slang

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).

Is there a link to the Rick Nowles version of West Coast? I guess it could be a radio edit (I forgot about that plot twist), but the demo fits the description of what LDR talks about (in @@lanasgirl 's translation of the German interview at her blog), so I took it to be an example of what the studio sketches sound like in comparison to the Auerbach sessions. I've also been confused about the multiple versionings. quote from @@lanasgirl translation: "Rick Nowles is something like my best friend, talking about music. He’s very precise and I like to improvise. When he plays some chords, I can sing freestyle to that for twenty minutes. He’s always surprised how a song is created like that. At first I couldn’t really become friends with “West Coast”. To me, the song was too structured. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus. Very traditional. Actually, the song wasn’t intended to be on the album, but Dan Auerbach got his teeth into it. The band in Nashville listened to the New Yorker demo version for three times and then just started. The chords didn’t change but there came fire, into the song. I wanted this fire."

The last para about the label "shutting her down" if she hadn't gotten Auerbach suggests the label might have been unhappy with the original UV tracks, but the way she describes it is that she thought she was done, met Auerbach, and reconsidered the majority of the tracks. In fact West Coast wasn't even considered for the album and ended up being the lead single, which implies Auerbach saved that one. A bloggers translation of the German Interview can be found from this @@lanasgirl 's post: http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/4671-lana-in-intro-magazine/&do=findComment&comment=183630 This seems like a legit demo version of West Coast, and I can sort of see LDR's point about lacking fire. But there's also this quote from Auerbach: from the Rolling Stone piece: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/dan-auerbach-on-working-with-lana-del-rey-it-was-amazing-20140507 <<Auerbach admits he didn't have to do much to the songs: "Her demos were so good, her songs were so strong that I wanted to get my musicians in who I love and get my sound that I get here with her songs and that's it. I didn't want to mess it up. She sang live with a seven-piece band. That's the whole record – a seven-piece band with her singing live. It was crazy.">>> I get the feeling that early on Auerbach considered it like a job-interview for her next album, but then it just turned into a re-rendering of what she was planning to release. So what I basically get her and Auerbach doing is using the demos as sketches and considering the finished album as a "live" type album worked up from the (more studio-like) sketches w/o the live venue. As many have suggested, I hope we see the studio/demo sketches at some point. Yeah, the vocals are going to be differently mixed, but I don't hear them as being much better or worse than previous releases.

I like the majority of the posts about LDR's lyrical merit (pro and con) here, so I wouldn't call it slander if somebody doesn't like her lyrical direction. People just have different agendas for what LDR's "success" as an artist should mean. I agree that when BTD came out, there were lots saying her lyrics were really bad. Prior to that point I was lyric-deaf (concentrated on music). When I started comparing her lyrics to others, I couldn't comprehend the criticism. Brooklyn Baby was written with Barrie? Was that confirmed (I mean I saw it on Lanaboard's twitter)? If so it's the most interesting thing about the song. I like it because she's not repeating herself, so UV is shaping up to be less predictable than BTD. Unless we know the agenda for the song, we can't really evaluate the lyrics. For instance, I'm thinking it might be self-parody (e.g., like Dum Dum) in which case the lyrics could be appropriate. I would also love to see her do a Lou Reed cover (preferably one of those songs he sings where he doesn't really sing, but you have to infer a melody he could be singing; hopefully, she'll provide the melody). Is LDR exposing her strongest stuff first with the previews, or holding the strongest stuff back for the full release? Again the answer will depend on what my conception of a cool kind of success would be for her as an artist.

