Valentino

I hope they collaborate again, maybe on a Lana-centric track. Their personas just complement each other so well, as do their music and voices. I do wish more Lana was audible on Prisoner, though.

Other than the October 22nd interview with Billboard where she compared Francesco to a table, has Lana ever mentioned Francesco in an interview before?

whoops

So perfect It's too bad they're on YouTube, I don't know how to get good quality from YT.

Are you Russian?

AKA is the most natural to me, unique sounds and lyrics, and great melodies. Not a bad or boring song on there, unlike BTD (Carmen, DMD), P (Belair, most of the album is forgettable imo), UV (PWYC, Old Money, FMWUTTT), or Honeymoon (I literally forget Religion exists, Art Deco is boring sorry). It's not a perfect album, but it's definitely my favorite by her. Paradise is def last place, but the rest sort of fight each other in my ranking. Like I love BTD but after hearing the demos, I feel like a lot of the spark was lost (DMD, NA, DP, TIWMUG) and I start understanding why people think it's soulless and overproduced. Honeymoon is beautiful but not outstanding. Ultraviolence has great songs but I'm not into the whole lo-fi rock sound. WC is the only song on the standard album that sounds "clean" to me; I really dislike the production otherwise. But I still love all of them in a way, even Paradise. Unlike some artists, none of Lana"s albums are truly unlistenable.

I wish they would have added online capabilities for the VC RBY. How awesome would that have been? But something is better than nothing. Also that Pokken thing looks sick.

I don't know, I thought "Lana Del Rey: High By The Beach simulator" was fantastic. The controls are so fluid; it feels natural to shoot the machine gun at the paparazzi helicopters, and the levels are pretty challenging without getting stupid hard. The plot is still nonsensical, though.

Reading through this thread is genuinely embarrassing, people were actually getting up in arms and calling Adele rude because she might have been inspired by Lana's like y'all better hate on every single basic girl who gets a semicolon, "I will not sink" anchor, or an infinity sign if you're going to fight the good fight for tattoo originality. Adele likes Lana anyway, so who cares?

I like P and T, but I think I like T a bit more. P feels slicker and a better pop product, but I always quit before the second half. T is rougher but it's a bit more personal and has slightly more tracks that I like. So I'm curious as to how you guys break down each album. Perfection: 1. "Perfection" ( this isn't really a song so I'm not rating it) 2. "Wonderland" (yes) 3. "Free" (featuring will.i.am) (it's okay, will.i.am makes it so much worse though, and the "I could look fresh in a potato sack" was better in "Hot Mess") 4. "Kill My Boyfriend" (love) 5. "Break You Hard" (okay) 6. "Zombie" (LOVE THIS) 7. "Love Is a Suicide" (okay) 8. "Mirrors" (love) 9. "Not in Love" (like) 10. "Acid Annie" (okay) 11. "Superficial" (okay) 12. "Broke" (i forgot this existed) 13. "Heaven" (same) 14. "Nothing Lasts Forever" (featuring Billy Kraven) (same) 15. "If I Was God" (okay) Trouble Television (good if you ignore the unnecessarily long introduction) Problem (like) Stop me (eh) Boys don't cry (eh) Daddy's girl (like) Saturday Night (love) Devils Don't Fly (okay) Outta Time (cute song but I don't like it as much anymore) Controversy (okay) Rabbit Hole (the slut anthem that never was, love) Watching You (okay) Marlboro Lights (okay) Trouble (love) I still love Natalia despite that X Factor mess. And despite the stupid name change (Teddy Sinclair, what).

