Wryta Thinkpiece

The lyrics are the awkwardly beautiful lovechild of MadLibs and 90% of Maury Povich's guests, but...

The lyrics are just too out of place for me, maybe if she sang with a little more attitude over a more hip-hop/jazz style, I'd take a liking to it, but this raw style definitely warrants lyrics of more substance. Definitely was expecting more of "Methamphetamines,"

LOVE the song and sound altogether, I just can't identify or appreciate the lyrics. But it's an extra track for my collection, and she at least sings it lovely, so there's something to appreciate.

I think blurring either the wheel or the merry-go-around might help, the merry-go-around might be better though. Maybe a subtle motion-blur since it's moving, right? Or maybe just defocus everything besides Lana. The hand holding a cigarette is also a very nice touch!

 

I'd suggest maybe changing the colors a bit for Lana, cause it doesn't look like she belongs with the night/dark background.. ya feel? Overall really nice though! 

Feelin' ya like I'm blind! Thank you so much for the tips and love, BLOODSHOT!

I wrote a really long and informative rant on why my answer is "no" though we all know I'd still buy Lana's for Lana for why I avoid buying celebrity fragrances/products, but I got so excited to click the post button that I just clicked a bookmarked page and lost everything.

I'll bitch another time, but for now, I'll just leave it at no; too early to go that route, too good to consider it for a while, too much risk with ended up with something of unreliable quality, and I honestly cannot see Lana releasing a fragrance, I'd find something very odd about her doing that.

TIME TO ANALYZE SOME LYRICS. [And I am awfully sorry for post-spamming BUT GODDAMN I LOVE THIS SONG THO]

"Methamphetamines" makes me think of Lana and her lover being tweaked off meth, laying out on the veranda, playing music from the record player (maybe it'd be outside, maybe it'd just be near the window, playing loud). They're being sad together, getting high about being sad together just to be high and sad together, letting the routine run its cycle. Every day. They'd be quiet at first, relying on each other's physical presence for some solace.

Once they started feeling the meth, maybe the lover would tell Lana about a dream from the night before that made him feel more disconsolate and disoriented than any other day. The both of them would exchange more of their recent sad dreams, how it seemed the happier dreams only poured salt on open wounds. They'd segue into talking about older dreams and aspirations, both shared and separate, but hardly anything that would get them smiling.

Other than feeling some kind of sadness, love and yearning, they are just zombified; they're stripped of the people they used to be. Whatever daydreams they had, and probably spoke of on the veranda looking out to Ocean Grove, they're gone. Ocean Grove just grew barren gradually, and then suddenly. Nothing left but a epitaph of all those hopes they had for their life in the Jersey Shore together.

 

The mention of neon palms swaying could be Lana and her lover having a visual hallucination while on meth, trying to find something left within their sight of Ocean Grove that was still beautiful and thriving despite how dead it was in their reality.

Maybe Lana's question of going to Coney Island was her trying to get them both to share another hallucination for entertainment. Maybe they met there and she was trying to reminisce about it. Maybe it was her indirectly saying she wanted to return to simpler times, happier times, and maybe that was the "dream/big dream" she was reminding him of: happiness and simplicity.

Maybe he'd be too tweaked and swamped in his own sadness to pay that much attention to or even answer Lana's question, maybe he'd fear that Lana no longer wanted for nothing but being together. Maybe it broke his heart to hear about a place they felt they couldn't return to just as much as it would have broke his heart to say "That'd be nice, we can do that," all along fearing that going there would mean preparing for the present to soon become history.

No one would know, he'd only respond by handing her the makeshift light-bulb vaporizer, keeping his eyes on all the shapes made by the meth residue and burn marks from the lighter along the glass, letting out an ambiguous "hm." But no matter what he thought, no matter what he would've said, Lana would have understood.

Happier times, even the possibility of living in happier times again, would only make them sadder to think about, and so they would get higher until they just couldn't be bothered getting up from laying on the veranda to stop the record from repeating, to change the music to something happier; until they couldn't be bothered doing anything else together that wouldn't make them sadder. But it wouldn't stop them from talking more about the dreams, about happiness and their lack of it; the only time they weren't disconnected was when they were high on meth and/or sharing somber moments with each other. The disconnection almost didn't even matter because they shared their woe like a telescope; they always saw through the same lens even if they weren't always looking at the same things.

