slang

Because she's a better singer than Lorde, and they wanted somebody like Lorde on the list (Lorde isn't on the list right?)?. Also in cognitive psychology, there's something called a "recency effect" for recalling list items.

Well if you're like György Ligeti (Musical composer), you might say something like "Lou Reed's a pioneer in microtonal singing"; if you're an average pop consumer, you might just say he's out of tune or flat. He couldn't have been tone deaf, however, because the stuff he did around his voice on guitar was next level and generally beautiful. Bob and Leonard suffer for age effects, but still glad they chose to sing. BTW (to anybody that knows), was K. D. Lang or Annie Haslam on the list (I don't remember them)? The reason I ask is that I conceptualize them as cyborg-augmented (in a good way) Karen-Carpenter type voices (whom I did remember on the list).

But the subjectivities are collective, in some sense.

Yeah, I gotta hate on how hard it is to scroll thru the list. They really should've done it by genre, then some of the choice rankings might have made more sense.

I'm very glad LDR got the recognition but kind of a weird list. They do make a point of saying best singer is not equal to best voice, so Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan are higher up on the list (than say LDR). However, if they had said "200 best genre-defining vocalists" instead of "singers", maybe some rappers would have made the list (or did I miss any)? Anyway, some highly rational choices (e.g., Sinatra, Bowie, Elvis Presly, Billie Holliday, Robert Plant, Kate Bush, Bjork), but other rational choices were left out (e.g., Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and I'm sure many more). Edit- I don't seem to be able to see Joni Mitchell or Ella Fitzgerald on the list, because my 41-60 link seems to stop at Sade (51, btw, good choice). However, I fully believe they are there, because it would be insane to leave them out, and other people saw them. Sorry anyway. Of course, I had to click on the red rectangle under Sade to extend the list.

I'm gonna wish my friends in Russia a revolutionary Christmas, or that lightning strikes twice there. BTW, Sergei Prokofiev, while he probably considered himself Russian, was born in Ukraine, and the Ukrainians have an airport named after him (recently trashed in the Russian invasion). Machine guns at about 4:36 and later 6:25? it's used as percussion (as Zappa might say, you can't do that on stage -- or in a concert -- anymore). Or, if you're only into shorter things, you might try this visual-midi presentation of JUST the piano part at the end of his 3rd Piano concerto (played by computer-sound generation). Interesting use of zig-zags in music for sure. Finally, my earliest memory of hearing Prokofiev is hearing the above piano concerto on the radio. At the time, I was into ELP and Led Zeppelin and thought what I was hearing was pretty competitive. So, if whole-piece listening with live performers is your thing: Yuja wears a nice dress (useful for heat-dissipation, I would assume), and she memorized this piece (omg).

I mean it's ok that she's mystical and stuff. I just wish she were more explicit about defining occult references, and reasons why we should care. I'm a big fan of "anamnesis" (google dictionary: the remembering of things from a supposed previous existence--often used with reference to Platonic philosophy). One of my heroes, Philip K. Dick, had a bad bout with that, and wrote a whole exegesis trying to be clear about what was happening to him (some of it weird, but not THAT weird). He did not mean for it to be published, but it was posthumously. However, a lot of his later novels did fictionalize the very same concerns as his exegesis. I don't think LDR is in that category of wanting to communicate explicitly about that kind of stuff. I mean if she's mapping out a tree (similar to PKD wanting to "explain" his novels via his exegesis), it's not quite clear to me what the tree is for. I have to read the Wikipedia pages on esotericism and think about it (although I'd rather read a terse set of axioms, and then think about the arguments, if any). Of course, she doesn't have to explain anything. I can just appreciate her art with different agendas.

The "tunnel" is also a constraint by men? "Handmade beauty sealed up by two man-made walls". Also, orgasms are exoteric, while death, by its very nature, is esoteric. BTW, in Wikipedia-ing some of your terms, I've seemed to have found a Rosetta Stone for your latest post in the Paradise and the Esoteric Origin of mankind Thread. I mean I was immediately struck by the picture of the "tree of life represented by the Kabbalah" on the right (of the first link), which reminded of that (esoteric, as in puzzling) post. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism and that has a link to here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life_(Kabbalah) The problem with esotericism, for me, is basically: TLDR; I mean that as a serious constructive criticism. I like exoteric axioms (even about esoteric topics), because you can at least read axioms fast and know very quickly what you're arguing about, and/or what conclusions, one is attempting to derive from the axioms. Both philosophy and mysticism need to be more axiomatic, imo. For instance, I can say something like this axiom: "The universe loves repetition and variation", and some people (e.g., me) will think that's plausibly true. However, if I accept that as true, with some more work, I can derive an objective morality (e.g., say "objectively" what I think good and evil mean). It doesn't matter whether I can actually do this, but this would be an example of how much faith I have in saying something axiomatically (and simply) and then using general reasoning processes to get to interesting conclusions. BTW, Hotel California and Nillson's Don't Forget Me (both exoterically referenced in Ocean Blvd) are pretty creepy songs too. They seem to have lots of death/life/existence references in them, but it's too late for me (ooh, which "late" did I mean?) to think about such things.

