of your second album "Ultraviolence" you sing "I love you forever". Is that a song Barrie? A simple hyphen tripped up the translation, although I don't quite understand why Barrie comes after song (the program is translating to English after all). The google programmers are not gods, it seems. Also: Mit Barrie, meinem Freund sind wir also zu viert. "With Barrie, my friend so we are four." That's what I like about LDR; nothing's really stable or certain.

My favorite part: "Yeah, my boyfriend's pretty cool But he's not as cool as me" because if Barrie is singing this, it's a role reversal from the stereotypical LDR submissive lyrics, where she's in thrall to whomever she's singing about. BTW, I don't think she does that submissive thing all the time, but as her critics seem to assume this, I wonder what they're going to make of that one line (and Barrie's singing it). IMO, it's not about submission, but reverence, and it goes both ways. I posted accidentally in the "unofficial video thread", but my main point there was that I'm fascinated that the song seems shorter than Video Games, yet it's actually longer. Do others get the sense that it's a fast listen (not tempo, but time duration)? Finally, I hope it's Barrie on the guitar too, and Auerbach did NOT produce this one (I heard he did 9 out of 11 in some interview). Does anybody know?

Most interesting part for me: "I had an entire album ! I recorded twelve tracks, I had produced everything myself, but Dan opened my eyes. He told me that my songs sounded too much like classic rock, too seventies. And he took things in hand." It's interesting that she does her own producing. I wonder how she lays down the instrumental parts. The stuff about her father was interesting too. No one thinks he bought her a contract, but I think most think he funded the buy back of the rights to the AKA album.

Cobain is undoutedly an important influence; she says so. But she has quite a few influences (and she says so). Anyway there is no thread I could find comparing Lana to Kurt, but there is one comparing Lana to Jim Morrison (with a LDR Doors cover in the first post that I was unaware of!). http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/2119-lana-del-rey-and-jim-morrison/?p=59339 LDR (and Barrie) seem to have a morbid obsession with the tragic loss or wasted potential, which arguably we all should have. The loss of people like Buckley, Hendrix, Joplin, Schubert, Gershwin and many others at too young an age is staggering in terms of the art that might have been.

Does Taylor's song "The Lucky One" strengthen this as a possibility?

Being a fan just means liking her music? That's the more interesting question for me. You can like the music but not the composer (@@Monicker 's got a post about that somewhere).

Best case scenario for me is she's slinging shit at the journalist in order to drum up interest (or that the song will relate to a fictional character, or just herself). Hope it's not Lorde.

On feminism again: I get a sense, as others in this forum do, that she is always construing the basic question to be (really) about the (possibly) adverse effects of her songs (on young girls). She's in a double bind, she can't say she thinks her songs are harmful or anti-feminist, because I don't think she thinks that. She can't say that they are harmless either, because she cannot control people's use of them in their lives. She should say her songs don't prescribe a social perspective or message, and while it is a serious issue whether they can have adverse effect, whether they will is ultimately the responsibility of the local culture. She can say she is in favor of feminist ideals as it pertains to human rights (although she doesn't here), and she can also say that she lives in accordance with feminism ideals (which I think she does say, even though she is not a standard bearer for these). On @@merman 's LDR's Kurt Cobain obsession: This is all kind of confusing to me on account of the following: She idolizes other artists as well (e.g., Buckley, Simone, Dylan, Cohen, and she hangs out with Axl and respects Guns n' Roses; Cobain hated Axl). Most importantly, Cobain's not tattooed on her body yet (that I know of). Also: "Lana's obsession with Kurt is purely about the worldwide admiration he received and his face." But hey, if it's just about who has the most admiration and the best face/body, isn't every pop star on the planet a Kurt Cobain wannabe? Or why does LDR simply saying she likes KC, and is influenced by him, imply such extreme obsession?

Another fascinating interview, notwithstanding a few dead horses beaten. It looks like sad-Lana's here to stay, although I think she takes some consolation in winning battles. It's eye-openning that Barrie was worried about her depression during the negative hype wave. "Feminism" could have been easily dispatched by LDR had she said something like: "Well I'm for human rights and believe in the importance of the movement, but my artistic interests and personal life are not standard bearers for feminism" or something like that. As I think she's smart enough to know how to be politically correct, the fact that she didn't do that here signifies (for me) a kind of a media taunt. So instead she said: “I’m more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what’s going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities. Whenever people bring up feminism, I’m like, god. I’m just not really that interested.” ... My idea of a true feminist is a woman who feels free enough to do whatever she wants.” It's not what people want to hear, but I think it's progress. It's also somewhat ironic that media headlines have her "bored" or "not interested" in feminism as the attention grabber, but underemphasize that she's interested in (traditionally guy-dominated) things like SpaceX and Tesla. Perhaps, that was the point of her taunt, or maybe she's just honestly indifferent. It might have been cool to ask a meta-question like: why do you think people want to know what you think about feminism? Things like that often get at a world view better. As @@evilentity suggested, the mention of Sirens by name is a significant thing (i.e. a confirmation that was her first intended album and that was actually her name for it). I wish she would start talking about some of the other leaks as well. Like the period between AKA being recorded and briefly released, when there was some kind of a musical explosion/wandering. I'd be fascinated in knowing how all those demos came to be and what her plans were for them back then (what prevented her from releasing them) and what her plans are for them now.

Was it a pianoforte or clavichord sound that she used? That would be pretty retro. Strong emotional song for me.

There is a thin line between having a style and using a formula. She is no worse, imo, than Depeche Mode or Alanis Morrisette, in terms of milking a style, although there are obvious complications for LDR, like multiple versions of the same songs (e.g., every man gets his wish) and intentional reuse of musical themes in very different ways (e.g., Dangerous Girl and You and Me). But the thing that strikes me as weird is the range of styles. I would never have predicted (most) Lizzy Grant emerging from May Jailer or (most) Lana Del Rey emerging from Lizzy Grant. Then the leaks and unreleased often convey other flavors (e.g., lots of really decent bubble-gum pop). So yeah, certain songs have similarities to each other, but the range overall is what I focus on. Wish the leaks/unreleased/aborted-releases were a more proper part of her discography, as I think that range is what reflects her greatness the most (well for me, at least).