 

They took comfort in knowing that the other knew and felt sadness and hopelessness, what it was like to feel the world around had become desolate. They took those feelings and built an empire on that veranda with them, creating a world for themselves within the one they already inhabited. A world where the broken could know they were broken and self-destructing, love it and be loved for it in every way, something that they can be confident in each other about.

 

“There's a special feeling you get on a veranda that you just can't get anywhere else.” - Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles

 

All there was to live for was every tomorrow that guaranteed coming back to that world together; the rest of the world would tear itself asunder, nothing more would have mattered, nothing less. There was no need to tamper with each other's thoughts or emotions, no need to feign any of them either, because all that was felt then and there was understood, welcomed, and adored. It was a very "let all be and just love me" way of living, and that was all it was about. They were sad, they were hopeless, but they were harmonious. And that made that life a little less lonely.

 

Maybe this moment on the veranda was Lana feeling like there just was nothing left of that life anymore, even with her lover. Maybe that farewell is her thoughts of leaving soon after that, going back to New York, reconsidering what to do with who she became, what she was. Maybe it was her saying farewell to their happier selves and their dreams, laying with her lover, watching the neon palms, feeling her body being pulled into the abyss the veranda kept long hidden inside its mouth of wooden planks, slowly opening wider and wider every day to accommodate for its increasing appetite for Lana and her lover's happiness. They'd sink into that abyss together in Lana's mind, and there would be the most sad-but-content look on her face while they fell asleep where they lay, only to rinse and repeat the next morning.

... And that's what it's like to be in my head while listening to Lana Del Rey except I usually imagine myself in Lana's shoes.

OH. And here's a treat for those who made it up to now...

Consider it what I think would have been the lover's perspective. That, and I fawn over Father John Misty like CRAZY and just wanted an excuse to listen to this song again.

I hear the "For the big dream" bit that Miss Daytona said, as well, I definitely hear the "b."

That "one day among" line is begging for an extensive search of a 50s blues ballad because it's driving me batty not knowing what ballad she's mentioning.

Also, about that veranda line...

At first I thought Lana was saying something about the veranda looking "ocean gold," but I have no idea what that would even mean. Which is why I'm almost positive she mentions Ocean Grove twice in the song. Only because I figured about five or six different words and it's the one I hear the most. It's hard to tell because the only part that doesn't really get drowned out by the background noise is the
"( r )oh" sound; she does get softer when she says it, so it could just be that the quality and noise cover the "gr" and "ve" sounds. I could be wrong, but it fits the rhyme-scheme she has going.

I'm going to see if filtering out the noise and tweaking the song a bit can help with hearing Lana's voice more. But I'm certain.

You can use "look" as an intransitive verb in many ways, one of them to indicate that something outlooks or views in a specified direction. which in the case of the veranda line (if Lana is saying Ocean Grove,) "looks" would mean that the veranda she's talking about faces Ocean Grove.

"The veranda looks Ocean Grove,
Neon palms sway..."

QUICK SUMMER OF SAM WIP EVALUATION:
Still working on the Coney Island/Wonder Wheel style, I might just make the alternate cover the more beach-like one, because I'm still getting into the swing of making more brighter, bolder styles of album art, and I keep getting drawn to this idea even if I'm still totally unsure of what I'm really going for.

I have layered a hand holding a cigarette and did similar halftone effects; I figured that there needed to be more going on with Lana. Might replace it with a blunt...might also replace the arm with a different one; might totally scrap the arm.

I also had the idea to find a some Greaser-esque hunk to throw in the mix. Tried to find a good picture of John Leguizamo from 1999 when he played Vinny in the Summer of Sam film and throw him with Lana, but there weren't too many good pictures.