I agree with both the people who are put off, and those who are titillated, with the "fuck me to death" line. However, the LDR apologist in me wants to suggest that what LDR is tapping into is the rather strange-bedfellow relationship between sex and death. Namely, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_petite_mort I'm sort of familiar with it from some horror literature I read, which can be erotic at times (not familiar from real life, lol). FMTD line does indeed shock me, but the line that comes after shocks me even more: "Love me until I love myself". Well, ok. She obviously doesn't read (or like) Ayn Rand, and the significant other seems to have replaced God in these existential times. BTW, if God exists (or is at least sentient in the sense I am), It loves her. If I believe in It that way, I believe that. As for her breasts ... she's been rather creative with them (e.g., that picture where she inverts the concept of bikini), but she's also been rather diverse in her public physical portrayal and fashion sense, which is a good role model for those who value diversity (IMHUO).

I would agree with opinions that say Ocean Blvd Tunnel is one of her weakest title-tracks musically, because it's most in the vein of repeating the past that I've ever seen from her (i.e., repeating recent released work; repeating unreleased/leaks I actually don't mind). She still sings it, has decent production, and the lyrics are quintessentially hers, so I don't loathe the song, and my estimation from first listening has gone up some with further listening. It's the lyrics that are most noticeable on first listening and (goodly) weird. Comparing herself to some forgotten built over architecture resonates (for me) to all those horror scenarios where monsters, mutants, or whatever happen to live (unbeknownst) to the general public in the submerged realm. That probably wasn't her intention (although "fuck me to death", while pretty iconic, is sort of horrific too). It's also curious that the title track and lead promo is so introspective, given an upcoming album with so many features. This is the opposite of what she did for Lust for Life. Ought to be interesting (and I hope it exceeds Lust for Life in temporal length).

I'm gonna go with You Can Be the Boss. My specific memory of it is from that music video with the cuts from her head singing to that weird violent cartoon of a guy evading being shot up and shooting, while dragging that mostly naked woman around. I wasn't much into the cartoon but wanted to stick around to know who the artist was. Here's the funny part: this was not a youtube memory but more like watching an MTV "college video" show on cable, and the artist was monickered at the end as Lizzy Grant! Still not sure if this is just an historical confabulation, but it is possibly my first memory of her (as not her), and I must say it's pretty next-level having a suppressed debut Album, whose title suggests the artist has just decided to change her name, which is the only thing that suggests (other than the perception of having a memory), that my memory might be actual. A Star for Nick would be a close second, and that's from youtube videos citing "release" of the song to some college radio stations (while playing the song of course). I was impressed at the time that it was from the same artist as the one from Born to Die, which I think was just released at that time.

The thing I liked most about High By the Beach was that it followed the Honeymoon title-track release the month before (which was not an official single, it seems), thereby giving critics a kind of artistic whiplash about what to expect from the album release. It really didn't matter how good the song was, given it was something designed to be unexpected; however, I did warm up to it on multiple listens (and Lizzy/AKA references in the song were a plus). And Ride deserved the grammy for best country song of its year, IMUO (although Kacey Musgrave's et. al. pessimistic/anti-natalist classic "Merry go round", which won that year, would have provided stiff competition). Probably, the video for Ride being so anti-country (or maybe it was so-on point "real" country, idk) prevented nomination from occurring to anybody in the "industry" at that time.

"Karmic lineage" to me indicates her catholic upbringing. It would be interesting if her father were relatively lax religion-wise (or open-minded) and her mother relatively strict. Anybody know? Christianity, in general with its original sin concept (i.e., you're guilty just by being born), is pretty depressive, although Sylvia Plath was Unitarian, that wonderfully heretical branch of Christianity that doesn't believe in it, though she still succumbed to depression. We know LDR identifies with Plath through the Hope song. I'm guessing the Black Bathing Suit and the Black Narcissist (of the Hope song) are just the same concept and equal to depression.

I typically only listen to Blue Banisters in the context of Opheliac (the Emilie Autumn album) in the playlist below (which sort of interleaves tracks). Some people might consider this highly perverted (hence, it's a "confession"). However, it's a practice I extend to other artists as well, to sort of create aleatoric symphonies out of artists (and albums) I like. It also allows artists I like to have an imaginary conversation. I do this more frequently with LDR (than other artists) as a means of figuring out why I like her as much as other artists I happen to like, but I don't do it for all her albums.

Nice pun. It generated (in me) a multi-generational shipping daydream in which Brian Eno was producing this album (he's famous for Discrete Music, which I don't actually know, but I really like his rock album debuts and Roxy Music origins). This makes some sense given David Bowie and U2 have worked with him in that capacity, and if he's good enough for those guys ....