I finally ordered Night Time My Time. So excited.

could a kind soul send me Rollercoaster? It doesn't seem available to buy on Google Play, and the link here isn't working. It's so cute when she says "vroom vroom" and "bee-beep!" Not sure how I feel about it, it's just a bit too slow, but I like the return of rapping Charli. I think I'll end up liking it. I haven't heard any of the SOPHIE tracks, derp. Listening to the live version of Vroom Vroom I like that tempo better, but the pitch shifting is annoying as all hell. I don't know if I imagine listening to this on the radio but I need a non-Boom Clap Charli track on the radio EDIT: never mind that stuff this song has single-handedly slayed my existence my body is ready I'm so ready for new Charli stuff. I never imagined I'd end up liking her more than Marina. the disappointment that was froot

I need Honeymoon to win album of the year so we can get another close-up of Taylor Swift, smugly expecting to win a second AOTY, seething like a baby because she didn't win. If Beck can beat Beyonce, I need the Grammy committee to do us a second favor. Plus Lana basically wrote the chorus to Wildest Dreams anyway so it's a win for Taylor Swift, too

Lana is one of my favorite artists. I'd be very sad if she just faded out of music. I know "nothing gold can stay," but that doesn't mean I wouldn't be sad if she eventually became a non-entity. Marina has completely left my radar, and I used to love her more than Lana. I don't want that to happen, you know? I like that most people here have been able to express themselves without resorting to KIIII SHADE. It feels more polite than the pre-release thread for sure. Btw, now listening to Honimoonz

I want to compare Butterflies Part 2 with Money Power Glory. I think MPG is an evolution of the theme in Butterflies Part 2. An inversion, if you will. "You're hot for God, but we all got a, Hunch that maybe you've gone astray. Control yourself, but it's so hard, When you can look so good on Sunday." Right off the bat, we're talking about a religious man. He talks about God a lot, but everyone suspects he's not on the straight and narrow. Lana notes that he's trying not to give in, but it's just so tempting to look good on Sunday, when everyone sees him. "I know he knows, That I know what he's thinkin', I know he knows That what he's doin' is wrong, But I just tell him "go on, Sing a sad song." " She knows what he's doing, and he is aware of this. He is also aware that what he's doing is wrong, but Lana doesn't berate him, and just tells him to sing a sad song. "My baby has an eye, For pretty things, pretty things. He thinks that little girls, Are butterflies and cuts their wings." Well, here's his crime. He's a ladykiller. Hopefully he's not chasing after actual little girls and this is one of Lana's turns of phrases. Having sexual relationships outside of marriage is generally considered unacceptable in Christianity. "Sicko, psycho, sicko, But he's my beau." She knows he's a sick mofo, but he's her sick mofo. They're dating (or maybe she's okay with being "one of many," like in Shades of Cool?) "Puts them on a rollercoaster, Lures them in with Coca-Cola!" He uses sweet nothings to lock these girls into a crazy ride they can't get off of until he's done with them. "Boy, you've been, catchin' butterflies, All the girls believe your lies, don't they?" Just more on the girls = butterflies stuff, and him using lies to get these girls. "Boy, you can pin, me up if you like, A pin-up in a lonely sky, baby. You give me butterflies, You're catchin' butterflies. I'm fluttering, fluttering high." Insect collectors pin up dead butterflies to show their wings. Lana wouldn't mind being one of his conquests, one of his pinned butterflies, and sexualizes it by comparing herself, the pinned butterfly, to a pinup girl. She's unlike the other girls, hence the "lonely sky," because she went into this willingly. But she's just so in love~ "You're hard to trap but boy you got, A secret that you cannot betray. He likes it hot, you're burnin' up, But baby boy your secret is safe." Nobody's been able to call him out yet, but he knows that it would ruin him if his sexy secret got out. Don't worry, Lana's got your back. "I know he know, That what he's teachin' is wrong, But, honey, this preacher's song, Has got me too far-gone." It seems he's using his influence as a preacher to get these girls to do him favors, which would be even worse than simply getting around. Lana doesn't care - she's too in love with him. Maybe "this preacher's song" is the same "sad song" she asked him to sing in the beginning, metaphorically. "My baby has an eye, For girls who sing, girls who sing. He's lucky I'm the type, That's his thing, that's his thing." He seems to like singers. He's lucky that the girl who fits his type is also someone willing to stand by his sick actions. "Dresses up in rings and rollers, Poses as a Holy Roller!" Looking good on Sunday while pretending to be possessed by religious fervor. "These butterflies are in a, Golden cage, safe and bound." Lana's saying nothing really bad happens to these girls. Alternately, she may be saying her own 'butterflies' are safely controlled by her. "I puts on "Lola" by The Kinks, And he dances round. And he's so happy that his Feet don't even touch the ground. I'm in love 'cause I was lost, And now I'm finally found." Lola is supposed to be a song about meeting a transvestite or something, not sure how it relates? It's probably just a song Lana likes. "Lost, but now I was found" she claimed in Born To Die. I guess he found her. "You say that you wanna go To a land that's far away How are we supposed to get there With the way that we're living today? You talk lots about God Freedom comes from the call" 'A land that's far away' sounds like heaven. Lana counters that that's not going to happen with their current sinful lifestyle. He talks about how freedom comes from the "call," presumably the call of being chosen by God to spread his message or good word or whatever. "But that's not what this bitch wants Not what I want at all. I want money, power and glory I want money and all your power, all your glory Hallelujah, I wanna take you for all that you got Hallelujah, I'm gonna take them for all that they got" Lana is not interested in the call at all, and makes it clear that she wants money, as well as his power and glory. So he is powerful and glorious! Would it be a stretch to say he may even be a preacher? Lana mocks his religion by shouting hallelujah while declaring her intention to not only rob him of everything he has, but everyone else, as well. "The sun also rises, On those who fail the call My life, it comprises, Of losses and wins and fails and falls" She counters that failing the call is not the end of the world - you can continue after having fallen from your podium of holiness. And indeed, if your moral standards are too high, it's almost inevitable. Lana says her own life is full of failures, as well as wins, listing herself as an example of someone who failed the call. "I can do it if you really, really like that I know what you really want, b-b-b-b-baby I can do it if you think you like that You should run, boy, run" It's hard not to think of this line in a sexual context. She's offering to do something for him, but only if he's willing to admit that he really wants it. She teases him, saying that despite all his talk of God and the call and the far-away land, she knows what he really wants. 'Baby' makes it sound like they might be in some sort of relationship. Nevertheless, Lana doesn't particularly care for him and only wants his power and glory, and mentions that it would be a bad idea to actually take her up on her offer to "do it." "Dope and diamonds, dope and diamonds, that's all that I want." Gimme them, gimme them dope and diamonds. Arthur Lynn is the guy in MPG confirmed. Just a Lana-ism about that money, power, glory. So, in summary, what? Butterflies Part 2 is about a powerful, religious man who, against his own religious code, uses his influence to get sexual favors from girls. Lana doesn't care about this because she's in love with him. Money Power Glory is about a powerful, religious man who, against his own religious code, lives a sinful life with Lana. Lana doesn't care about this because she also fails his moral standards, and because she's using his influence to get money, power, and glory. We went from a hypocritical, powerful religious figure using girls to a hypocritical, powerful religious figure being used by a girl. ~*eVoLuTiOn~* Maybe the Butterflies Pt.2. guy dumped her or something.