But then I thought of Rob Lowe when he played Sodapop in The Outsiders. Which works because the Greaser culture was hot in the 50s and early 60s, and hit quite the revival around the early 70s, and LANA BE ALL OVER THAT. And it was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who Lana quoted once in an ad for KEDS. And it's fucking Rob Lowe. I found a few shots, trying to find large enough resolutions to work with.

I also might also brush a few hickies on her neck and then do the halftones on her again.
But until then, here's what I've got.

 

What's been bothering me with the background mostly is that I feel like there isn't enough depth-perception between the background and Lana, and Lana still kind of has that "clip-art" look, which I guess is expected because each layer has been touched with halftone effects. I'm not sure whether or not to do a little defocus on the merry-go-round, and I need to play with shadows or something to give Lana a little more depth and make her look as close to the "camera" as her placement indicates. I have a motion-blur layer following Lana which I am unsure about; I may halftone it to see the difference, or I may just go with shadows instead.

I'm still not too sure with what to do with the album title and her name, still trying to figure that out. There's a lot of empty space at the top. I would have moved Lana higher, but there wasn't enough of the original photo, and I wasn't sure how confident I would be in using other images to make her torso (unless by some miracle someone knows if the original photo was part of a shoot or had a full-body shot.)

She might look less out of place and the rest of the cover might look less empty if I throw Sodapop in. I might also just find a different photo Coney Island/Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement park, maybe a daytime one, not sure.

What do you guys think? Would a daytime shot look better? Maybe a hybrid of both day and night? Do we like the idea of a Greaser hunk? How do we feel about this concept design?

Okay, everyone! YOU & ME is complete! I may come back to it in the future depending on the feedback, but for now, I think it's time to move on to the next project.

I revamped the first post in the topic and included the "OFFICIAL" album cover (LUNA MOTH) and then posted the alternate I made (FIREFLY) for YOU & ME. Feel free to just open the Y&M project's spoiler in the first post and take a look, let me know what you guys think!

Thank you guys so much, it has been a while since I have been genuinely pumped to do something like this, and all of you really boost my confidence with it, too. Really, it means a lot.

The next project is SUMMER OF SAM!

DOUBLE EDIT - SUMMER OF SAM UPDATE: Okay, I can't hold it in. Summer of Sam is going to hopefully involve halftone influences, involve some bold colors, really capture a summer kind of theme (at least that's the game-plan.) I'm conflicted between a few shots I found of Lana, so I might make the alternate cover a different photo/structure but similar theme.

The WIP for SUMMER OF SAM has also been posted in the first post. It is not a definite; I was honestly going for something more beach-fiend in style, which I did have going with one of the photos from the third Nicole Nodland photoshoot. However, I had a hard time figuring out the textures and tricks that would have worked best for what I was aiming for. I gave it a few tries, but I didn't make it too far.

Then I came across the older picture of Lana with her blonde hair which just struck me a little more than some of the other shots I put aside for this project. But as much as I loved the photo, it meant the beach idea should probably get scrapped; I just couldn't see this Lana being at the beach. But she made me think of a carnival. So I went and found some good shots of Wonder Wheel and played around with it a bit because, well, it's Coney Island, how can I not?

Wow, I really enjoyed reading this and I totally agree with you! I feel like if L were ever to cover this song, it would be S's live version where she starts off singing CLF slowly. She's been speaking Spanish during her performances of Carmen so why not, right?!

We. Are. SO on the same page.

 

Also, just listened to this personal throwback while floating about.

NO ONE can say no to that. No one. If you don't think about it, it's almost like listening to her. I swear. You all can staple my ears to my cheeks if I am wrong.

 

Which I'm not.

 

I'm feeling very smug and fulfilled having had this moment and giving birth to this idea from my cerebral womb.

 

EDIT: Also, um...am I going to be the only person that also says a Lana-fied cover of "Too Much" by Spice Girls would also probably complete my life?

 

AND, AND, AND pretty much ANY Anna Calvi song, especially "No More Words," "First We Kiss," "Desire," and Calvi's cover-style of the Shirelles' "Baby, It's You."

I skimmed over this so many times just because it takes a lot for me to listen to Selena because of all the nostalgia that hits me, but I'm in that mood today, and this was one of my favorite songs from Selena of all time.

