slang

Capitalization in song titles? To ask for uniformity in them generally or from her might just be a case of dropping too much LSB (or is it lsb, Lsb?; btw--LSB==Lana spelled backward). Nevertheless, I can make up reasons for her cap usages (which are replicated across Amazon and iTunes). NfR obviously wants to reinforce the idea that "fucking" is not part of NR's real name (unlike William F. Buckley and Billy F. Graham, who really have those middle initials!). Mariners Apartment Complex is the name of a place (as is calif). Fiily, Ls, Htd, Hiab are just sentence case (which is always a reasonable option for a song). VB CG TNBAR, and B as title-case affects (or is it effects?) grandiosity/coolness about the song topics. "The greatest [loss of all]", by contrast, is sentence case to *not* promote coolness (I would have made it all lower case, it's a morbid song). hiadt... is an interesting case. She knows it's a sentence (and knows you know it's a sentence), so I suspect she just didn't want to write it in the sky with a jet plane and left it all in lower-case (i.e., Lana affecting (or is it effecting?) a cute peversion).

Fiona's back and she's better than ever. Jazz grunge?, but the piano playing on the first track just slays me. Nice inventive use of subtle percussion and standup jazz bass throughout, and of course her voice is still her voice. I'm probably gonna catch shit for this, but .... there is possibly a Kate Bush reference in the title track (the shoe-filling/ running-up-that-hill lines), so an interesting question for me is whether there are any other references to musical artists she may like. So in "Newspaper" does this imagery remind anyone of anybody: And you're wearing time, like a flowery crown Sitting that, sitting that big cat down And I'm alone on the summit now Trying not to let my light go out On a more serious note, the song seems to be about a commonality between Fiona and this other female protoganist in the song, whoever she may be, vis a vis being addicted to an abusive/exploitive relationship with a male (someone she wants to be proud of her). The title of the song also suggests public critical relationships with the male gender. It is interesting that Fiona's last album was at about the time of BTD's release and that she was aware of LDR's situation. https://muumuse.com/2012/06/fiona-apple-talks-new-album-lana-del-rey-to-interview-magazine-and-releases-new-song-werewolf.html/

one of my favorite lines:"inside of my stomach the cosmos are baking", is currently left out of the text transcription (after "something like aching"). This is a nice poem. It's either very deep or very shallow (kind of an LDR modus-operandi thing). Also I suppose "crying crustaceon", as being LDR, is now pretty comprehensible, given her recent astrological sign-change from gemini to cancer.

Both Adele and LDR have cited Amy Winehouse as a really important precursor/inspiration for their craft. Priscilla Presley I don't think had a music career per se, but LDR might have based some of her look on her. I guess what I'm trying to say in my post above is that her influence is unbounded until we know the end of her career. I mean if LDR were to unsuppress the AKA album and have a couple of unreleased/leaked volumes (just because of the quality of the material there) and THEN went on to produce more new albums as diverse and good as what she's already released, that kind of diversity/prolificness/quality is very rare. I mean Fiona Apple and Kate Bush might be (at least) as good as her artistically for what they did, but not on the prolificness dimension. Joni Mitchell had more diversity and prolificness, but her career is now over (last release 2007). If you're going to hope for an "influence" for somebody you stan for, you might as well hope big.

If by "garbage" you mean "average" I can agree with that. There seems to be an expectation that LDR take a more active/potent role addressing "the problem of evil" just by virtue of her profession and fame. She obviously defers to govts. and religions for that problem, and while it's fair to criticize her a bit for that, just how much for each incident is always subject for discussion (e.g., the "colonize" one is still iffy in my mind).

^^ her vocal stylings, her lyrics, her aesthetic, echoed and repurposed in ever corner of music. [she has an AOTY grammy nomination], because she just kept making art. -- Taylor Swift So I take it people mostly disagree with the first part of what Taylor says (although Taylor might be referring to music videos, both hers and Lanas, a bit), but agree with the second part. In terms of what kind of influence LDR is supposed to have had: something like -- talented female artist unjustly beaten down by a male and misogynistic critics' community, who nevertheless later rose up by virtue of her art to squash that community -- that's fine. However, for me I'd (somewhat selfishly) rather her eventual influence be more like The Beatles' (or Bowie's) influence, because that's the kind of music artist I miss the most.