Her lyricism really didn't improve that much on Ultraviolence. She wrote about new themes, I'll give you that, but whereas before her fault was just stringing pretty quotes together, now it sometimes seems nonsensical. "He used to call me DN - that stood for deadly nightshade." Is DN some double entendre? A pop culture reference? It might sound less stupid if DN sounded like an actual nickname as opposed to the most hamfisted acronym she could come up with. "He used to call me poison like I was poison ivy." Lana did the poison ivy thing better in DICWB - "call me poison ivy cuz I'm far from good, but pretty from afar, like a dark star." The UV line feels very obvious. And there's no way she can sing "bright tears of gold like lemonade" without bringing the imagery of her crying urine, I am simply sorry (same with Ghetto Baby "you got a face like the Madonna crying tears of gold"). I think the "nothing gold can stay, like love or lemonade" is a better lemonade reference, if only because there's alliteration and it's an interesting juxtaposition, something abstract like love and something so banal and concrete as lemonade. "I'm a dragon, you're a whore." Girl, you're the one saying you slept your way to the top, don't be throwing stones from your glass house. And if this song really is about Lorde, that's even worse, because she'd be calling a freaking seventeen-year-old a whore. Come on, Lana, you're better than that. I cannot stand her vocals on PWYC. By which I mean, I skip the song every single time because of her bleating on the verses. "But I don't really mind," "shine for you," are particular problem spots. And I actually like the song, when I can bring myself to ignore the forced drug references and obviously improvised lyrics. But the pitchiness... only once in a blue moon can I bring myself to listen to PWYC. Old Money was better as Methamphetamines. Her vocal delivery on Meth. is very her, got that Doris Day wobbly thing going on at "Methampheta~mines." It's so beautiful. And I prefer it being sung acappella to the boring string arrangement Old Money got. But what really kills Old Money for me is the chorus. If this thing really ever was in the running to be the Gatsby song, I'm glad Y&B won out instead, because I don't like the chorus at all. Melodically, it's just uninteresting, as opposed to the verses. Whereas the two-note motif from Y&B was invoked throughout the film for different moods. Old Money's chorus is just a disappointment, really. I like The Other Woman. When she sings "her life alone," it gives me chills. It sounds so beautiful, what a lovely tone! And I like the arrangement they came up for the song, too, so that there's still harmonic progression after "her life alone" (it simply returns to the tonic in the Nina Simone version). I just don't like the filter they put on her voice, it's unnecessary. I also like DLMBM, but it would have been better off as a bonus track. It feels unnecessary after Swan Song. Blue Velvet is alright. I hope she won't continue putting covers on future albums, though; I simply don't like covers on albums. I didn't like it when the Beatles had half their albums composed of covers, and I continue to prefer albums of all-original material. Especially since covers usually contrast with the rest of the album (case in point: DLMBM). The "beatboxing and rapping in the summer rain, like a boss he sang jazz and blues" line is awful out of context, but it sounds perfectly sensical in the context of the song. The way she sings it, even though it's ridiculous, it feels like it totally belongs in the song. Unlike, say, "now it's time to eat soft ice cream," or even "cacciatore" (no more food, please) which is still silly but I can ignore because the chorus's melody is so compelling. I love Salvatore (and I'm glad he's her baby boo ). Although I feel like by any standards of music, songwriting, literature, etc., Big Bad Wolf is an awful song... I still kinda like it? This is the most shameful thing I've ever written on this forum, and am ever likely to write again. I think I like Honeymoon better than UV but not as much as BTD? But I like all her albums, even Paradise. I luh dis gurl.