^ Interesting website (and use of the "semantic web") for tackling issues like how much you like a specific album relative to its temporal cohorts. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:1991_albums

Wouldn't change anything about Honeymoon, but as not everyone likes its closer, Heavy Hitter might have fit well after DLMBM. It would be like that super moody guy from the first song got a sense of humor (and upgraded his car).

I mean it's a challenge, but hopefully Taylor isn't going to "Cat Power" her, and with Antonoff having a good working relationship with both, I think that's unlikely. It's an interesting vindication piece for LDR to be in the limelight with pop's chief it-girl. It will be interesting to see whether LDR's egalitarian-esque feature-production-preferences on her own turf transfers over when on Taylor's home turf. The Grande/Cyrus/Rey thing, while not a capstone of modern music, at least worked out ok. It also occurs to me that a May Jailer vs. Taylor Swift sonic "fight" would be a really interesting thing to try to pull off (and witness), but I'd give that about a probability of zero.

Yeah, I mean you could say the same about White Dress, for which Sputnik famously said: "... a stinker of a chorus, crammed with an indecent amount of syllables and dead-on-arrival melodies memorable in the same way as, say, footage of a gull in an oilslick." Obviously, you (and I) don't hold much value or interest in purely subjective Sputnik reaction. However, one thing another critic on another magazine might have said is that Miles Davis, who can also make his trumpet sound whispery and/or straining, would be completely unfazed by jarring tempo shifts and/or sudden increases in the density of notes for the melodic line. Such a critic might have supposed Miles would have liked White Dress. Given that parallel-universe speculation, I prefer to think of her tempo-changes, and word-density increases, as jazz inflections (and she does mention Sun Ra, there). The Sputnik critic probably doesn't even know what jazz is.

Interesting to see what the performers who wrote the songs actually do while performing them live: Peter Hammill: Modern Talking Heads: Life during wartime POE: Angry Johnny

Not exactly sure this is a "moment", but it is a weird intersection between popular music and popular literature, as well as an intersection between talented siblings' art. Anne Decatur Danielewski aka POE created an album, "Haunted", her second, which is based on her brother's (Mark Z. Danielewski) first novel, "House of Leaves", an experimental haunted-house novel, which I had to read after digesting her album (the novel's good too, although it's kind of hit or miss on the experimental parts). Rolling Stone gave her album 2 out of 5 stars, maybe because of all the things that went "bump" in the songs (most WTF line from their review: "Poe deserves some props for her blond ambition", the link is at the wikipedia page for her album, which is a waybackmachine link, so maybe RS is ashamed of it?). Her first album, Hello, is also pretty good (e.g., Trigger Happy Jack and Angry Johnny are "nice" examples of fucked-up-relationship songs). title track: This is circa 2000, and she hasn't produced albums that I know of since then, which I feel sad about.

Lana Del Rey and Nikki Lane might sound like this on their upcoming collabo album: Then again maybe not, but this slayssssssssssss anyway.

I tend to agree that her earlier albums are more impactful (i.e., to me personally), but I don't think they're necessarily better or more personal. I mean Blue Banisters is a very personal album, just not exactly in the genre she got famous for. Also, her struggles are really different now (as in she is an accomplished artist), and just watching the news is a trumatic experience, so she sings about that too. She is of the news and in the news, as when she sang "Kanye is blonde and gone" (having sang at his wedding at Kim's request and having had social media "wars" with him), and the stuff about wildfires, I'm guessing she had to take a bunch of detours in Malibu because of them. Her weirdness may be a little blunted these days, but that could be due to the world stepping up its game in weirdness, so she doesn't want to come off as rubbing salt in the wounds, even while she's deeply affected by it. I guess the "unpopular" opinion would be: when she does sing about the news, she does so personally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Buckley#Death There are important differences between her swimming and his (other than he died from his). She approaches the river in a swimsuit (Jeff swam with his clothes on). So, there is a kind of premeditation, or personal symbolism, behind her swimming. Also, "Mississippi 0 --- Lana 1" could indirectly reference JB quite a bit, as in blaming Mississippi (River) for JB's death. The river is, if not dangerous to her, at least adversarial. So, there's kind of a defiance vibe to her swimming, too. Hopefully, the celebrity-fixated media ignores the dark overtones in her references and just fixates on the fact that she's wearing a bathing suit (and what type it is), as they usually do. Fun Fact: I learned from the Wikipedia article that "Gods and Monsters" was the name of an NYC band Jeff was with briefly (and then left suddenly, somewhat capriciously?).

It's miraculous that the Supreme Court is alterable by the House and the Senate, but what discourages me is that democrats don't often talk about such bills in the context of why people should vote democrat in 2022/24 (maybe they think it will hurt them, idk). I only found an example/extant bill, because I was google-asking about what the House and Senate could conceivably do to the Supreme Court. I would have written the bill differently (e.g., I wouldn't have exempted justices appointed before the enactment, which makes the bill effective like 20 yrs out, lol and crying too), but democrats can and should write bills more effective than this, provided they get clear majorities in the House and Senate. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8424