Does anybody know if the horizontal line with the downward arrow perpendicularly traversing it (seen on the page and in between what many people are taking to be two stanzas of the same "poem") actually has a meaning. I was hoping it would be something like "stop this idea here; start a new idea below". I mean idk, that's why I'm asking, but it does seem relevant to ask, if part of the criticism of the "poem" is she's using a really horrendous problem reference to compare to a really frivolous interpersonal one.

I don't think she's ever postured herself as "woke" or "political", I mean unless expressing anxieties about world events is "political" (i.e., I'm not sure how people use the term). I'll also observe the one song I can think of where she would seem to be talking about wokeness and responsibility (Change): Lately, I've been thinkin' it's just someone else's job to careWho am I to sympathize when no one gave a damn? I've been thinkin' it's just someone else's job to care Who am I to wanna try? But These are very odd thoughts for any political song, so I don't consider the song political as such. I mean you might think that after the "But" she's going to run for office or something, but that's not the way the lyrics evolve, imo. I'm not trying to denigrate the song; it's just an honest expression of something that people will either like or not.

I'm not a poet or anything, but I don't want to give up the ability to use words flexibly (e.g. "leak holocaust" does that sound familiar to anyone?). That's just what words do. I think what she's trying to do in her post is talk about how depression "invades" her well being and what her counters for that are; hence, the first thing I did with my exploratory post about it was bring up Marina's thank you from L + F (as Marina talked about her depression a lot between Froot and L+F). So she's expressing a "life hack" for depression, not a politically, historically, and/or ethnically correct point, so I'm cutting her some slack. But I do appreciate the explanations for why the word triggers people as I'm insensitive (too), but now I'm a little more sensitive. However, I don't think she wants to compare her suffering to the general suffering humanity inflicts upon itself, and therefore I don't interpret her words, or her, as doing that. Also I don't think it's a response about her current boyfriend (not that I'd mind). It seems more about her relationship with fame in general.

I guess you're talking about indigenous people being pushed out by an "occupying" (what they call colonialism now?) culture, so your point is a good one. She is however using the word in a negative way (e.g., a context to resist), so her use, at least, is not that insensitive. I haven't read any criticism either here or elsewhere too; I just saw a youtube hit "Lana Del Rey Attends Church After Canceling European Tour Due To Illness" in a 24-hour Lana Del Rey google scan and figured she'd seen it too.

Well Marina did thank LDR in her L + F album notes:"Lana for your inspiring views on life. I appreciate our friendship so much." So this would appear to be some of that (i.e., an inspiring view). It is possibly an oblique response to people who are miffed at her attending church, even though she has cancelled some concerts. As to the writing's substance: the use of the word "colonize" as well as the use of the word "soul" kind of remind me of "Invictus" (the poem) because colonizing is a thing of the past (or a thing of the future if you're into scifi) and "soul" is kind of the protagonist of that poem (some would even say it's relevant to why she goes to church; don't know, I don't go to church). BTW, I went to project Gutenberg and downloaded Peter Pan and searched for "awfully big". She has not quoted PP exactly but has alluded to it (unless the html script at Gutenberg is in error). The scene is they're on a rock (Peter and Wendy) and water is rising. There's a way out for one of them, and Peter elects to save Wendy. The allusion is at the end. << extended quote >>“I can't help you, Wendy. Hook wounded me. I can neither fly nor swim.” “Do you mean we shall both be drowned?” “Look how the water is rising.” They put their hands over their eyes to shut out the sight. They thought they would soon be no more. As they sat thus something brushed against Peter as light as a kiss, and stayed there, as if saying timidly, “Can I be of any use?” It was the tail of a kite, which Michael had made some days before. It had torn itself out of his hand and floated away. “Michael's kite,” Peter said without interest, but next moment he had seized the tail, and was pulling the kite toward him. “It lifted Michael off the ground,” he cried; “why should it not carry you?” “Both of us!” “It can't lift two; Michael and Curly tried.” “Let us draw lots,” Wendy said bravely. “And you a lady; never.” Already he had tied the tail round her. She clung to him; she refused to go without him; but with a “Good-bye, Wendy,” he pushed her from the rock; and in a few minutes she was borne out of his sight. Peter was alone on the lagoon. The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the mermaids calling to the moon. Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremour ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” <<endquote>> https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16/16-h/16-h.htm

