DCooper

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

Tea

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

Ultraviolence is a masterpiece, but tbh this album already topped it once Venice Bitch dropped.

No HQ leaks yet? Not that I want the album to leak. But I do. But I don't cause I want her to do good on charts but actually who cares? But I hope it doesn't leak but then again I do.

BEST NEW TRACK Lana Del Rey  
“The Greatest” 
The stakes have never been higher. In Lana Del Rey’s latest song “The Greatest,” an entire generation is burned out. The world is getting hotter. Hope is a dwindling resource. We don’t have much time left. Worst of all, the old highs aren’t hitting quite the same. “I want shit to feel just like it used to,” she sings with a quiver as a sad piano motif descends behind her. Lana’s songs have always sounded like lonely missives from the end of the world with a beachside view; the difference is now we’re watching the clock tick down alongside her. “If this is it,” she sings, “I had a ball.”
 
Like everything we’ve heard from upcoming album Norman Fucking Rockwell!, “The Greatest” is a kaleidoscope of classic-rock radio transmitted through Lana’s hushed, psychedelic lens. The drums roll in slow motion, the guitar solos are fuzzy, the piano is recorded so that you can feel the shag carpet beneath it. Instead of luxuriating in vintage textures, Lana is restless, eulogizing her listless youth while repeatedly incorporating the words “the culture is lit,” as if attempting to dance through the tears. Her new video pairs the ballad with “Fuck It I Love You,” an ode to California and self-destruction. The juxtaposition of the songs seems inevitable; her dreams of escape always lead to the same place.
 
Like a long, dramatic shot of a drifter leaving the scene, “The Greatest” fades with a list of rhyming epitaphs that build to a stunner of a coda: “L.A.’s in flames, it’s getting hot/Kanye West is blonde and gone/‘Life on Mars’ ain’t just a song,” she sings before snapping back to the current moment: “Oh, the live stream’s almost on.” It’s a playful, graceful way to voice a common feeling of helplessness and overstimulation. And if she sounds more at peace than the rest of us, it’s because she’s been here a while, waiting for us to catch up before it’s too late.
  https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/the-greatest/
 
The acclaim is starting to pour in. And this is just the beginning,
 

 
 

The real mvp is my husband tolerating me watching the video on my phone with audio through the car speakers while were road trip through mountainous dead zones so it keeps cutting in and out constantly

Can’t wait for the acclaim.
 
And yas at her pointing out these are her best lyrics. We been knew minus the two delulus here.

Releasing magnum opus beats all that. 

''or the title track, a ballad rich with one-liner gems like, “Your poetry’s bad, and you blame the news” -- songs that represent the best writing in her career yet have almost zero chance of radio play.''
 
 
This is going to be a critical consensus except in far, dark, obscure corners of Lana boards.
 

I love mature fans who can let albums be stand alones instead of comparing them all 24/7
Literally each album is different in sound, aesthetic, and genre so it makes little sense to compare them the way some of you do 

I guess I do 

I see Lana’s Albums as her varying degrees of depression
 
BTD: She’s happy & sad but overall happy with life
Paradise: shit hit the fan but she’s still ok
UV: Worst place emotionally you can be at
HM: She’s come far but still has her bad moments
LFL: She’s faking being ultra happy trying to make it
& is going up & down emotionally.
NFR: She’s finally got it under control & finally feels happy, but she also knows she will never be 100%.
This album feels like another look back at her life. Her most honest album with the truest reflection. She’s confronting what makes her sad. So she ends the album basically saying. Her hope may bring her so very low again, but she has to have hope for the future. If we include pre BTD we can see she achieved the happiness we wanted. Yet SNL derailed it, she had a different HOPE for her career. She wanted the praise & as we all know that’s not what she got.

I don't want to presume her dreams and hopes and what not, as those are personal to her, but I do recall her talking about wanting to find a safe haven of poets, artists, and friends and freedom when she first got into the business but instead she was met with corporatism, drama, etc...
Now here she is writing and producing an album that is folk-pop lite with psychedelic influences and very traditional instruments with little to no record label interference into the artistic direction of the record, and no pressure to have a Hit single or #1 on the charts, and she's writing poetry again, and thinking about publishing it as a vanity project rather than a financially motivated venture. She like, actually wants her writing to be out there even if its in a few ma and pa shops for free. Idk many artists who have the freedom she has, but she certainly built it for herself. I certainly feel like she's doing well for herself now. 
 
More OT:
I still havent heard TG, FILY, California, or Bartender at all, and ive only heard the insta snippets of Cinnamon Girl, NFR, Love Song, and Happiness is a Butterfly.
 
My most anticipated is The greatest -> California -> Bartender of the entirely new stuff, but in general I'm really pumped for Love Song and Happiness is a Butterfly, even though I've heard the most of that from the snippets. 

also i've concluded that hope is a keyboard smash is a good conclusion to the record, and its placement makes me appreciate it more. A bare, honest, poetic track that reflects on the hardships in her life, but ends with her proclaiming the hope she still has

I still can't believe there are people who think Hope is a bad song. It's devastating and gorgeous, and it's going to be a brilliant end to the album based on what we've heard so far. The Greatest really sealed the deal on that for me.

Agreed! I think it's a very coherent album.

Agreed! I think it's a very coherent album.

Agreed! I think it's a very coherent album.