This is the same way she wrote Video Games with Justin Parker, for what it's worth.

"What's the meaning of this song?" This is a thread where we indulge our inner literature major while also answering the question - "Is Lana really that repetitive with her themes?" This is not about real life people. This about looking at songs by themselves, without outside context to help you understand. What textual evidence do we have for each song's meaning? In an effort to keep this distinct from Lanalysis, the topic is limited to looking at a text instead of pointing to interviews. Obviously if we want to talk about Lana's intentions, we need to look at what she says, but here we're looking at what the song says, not what any authority (Lana, a video, a single cover, etc.) says about the song. These aren't meant to be authoritative conclusions. There's a lot of people here who have different views on these songs and I wanna hear about them, which is why I made this thread. Moreover, these are very superficial descriptions. I'm pretty sure there's more to "Oh say can you see" and "West Coast" than I've written here. Write your opinions on what Lana's songs mean! There are some songs (especially Sirens-era stuff) that I have a very hard time making any sense out of, so if anyone has ideas on that, please spit them out. Sirens Lana Del Ray Born to die Paradise Ultraviolence Honeymoon From a quick glance, BTD definitely looks like the album that most centers itself around a single theme, that theme being love, particularly eternal love and lost love. UV deals with depression, relationships that are illicit or don't work, and criticisms of Lana (BrBaby, FMWUTTT, MPG, even UV?). Honeymoon goes back to some old themes, while also talking about her relationship with fame (GKIT, SS, DLMBM) and some one-off themes, like "a foreign man is often ignored for frozen treats" and "an amorous murderer's life is chronicled while Lana is fascinated with the length of the Earth's rotation." God only knows what the hell Sirens is about - lots of talk about addiction, and other peoples' lives? AKA seems more consistent in terms of dealing with classic Lana themes like kitschy Americana (trailers, motels, gas stations). What are your thoughts?