Some interesting metacritic data on whether some fans (i.e. not just critics) prefer NFR to older LDR. https://www.metacritic.com/person/lana-del-rey User scores are pretty flat from BTD thru HM, but there is a discontinuity between LFL and her previous work (noticeably lower, but not by a lot) and a discontinuity between NFR and her earlier work (noticeably higher and by a more substantial-looking amount). Not that I know exactly what the user scores mean, but it's consistent with some fans, or some alternate fanbase, preferring NFR over older work (i.e. user scores of NFR 9.1 (8000+ ratings) as vs. 8.3 (about 1700 ratings) for BTD), and some fans not preferring LFL over the same (which I guess is less unexpected). I'm not really in either group. With respect to NFR "production" that people have been divided on of late, the actual production is defined best by Jack in an Atlantic Interview he gave where he described NFR as a "bizarre folk album" and among other things describes how he and Lana searched for a specific sound. Once they found that sound they locked down the equipment: "That album was made in one specific room, with one specific piano, a very specific 12-string guitar, very specific drum kit, very specific patch on the Mellotron that went through a very specific tape echo. We landed on a couple sounds that really sounded like this thing we had thought of, and then we put a helmet on all of them: Nobody touch this drum kit. Nobody move the mic from the piano." https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/12/jack-antonoff-taylor-swift-lana-del-rey-and-more/603517/ In my opinion, if you are in the delusional minority that is put off by NFR (as opposed to the delusional majority that loves it), I don't think it's only the production throwing some of the long-time Lana stans off. It might possibly be the "orational" rather than emotional (torch) singing. The former is more like a folk stance. Not that she sings bad on NFR (or non-emotionally, as HIADT and FIILY are still emotional songs), but just that she sings differently and more in line with Cohen, Dylan, Reed. Or maybe we should be comparing her to Dido or Regina Spektor, production-wise (and singing-wise)?

Well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised about how things turned out. If they really wanted people to believe a voting population actually decided the winners, they should publish anonymous statistics about how many voted for each award and frequencies of the categories voting (e.g. producers, primary performers, studio musicians?, record execs?, actually it would be interesting just knowing what the hell the categories are). I think Billie won fair and square, but I still think it's crazy to reward a new artist that much on a first outing. And Finneas getting POTY on the basis of producing just one album? (even if it is AOTY) seems a tad ridiculous. To look on the bright side, I'll note that winning AOTY didn't do Beck's career any *artistic* good, imo. I'm also glad Tyler got one, even if I haven't gotten into Igor as much as his others. Finally, I'm glad Esperanza Spalding got Best Jazz Vocal Album for 12 little Spells, an award she's won before.

I don't want to suggest people can't discuss LDR's love life at an LDR forum, but I'd just like to warn against making the fandom look bad, because I don't think that does any good (especially wrt to LDR making an objective, as opposed to sympathetic, judgment of the guy). For example, making a response to someone, who personally attacks you on *your* instagram, doesn't seem cringeworthy. His response cited above, seems pretty strategic, imo, given no-response can often be construed as a "response", and given I don't know what other comments he doesn't respond to (or did respond to). Also the response to Sean's answer was, indeed, cringeworthy. I mean, independent of the ignorance about his job(s), LDR's serious dating interests had or have jobs (I don't know of any that haven't), so I get the notion of a bad stereotype of a mother from it.