I guess the moral is: "don't copy my tattoos"

IMO, Madonna's longevity is of a particular kind that isn't purely related to music. There's stuff going on like being a fashion icon (and staying in great shape to be so), having social influence, doing epic (and expensively staged) tours with broadway quality choreography and production, and movie engagements (i.e., Evita, and documentaries implying her living legend status). These constitute what it means for Madonna to be long-lived in popular culture. On the basis of that, I get Beyonce and Gaga as reasonable predictions for something similar. However, when I voted for LDR, I was thinking of (or hoping for) simple longevity from talent and love of craft. So for instance, Blondie and Deborah Harry put out an album some weeks ago (Ghosts of Download). DH has 13 years on M agewise, and I find her kind of longevity (as well as the actual songs associated with her and Blondie) just as impressive. That kind of longevity doesn't haven't to mean "not relevant" either. I could use an obvious example like the Rolling Stones, but given my tastes, I find it cool that the super-talented old pros, Depeche Mode, came in just behind Beyonce, and ahead of 1-Direction and Justin Bieber, in touring grosses for 2013. http://www.billboard.com/articles/list/5820092/top-25-tours-of-2013

Nice. At least for me, the seeming James Bond theme (scales or chords, I can't figure which) in the electric guitar at the beginning, threw me a little. As WC has a seeming Beatles reference, perhaps it is the case most songs on UV (except Black Beauty?) will have some kind of temporal-cultural sample relevant to LDR's pet nostalgia period. At any rate, the song quickly developed into something else. The chorus reminded me of May Jailer a bit, but backed by some (sonic monster) production. I like the vocal ambition, which I'd describe more as upper-register Adele than Lorde.

On the Lorde(Tennis Court album cover)/Lana(Shades of Cool album cover) comparison, one can speculate on what each may be thinking at the time of their picture: Lorde: Me poster girl? Nahh. Really? Cool. Lana: Who do I have to beat the crap out of to get a number-one single? No, seriously. Could Shades of Cool be an angry song?

I'm wondering when she sings YAB. If she sings as bride and groom march down the aisle, this puts YAB in the same category as Pachelbel, Mendelssohn, and Wagner, and when you think about YAB, it is possibly more appropriate as being about weddings and long term relationships than most other songs or other pieces of music one could choose. I wonder what Beyonce and Jay-Z are going to perform?

I think she was angry, but not too depressed. It seemed to me like the Grammy's and LDR were firing metaphorical missles at each other. For instance, in the major pop categories (and only there), they were announcing the nominees, by showing people on youtube covering the songs rather than showing the artists, so when the Pardise EP was announced as a nominee, I saw a male dude covering Ride. Yuck. They also announced her other two categories (remix, and original song from movie) off the main event, so it was like (from the point of view of the Grammy's), they had this idea of not visibly acknowledging her. However, LDR had that huge presence intrusion with the Maleficent commercial, which (to whimsical paranoids like me) seemed like retaliation. I would have preferred her to show up at the Grammy's and just act casual to deflate things, sort of be like "next year bitches". But she's an introvert, and I can respect that.

Well the music I think was from Kickdrums, and they've used it before. What I heard was that the version that leaked wasn't even the "good one" according to Rocky, but as that one has never leaked, I kind of doubt its existence.

She's new to me, but then again she hasn't been around for very long. She's so explicit, creepy, and *clear* in her song lyrics that there's absolutely no way I can't fully face those amazingly dark topics she sings about. She seems influenced by horror literature (both quiet and splatterpunk sides), so I like the fact that she lightens the mood of her songs occasionally with references to sex (as horror literature occasional does). For me, her lyrics exceed her music, but sometimes the music approaches the lyrics, so I hope she continues to develop her musical style. Observatory Mansions is my favorite so far. This song is apparently based on a book of the same name, that I haven't read, by Edward Carey. I would say the song's about death, the futility of maximizing hedons (or collecting things), or something. I especially like the last stanza. and one day they will knock the buildings down like vomit our ghosts will all spill out <<ETA: all links extinct now, except for the Born To Die cover snippet near the end (at least, as of 7/4/19).>> She has four videos on Youtube (one for OM made up of vintage movie clips), but most videos are put up by fans. Some songs, like "Blood Brothers" have positive messages (e.g. about friendship); some songs like "Please Eat" (on anorexia) have social relevance, though it's so blunt it will make you cry. For me, at least, comparisons to LDR are inevitable. This is simply because I have LDR on my brain so much. However, in this case, in some limited respects, I think there are interesting objective bases for comparison. The most obvious comparison, for me, is to May Jailer. It's the guitar style mainly, but some vocal styling as well, like maybe this could be a parody/homage? "Smitten with you". She also has similar sorts of infatuations/kinks as May/Lizzy but this is *way* more explicit (see lyrics in description): << ETA: I removed the link because it seemed malicious now (according to Kaspersky). I don't know where the interview ended up.>> However, unlike LDR, she seems to know how to answer the dreaded "are you a feminist question". ..link removed.. Her tweet style is oddly humorous and prolific (reminding me of a Grimezsz tweet style a bit), so she does have a sense of humor, even if her songs don't really have any room for it. Here she refers to "West Coast" in twitter: https://twitter.com/nbabybell/statuses/455730080111947776 At least, "good god" is more ambiguous than say, "good grief". I wonder what she thought of the video. She may have also seen LDR in Toronto, as she has a March 10 tweet that suggests she was going to go to her show (though maybe they just had lunch). https://twitter.com/nbabybell/statuses/443230150759841792 Her tumblr is where she really exceeds LDR by being more extroverted (although LDR may have been more like this before she got famous). She posted a snippet of a Born to Die cover. It starts off weird (or shakey), but it ends up being just beautiful, imo. Wish it were complete. http://nicoledollanganger.tumblr.com/post/77773756720/hey-to-the-girl-who-just-asked-me-about-whether-or She also has a list of 100 influential songs or "game changers" (LDR appears twice, for Born to Die and Ride). When an artist does something like this, it's always incredibly interesting to me (and yeah I'm going to check out the people she cites that I don't know). http://nicoledollanganger.tumblr.com/post/77460504908/ive-always-found-it-hard-to-answer-the-favorite