The video is supposed to be about a friend committing suicide. At least, so I've heard. If someone can provide links to interviews proving this, I'd love to see it. She once said in an interview that Summertime Sadness was "about nothing." Songs, after all, don't have to be about personal experience. Or anything at all. And the meaning of a song does not have to hinge on its video, either - the two can be independent.

I agree it's interesting to see how her guitar playing changes. Disco, Axl Rose Husband, OSCYS, those have a very simple pattern, it sounds like she's just playing octaves to my ear (though I'd need to check). On Sirens, her guitar playing is more advanced, with a more complicated plucking pattern. She doesn't strum much, except on Move. I bet you she practiced long and hard for Sirens, because none of her laptop stuff is like that. You can even hear her stumbling during "Bad Disease" and slowing down her vocals momentarily to make up for it. I think she said in an interview that she just "sucked" at playing guitar, and that's why she stopped. I think it helped her come up with cool sounds, though. Like the chorus of Drive-By is I i I i I VII I (in the key of C, it'd be C Cm C Cm C Bb C). I've never heard that before. And there are probably other cool things like that scattered through Sirens that happened because of her limitations as a guitar player. She said she only learned 4 chords, but it can't literally be true (we can just look at every chord played in Sirens to make sure ), although I'm certain it was a very limited number. I think she said F or B was hard? Anyway, she managed to take the few chords she could play and come up with interesting sounds. That's creativity! Also her acappella stuff shows her experimenting a lot with harmonies, like Bentley. Carmen is actually pretty interesting as a demo because you've got parallel fourths or fifths above the melody line during the chorus, and then a picardy third at the very end. She never studied music theory, so she came up with that stuff on her own. Off the top of my head, Lady Gaga is the only other pop music artist that I've heard picardy thirds (So happy I could die) (don't complain that Lana isn't pop, I'm using pop as a catch-all compared to folk or "art" music). I don't know how she writes songs nowadays. There's supposed to be a Cola laptop demo, but we've never gotten that. I don't think we have demos for any of the UV songs except maybe the "radio mix" of West Coast. We know a segment was cut from Cruel World. But if she doesn't use her guitar or create acappellas... how is she writing nowadays? Acappellas are what people who don't play an instrument use to write music (see: Michael Jackson's demo for Beat It). She's said she sits down to write at the same time every day "because your muse will know where to find you," but her process is still shrouded in mystery. If only interviewers asked about this stuff instead of the tired "feminism? depression? fashion?" questions. Be honest with me... are you talking about James Franco? Or is there someone else we should know about?

@@Creyk I thought it'd be obvious it was a joke by how ridiculous it was. I hoped calling it the freaking ~indisputable~ Canon and adding Important Capitals would really take it over the top into "not serious" territory, but it seems not. My opinion is not the definitive one. Nobody's is. I'm well aware I'm not the Lord of Lana Music. I'll make sure to type all my responses in assembly code to prevent future misunderstandings.