Maybe "slut-shaming" is too triggering, but my comment still pertains to being overly criticized for topics that are neither as provocative nor as fixated as some critics/fans make out. But to reiterate my OP: so a GROWN MAN who talks about a 13-year-old female sexuality (or was it closer to 15) in the 3rd-Person-Male perspective gets a pass on tastelessness? Well obviously Nabokov did in some complex way, by a lot of the literary critics and writers (and I did read the book to try to figure out why), although it was also a "banned book". Also, I thought I was arguing LDR wasn't fixated predominantly on a Lolita-style view of female sexuality but a more complex style (at least as I understand the diversity of her early songs on the topic of female sexuality). Finally, my comments that were related to a Lolita-style were specifically about PMIAM from AKA. I suppose you could argue that's a tasteless song, but I just see it as an artistic statement (of lesser magnitude than Lolita, the novel, to be sure, but an artistic statement nevertheless). It's just about a provocative subject.

#irony With respect to Put Me in a Movie, I'll bet LDR just figured it was OK to write about Lolita-esque themes because of the amazing amount acclaim Nabokov got for doing so (i.e., "Many authors consider it [Lolita] the greatest work [book] of the 20th century"). It's ironic that Nabokov got that acclaim by writing of Lolita from a 1st person male perspective, which "gives very little information about what Lolita is like as a person, that in effect she has been silenced by not being the book's narrator"; whereas, LDR usually writes from the 1st person female perspective -- as if she wanted to give the character a voice -- and is usually slut-shamed for it. In my opinion, PMIAM is not an overly explicit, or even a raunchy song. It's possibly disturbing, but it's also fair game for an artistic treatment as Nabokov and current societal vices suggest. I also don't think LDR is overly fixated specifically on "Lolita" views of feminine sexuality. I mean smarty, serial killer (if you think the SK character as female), gogo dancer, cola, or even the song Lolita, do not remind me much of Lolita, the character from the book. source for quotes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita

You go to the grammy's and sing and flub up; it's a time-honored tradition. NFR, the song, as SOTY nominee is the logical choice, with Jack at piano. Would she change the lyrics to "kissed me so hard ..."? Or keep the lyrics as is and be bleeped out. I hope she would do the latter, because then everybody would actually know what that (brilliant) lyric is. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/taylor-swifts-label-lashes-out-at-critics-of-grammy-performance-65110/ https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-grammys-adele-power-play-20170213-story.html

I prefer HIAB (currently) for the following reasons: 1) The outro to CG seems like the most Jack-fucking-around-episode on the entire record. I'll probably regret saying this if I ever find out that it was really LDR effing around, but I'll take that chance. 2) HIAB got a video treatment (some would say this is a bad thing). 3) Also "serial killer" as used in HIAB seemed perfectly understandable and relatable to me, because I knew the song Serial Killer, which I interpreted as a metaphor for someone who enjoys being in many serial relationships. However, it's horrific, if you don't have that reference/interpretation. So I guess I like the idea she's communicating with stans rather GP newbies with that line. I also like the idea that the horrific line is combined with a really corny melody. She's really showing her multitudes there.

The issue that causes some people (e.g., me) to resist the critical acclaim she's getting now is a kind of perceived dishonesty in critics for why they are giving her the acclaim. They attribute their praise to something she did differently in NFR rather than just for their critical opinions changing about what she does over releases. The capsule review you cited above kind of hedges it both ways. Unlike people who believe NFR is blasé, I believe NFR acclaim is warranted; however, I also believe that had LFL been her most recent release (and NFR released after HM), LFL would be up for album of the year, with maybe one of its singles (change?) up for song of the year. I could be wrong, of course, but nobody can prove me wrong, lol.