I don't know if this is a change per se, but I'm wondering what happened in the parallel universe where LDR just left LDRAKALG on itunes to see what would happen with it. Would this have interferred with creating BTD? Also I would have liked to see AFFA at the end of the Paradise EP as Bel Air, while pretty, is not a very good closer. AFFA would have made a brilliant coda given its relation to Ride (sonically and thematically).

I recall LDR mentioning that she likes a "colliding world" aesthetic where she juxtaposes conflicting or inconsistent ideas. This was an early interview, which I could not refind, so maybe I just hallucinated it, but even so it's an interesting way to think about her work. Early album names like "Rock me stable" make sense to me in this regard. With "Sirens" it's the double meaning of the word sirens (lethally beautiful mythological women/police sirens). AKA's cover is a bit of a hot mess, though I suppose the racing jacket over the glittery bra/glamour-gown is a kind of a colliding world statement. The Born to Die cover is my favorite. It strikes me as preacher's daughter's attitude (harsh, almost prudish stare), but then there's that smoking red bra underneath the starched white shirt. This is the red vs. white LDR duality (that @@DeadAgainst talks about) manifesting at the same time. Paradise is the most of a stretch for me. Maybe it's the word paradise combined with her bitchy expression, or maybe it's the palm trees combined with the man-made pool. Or maybe it just doesn't work. Finally, Ultraviolence is the juxtaposition of a serene Lana (if somewhat stark and skull-like, in terms of the shape of the face) with a title that many have pointed out is a non-sequiter for a visual. However, in this context it's a sequiter. While I wonder (with @@PrettyBaby) what the ultraviolence is and suspect it is emotional/psychological, I also wonder whether she'll be on the receiving vs. giving side of it (at least some of her unreleased like songs like serial killer and she's not me depict the latter). Finally, again count your blessings, if Lorde is the "anti-pop star", her debut album cover really sucked (but it probably didn't hurt her sales any). So the UV cover could also be taken as a kind of "anti-Lorde" album cover: a brand name, so familiar it doesn't even need a name, stepping out of a more-expensive-to-maintain-than-buy bit of oppulence -- that is if you know that's her vintage Mercedes she was getting out of.

Everyone seems to have a different sense of what sassy means. However, Every Man Gets His Wish is my big stupid grin song (BTW, I'm wearing it now). Also Stoplite Delite (not sure of the spelling) would have been a hit in the Gay Nineties (that's 1890s America). Fly like bird!