I'd rather listen to the May Jailer stuff than Paradise, I think that should give you an idea of how much I like it. For future reference, the Totally Absolute and Indisputable Canon of Lana Albums (Honeymoon currently excluded because I'm in the honeymoon period): 1. AKA (unique in sound and lyric, she still hadn't hung on to some of her lazier songwriting cliches, beautiful vocals except for her stupid fake southern accent) 2. Born To Die (sorry, UV fans Influential production, true sense of grandiosity, less reliance on repeating a single line for choruses. Some of her career-wide stereotypes start cementing themselves here, such as the bad boy, being doomed in love, being submissive. Some vocals and production were superior in demos) 3. Ultraviolence (repetitive choruses become more prominent, not a fan of Auerbach's production except on West Coast, which was inexplicably the only song on the album that sounded like that. More daring with vocals, but also some sloppy performances passed off as "raw" *side-eyes PWYC* She gets away from some of the old Lana trappings and starts singing about new stuff like a guru, being a hipster, and Lorde a pleasant lady who was inspired by Lana's sound) 4. Sirens + Sirens-era stuff (Beautiful bright, clear voice, none of the typical Lana imagery, no pretentions of artistry, it's just a girl singing about life and it's refreshing. Her guitar playing is very static and uninteresting, but by limiting herself to a few chords she comes up with some unexpected chord progressions.) 5. Paradise (literal trash, delete it fat Nah, I don't feel that way. It's... eh. Lazy vocals, I think she said she recorded this record very quickly and it definitely shows. A lot of the songs are just okay, like Ride, G&M, Bel Air, and the covers/re-recordings don't fare much better. Songwriting was pretty static? At least if you include Burning Desire it's a little upbeat. Also not a fan of the production. Sorry Paradise fans ) I don't really dislike any of her albums, to be fair. I have groups where there are albums I simply won't listen to. Because they're bad. But those weak albums came early in their careers, and Lana has been serving us surf noir/Hollywood sadcore/narco swing/future jazz bops since the beginning. Her truly awful stuff is, thankfully, unreleased. I'm including such gems as Delicious, Big Bad Wolf, Daddy Issues, Moi Je Joue. I truly challenge anyone talking about how there's not a single bad Lana song to show me the redeeming factors of Delicious. You can like it, of course (I sometimes like BBW) but there's no way you can argue that this song meets any standard of "good."

I think that's a really honest lyric from her. And she hasn't hidden it in her interviews. It might do her some good to get out of LA and have different experiences. I mean, if chilling in Italy gives us Salvatore, I'm alright with that. I disagree that this is a "Paradise," if only because I skip half of that record the rare time I listen to it. I think Cola and American are the only songs from there I still listen to. On the other hand, I'm not quite sure what the artistic development is on UV, which everyone hails as a stepping stone in her career. Is it the rock sound? Her lyrics didn't seem to change much. Her vocals improved. Her music didn't seem to become more complex or really change much. I'd really like a fan of UV to explain what makes it a more mature record than Born to Die, or Paradise, or AKA. I don't think it's bad, at all, but I just don't understand the hype around it.

I literally have no clue what magazines Lana has been posing for, or how high-caliber the shows she performs on are. But I love reading her interviews and I like to see her perform. I wanted to see her live, but the venue she performed at near me sold out instantly in addition to being small. I think she has thoughtful things to say and I love hearing about the music-making process. As fans, I assume we tend to be interested in alternate versions of songs, which every live version is. I don't think wanting more of either of these makes me a greedy or chart-obsessed fan. I like her as a musician, as a person, and as a general creative producer, beyond music. (I do value her music above all else, which is why bad music is worse for me than bad lyrics) The idea of distancing oneself from commercialization is very nice, but several years from now, when Lana stops singing and touring, we're going to be looking at the paucity of materials we have for periods in her catalog and wishing we had more. I'm a fan of artists from the 60s-70s that basically stopped performing live after releasing later albums or rarely gave interviews, and it stinks to not have that material, particularly when you know they're extremely unlikely to do so again. I also enjoy some video games that bombed commercially and finding any official material relating to them is a drag because there's very little of it and oftentimes, it's only in Japanese. Fans want everything of an artist. It can be a bit all-consuming and unfair, but I don't think every fan wishing Lana got out there more is necessarily wanting to have the "prestige" of being a fan of a popular artist. EDIT: It's unfair to take BTD reviews into account when every person on this board knows that Lana was more often reviewed for image than her music itself. And although critics' opinions should be taken into account, they're certainly not the deciding factor in an album's quality. Critics often have a radically different opinion from the "common people" and their constraints as reviewers (little time to review an artist, pressure to give good or bad review, unfamiliarity with certain genre, often having no musical training [critics misusing musical terminology are the worst and should be barred from ever writing a review without having a glossary of musical terms at their side]) should not be ignored. I mean, 1989 is a couple of points below Honeymoon on Metacritic, if we really wanna go there.