 

Lana would nail it. I keep getting her "I can speak Spanish," line from "Back to tha Basics" stuck in my head whenever I think of this. SHE WOULD JUST...GAH.

 

Her unreleased stuff shows how raw and emotional she can really get with her singing; there are sometimes where the emotion is just so there with Lana that it can either really pump me up or really fuck me up for a bit. And Selena was always the same way, especially all throughout "Como La Flor." And the way she sings those last two notes of the chorus...gah.

 

Throw in some of Lana's summery-toned styles, her emotional delivery, and blend it with a little Tejano flair, and we got Lana's next single/cover.

 

English OR Spanish. It doesn't matter to me. Hell, it does, I'd rather her release both versions. I don't even care if the English was loosely translated or spot-on, she'd make a killer English tribute and a sexy, bright Spanish cover.

 

I WILL SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE TRYING TO GET LANA TO DO THIS. FOR BOTH OF US, CLEO. FOR. BOTH. OF. US.

I love them! They're both really good 

 

 

I love it! SO many talented people on this forum 

 

 

I don't know about the top moth. The lower one looks more delicate, and especially with the reflection, it works better. (That's really cool that you figured out it's her face in the reflection... I never noticed before!) The base looks mirrored now, which makes sense. Unless you're envisioning her reflection in a wooden base. (In which case, the colors in the reflection ought to be more muted.) Otherwise it's a great effect.

 

Also, I don't think I care for the "Coney Island Queen" splitting her name in addition to "You and Me." I'd go with one title or the other.

 

Very beautiful overall!

Thank you guys so much!

 

I totally see what you mean, PrettyBaby! I have removed the top moth, and from the looks of it, the cover looks a lot better without it.

Currently playing with some other fonts for her name, then I will put the official Y&M up as complete before I play with the firefly variant and start my next project.

 

I will probably also start including the track-list for each one as well...eventually...

 

Thank you guys so much for all the love and help thus far! You guys are awesome, seriously.

"And ocean grow" should probably be "and Ocean Grove," which is a small community in New Jersey. Totally changes the impact of the last few lines.

Absolutely amazing, well done!   

You guys are so sweet!

 

 

 

 

In "Ooh Baby," I thought I heard, "Ooh-ooh, baby, what good are your high male friends?"

I had my first kiss when I was 11

I Never watched porn movies

I dated a boy who turned out to be gay for 4 months

Your first kiss was at eleven and you were a beard for four months.

 

 

I never learned how to ride a bike.

 

I eat Starbursts with the wrapper still on.

 

My stomach occasionally makes the rumblies that only hands can satisfy.

I was cool until you added moths

 

Nah, the recoloring is good, I just have a deep, deep fear of moths. Do you plan on making this just a blank picture or adding text?

  No, I understand the feels, yo. I get'chu. Sometimes I get the chills when I think of how their legs feel when they walk on my hands.

 

I'm leaning towards adding texts; I have a few retro fonts that I want to experiment with that are very 50s, which I think might suit the simplicity of the photo fairly well.

 

I was also thinking of doing one or two alternative covers, just to see what different angles I can make the picture stand out from should I use the same photo.

 

OH DA POSSIBILITIEZ

Also, pretty damn sure that Last Girl On Earth is pretty underrated.

"Chariots of gold, I'm sittin', sippin' Cherry Cola/Caesar said he'd fall in love with me if I was older."

I cream when I hear that part. Every time.

Hit and run, Backfire for me.

 

BACKFIRE! FUCK. FORGOT ABOUT THAT ONE.

 

Well, you have succeeded (:

Sorry about your brain though.. 

I got duct tape so it's all gucci.

My brain while trying to make the fairest and most spot-on list doe...

 

Hollywood's Dead

Damn You

Back to tha Basics

All of Sirens

I Don't Wanna Go

Afraid

Methamphetamines

Serial Killer

Making Out

Elvis

Disco

Axl Rose Husband

Never Let Me Go

Trash Magic

Mermaid Motel

Smarty

Oh Say, Can You See...