One order of "self-proclaimed diehard stan pretending 'to get' something out of her most recent NFR trio-video" [hold the fries]: So ... maybe I was wrong thinking all the critical acclaim she was getting for her "newfound" maturity would make it even less likely she would release a retrospective leaks/unreleased album. I mean if the video (or her releasing it) were some kind of caustic/ironic reaction to all the critics calling her more "mature" these days, then anything's (still) possible. #silverLinings #justiceForGangsterBoy

I have mixed feelings about BTD/Tropico-level videos, because, as great as they surely are, they must be a substantial distraction from producing music and may also accrue unhealthy debt to a record label. I'd rather she'd be just producing the music with as much freedom as she can. As far as this slapdash, informal video in her instagram-aesthetic goes, she did actually say: "Had the best time shooting with my sister and my friends, fucking around in a rented cop car in an abandoned parking lot. We’re weirdos don’t mind us". So obviously high artistic intentions is not the point of this, although I still enjoyed it. The brief cop-car scene (in the VB video, which predates this a year+) might have been how Sean got his first crack at her (asking her where she rented the cop car; it's probably a special Hollywood thing, as we know cop cars are often used in films). It may also be how she got the idea of Duke on the cover (and isn't Duke a friend of Chuck's?), so despite its modesty/laziness/arbitraryness, it may have had an important impact on her life (and the NFR aesthetic), so I'm kind of glad she's letting us see it. Anyway, NFR is seemingly more of a poetry era. Well just have to wait and see.

Stuff for frivolous complaining about: lip-synching piano : check! [and I would like to know if she's actually trying to, or playing, the piano part] Friends in video, with sister directing/photographing: check! Silly metaphors with sinister overtones: food fight with cops: check! [bTW, don't know why I thought Marie Antoinnette when she threw the sandwich, but I did.] Taunt at persona-fixated critics: "I'm dying", while laughing [her only spoken lines?]: check! Taunt at needy fans, who hate when she recycles video footage: flipping butterfly birds: check! And probably other things I'm too dense to notice. Yeah, it's a hand-made video, but I'm happy with it.

I don't know if the majority of fans discount AKA or not, but I do grate my teeth and get upset whenever I run across retrospective review articles about LDR, by "professional" critics, that refer to AKA as either a) a failure, or b) conventional pop. It seems to happen, at least occasionally, and as soon as I see it, I discount the critics' other views (even if I agree with them). Also, just to show a variety of impressions when comparing LDR's albums, I see NFR as closer to May Jailer (albeit with monster production chops) and AKA as more similar to LFL (because of the genre-slipstreaming in both). Finally, "... hope she is able to rerelease it someday" maybe should have been worded "... hope she is *willing* to rerelease it someday". I mean she took it off the market, so it stands to reason she can put it back on. I've got two posts (page 1 & 2, this thread) on the re-release topic.

Here's my take. The volume increasing and the jingle bells becoming more prominent toward the end of HTD reflect a musical irony (in the non-Alanis-Morissette sense) of the person singing getting stronger and more life anchored, even though the person she has sung about has done the reverse (i.e., disappeared). Of course, for Lanaboards, the jingle bells and increasing volume at that part of the song reflect irony in the Alanis-Morissette sense (i.e., just something bad happening).

"... merely giving my two cents" If you left-click on "view replies" (52xx of them) it turns out you're the top responder for this thread. Just saying that's more than "2 cents". "gloat about ..."year/decade end list is news (one of the things I come to LB for) and not a *random* GP opinion. "Also bold of you to assume..."While I agree more people haven't bought the album than have, I think the proper metric for discussion on "liking NFR relatively" is going to be sales. If it ends up selling more than UV or HM, that will say something much more meaningful than a bunch of internet posts do, even if the sales go against my particular opinion of what her best album is. Comments not part of a response: The only thing that makes me "sad" about NFR's critical acclaim is that it may make it (even) less likely she'll do her leaks/unreleased retrospective that she suggested she'd do (way back when, was it LFL era?). Also I wish people would talk more specifically about NFR production attrocities (I mean name songs with timestamp specific-ness), so I'd know what they're talking about. It's not as self-evident to me. I also wish people would talk more about her AOTY competitors and what she's competing against. Seems like a strong set of contenders, but very diverse in the sense of why they are strong. I'm bored, break up with your zeitgeist.