Best case scenario for me is the original (or "official audio") is on UV but the more distant newer mix is the single. Like I said before, it makes little sense to buy a single one knows is going to be on an album that one is going to buy (and in the case of the UK, UV is released just a couple days later?). But if the single is a different version? That makes more sense to me. Anyway, I hope the versioning was intentional and not just part of LDR's chronic mind-changing. We know she (often) has different versions of songs; we don't know how she feels about them. It being intentional would suggest she's getting less inhibited about exposing multiple versions commercially. Forget about the Summertime Sadness remix. Her original (dance-oriented) demo for "This is what makes us girls" would have slayed as a single.

I'm a little perplexed that Jimmy Gnecco's openning for LDR's US tour (apparently the first show is tonite) has not made the news section yet. I can't help but think that's related to your question of why he or the band OURS is not way more famous. OURS sounds different than Gnecco alone, but they both sound very striking (I've been sampling on youtube and spotify). The quality of the songs are good, although the variety of styles is not as impressive, though I still don't know a lot of their work yet. As you point out, Gnecco's voice is extremely impressive compared to other successful and established male artists (e.g., at least as good as Timberlake or Mars, though not similar to them). So why is he not as popular as them or let's say Ed Sheeran who might be more comparable on superficial dimensions? The type of emotion expressed by Gnecco is a bit more intense than people can take as casually consumed music would be the obvious guess.

I started getting into him when LDR said something about making a point to know everything he put out (I think this was a recorded interview). I wasn't aware she'd actually singled out a favorite album. Any clues on where the interview can be found? Dylan is an interesting singer to compare to LDR, in that a lot of people laugh at his singing technique (even his younger voice). It's an acquired taste, but I see why a lot of people love him. I like the way Dylan often has a different sound on each album (e.g., Time Out of Mind, Street Legal), possibly on the basis of what musicians he finds at the time, idk. I like that he's experimental and takes risks, even while he has a clear reverence for (and desire to keep producing in) a folk-singing heritage.

The youtube video (both LDRVevo and her more personal channel) still says "official audio" on West Coast, so why all the versioning talk? If LDR changes her mind later, then we have [more] evidence that she changes her mind a lot, I guess. Looking forward to the video. It will tell us if she "phoned in" the effort or put substantial thought in it. Hopefully, it's as unwatchable as UV is unlistenable.

Spotify version is the same as original to my ears. Seems like an itunes perversion, if they changed the mixing, but the standard is going to be whatever is on the album.

My take on the overrated/underrated thing is that something is overrated if there are other *similar* things equally or more deserving of praise that don't get it, and of course those similar things are what's underrated. So imo opinion everything LDR's ever released (with the exception of AKA which I'm not sure how to categorize release-wise) is overrated in comparison to her unreleased/leaks. I'm not saying her unreleased is better, just similar in quality (in terms of composition, not production). Most of this thread is just what you like or don't like, which is fine but I don't get a sense for why something is overrated. It makes more sense to have comparison cases like Disco to Chelsea Hotel #2 (different artists compared here), or maybe it's Disco to I am a God (Kanye West). Video Games to Fordham Road?

On her being "non-promoted": I think her label doesn't wish to disturb her creativity-driven mode of self-promotion (videos, movie work, modeling). No one can describe her as being idle during the period between release of BTD and now. On her being considered "mainstream" (hopefully she doesn't become mainstream), this will allow for a more diverse mainstream. So if UV is different from BTD and sells as much as BTD, she'll be "huge" in the sense which says the promotion was irrelevant. IMO, this would make it easier for anyone off the beaten track (but still good) to succeed commercially.

Barrie also released something today "an old new song" according to his twitter and facebook. Might he release an album to coincide with Ultraviolence? Hope so. More is more.

If she releases Ultraviolence the album earlier or at the same time as West Coast the single then I don't think it's a stupid marketing decision to release the single May 18, just a pragmatic one, but I never understood the logic of releasing singles before the album, tbh. On the other hand no Ultraviolence till well after the West Coast release as a single wouldn't make sense to me. The song is interesting as a departure for her (one wonders how many departures she has). It's not a bad song, but doesn't exceed the best of her leaks for me. There's an intentional retro vibe a la Summer Wine and possibly the Doors (a la the familiar snythetic moog-flute like sound at the end). The vocal arrangements are good. How it fits with the whole of the UV sound is the next mystery to be revealed.