Summer of Sam

Every Man Gets His Wish

SECOND WIP COMPARISON

 

 

EDIT: WIP NUMBER THREE

 

 

How does a script/handwritten font sound to you peeps? Whaddya' think so far?

Always open for suggestions/critiques! Thanks so much for the love, guys.

Oh my god, I love you guys.

I was initially using Multiply as a layer mode, but I shifted to Overlay and faffed around with the opacity and brightness/contrast a bit, some of the layers have masks over them to color each part of the photo separately. For any rough edges from the color layers, I used a smudging brush.

Oh wow. From the point of view of someone who doesn't do recoloring, this is amazingly good. Maybe the black wood needs a less-yellow shine on it, but otherwise it looks great.

 

That's pretty cool, the illusion is great !   

Thank you, both!

 

I took out the yellow tones, it made such a difference already! I'm so excited to continue working on this.

<p>Most of my Photo Manipulation projects usually revolve around line art, 3D/video game renders and a little bit of typography and textures, but not much else. I use a lot of it for decorating my posts for the characters I play in role play forums.<br />

 

<br />

Be that as it may, I needed to spice things up and start making use of all the other ways to recreate and renovate art and photos.<br />

<br />

I've done album art in previous years <del>but we're never going to talk about any of those. Ever</del><br />

 

<br />

<br />

So in the midst of scrapping the old album covers for my LDR collection, I've been working on new ones, and this topic will serve as a showcase for my fantasy album art and/or albums for Lana Del Rey.<br />

<br />

I will post WIPs in each album's "spoiler," along with the original copies of any of the photos used. This is how I keep track of how much progress I'm making, where I've improved and where I can use improvement on.<br />

<br />

But this isn't just for me to keep my album art organized; I can talk about how I've improved from older projects I've done and how horrible they were, but I remain my hardest critic, and I can spend more time nagging myself for what I think I'm doing wrong than I spend just figuring out a compromise.<br />

<br />

That's why I love hearing feedback from people, that's why I want feedback from all of you! Whether PhoMa's your element or you just have an eye for art, or even if you just have any suggestions/critiques, I want to hear it!<br />

<br />

I am more of a writer, always have been, so when I take the time to work on other arts (especially PhoMa,) it means so much to me when I'm still trying to get my bearings and people are giving genuine feedback with the intent to help me and encourage me. And as far as that goes, I already got a lot of love and helpful tips already from all of you, and I appreciate it so much.</p>

<p><br />

And, of course, since the album art is up here, any and all of it is for you guys, as well. I'll be putting track lists up for any of the LDR albums that are of her unreleased demos/leaks/etc. The songs keep their normal title, but what's put after them will not always be "acoustic," "demo," "live," you get the point. I mostly do it just because too many "lives" and "demos" gets confusing for me, but I'll obviously put up what each one really is. Besides, it's not mandatory to follow the track lists since I didn't make CD booklets (I'll probably work on something like that when the actual album art for Lana is complete, all depends.)<br />

<br />

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT.<br />

<br />

Still a little nervous, but... <img class="bbc_emoticon" src="http://lanaboards.com/public/style_emoticons/default/4.gif" title=":eek:" /><br />

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<strong>YOU & ME - <em>B&W Recolor </em>- Progress: <span><em>COMPLETE</em></span></strong><br />

 

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<br />

<strong>SUMMER OF SAM - <em>Halftone/Retro</em> - Progress: <em>SCRAPPED</em></strong><br />

 

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<br />

<strong>CHELSEA HOTEL NO. 2</strong> - <strong><em>Retro Photo/Swaps</em> - PROGRESS: <em>COMPLETE</em></strong><br />

 

</p>

<p> </p>

<p><strong>Teenage Wasteland - <em>Swaps</em> - PROGRESS: <em>COMPLETE</em></strong></p>

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Heyyy we have a thread for this so I merged it.

 

 

Let me update my list:

 

- Antony and the Johnsons

- Jimmy Gnecco

- Reeve Carney

 

And I just looked up Reeve Carney...my god...

Father John Misty

Local Natives

Angus Stone