Jump to content

13bitches

Banned
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    1,762

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by 13bitches

  9. Posted

    1. Honeymoon - 5/5

    2. Ultraviolence - 4.5/5

    3. Born to Die - 4.5/5

    4. Lana Del Ray - 4.5/5

    5. Lust for Life - 4/5

    6. Norman Fucking Rockwell! - 4/5

    7. Paradise - 3.5/5

    Just remembered my rankings and wanted to elaborate!

     

    Honeymoon: Can we say legendaric? Queen of cohesion, queen of consistency (quality and feel). Though it isn't an everyday listen for me, it's easily her best album and it gets paid absolute dust. I love the atmosphere, the feel, the vibe of this album. Seriously, this album has the most highlights of her (released) discography for me. The Blackest Day, 24, Religion, Terrence Loves You, and Honeymoon are all seriously god-tier Lana songs. Had Freak kept its bridge and a similar arrangement to Freak Like Me (with different production, obviously), it would be among the others here as well. She is the mother I never had. She is the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person. 5/5

     

    Ultraviolence: I love, love, love the shift in sound and darker feel that Ultraviolence has compared to AKA, Born to Die, and Parasite. I love rock Lana, and wish she'd revisit this sound at some point. Again, a few released discography highlights (though not as many) for me here, such as Shades of Cool, West Coast (an actual cultural reset), Old Money, and Black Beauty. The only issue I really have with Ultraviolence is that for the most part, the best songs are on the first half of the album (with the exception of the bonus tracks), and I can't remember who but I saw someone else make this point a few days ago. Money Power Glory and Fucked My Way could have and should have been bonus tracks if she insisted on releasing them. They aren't bad per se, but they kind of throw off the feel of the album sonically; I'd much prefer Black Beauty and one of Is This Happiness/Flipside/Color Blue (with similar production to the rest of the album) in their places. No hard feelings though. Since I count Black Beauty as part of the album's highlights, I feel obligated to hold Florida Kilos against the album as well based on principle: I absolutely cannot stand this song, and I will never for the life of me understand why everyone loves it and insists that it's underrated (on the contrary, I'd argue that it's massively overrated  :hooker:). That's another opinion I've extensively discussed already tho, so let's move on. 4.5/5

     

    Born to Die: Again, not a daily listen for me, but I do quite like Born to Die. Even today, it holds up sonically and lyrically. Truly a timeless classic. Discography highlights feautred on BTD (again, in my opinion) include Million Dollar Man, Lolita, Video Games, and Dark Paradise. I don't know what else I can say about this album that hasn't been extensively discussed already, but I'll throw in that I don't care for this arrangement of TIWMUG – this version is far too slow and lethargic. Overall another 4.5/5

     

    Lana Del Ray: Say what you will about it but this is an absolutely solid album. I count this as her debut album, and therefore consider all thirteen songs on it to be part of her released discography. I love the sonic variety on this album, and that even with the sonic variety, it still sounds cohesive and all fits together. I absolutely love this album, and hate that it's paid dust by Lana and fans alike. Pawn Shop Blues and Raise Me Up are amazing songs, and even though she's released five whole albums since LDRay, I'd say that PSB and RMU still hold up to the rest. Oh, and this version of Yayo too; it blows the Paradise version out of the water and to the moon. Other notable tracks include Oh Say Can You See, For K Pt. 2, and Gramma. All that said, I do wish that Pin Up Galore and Trash Magic would have found a way onto this record. I know it's a long shot (that's bigger than two football fields!) but I'd really love to the this album reissued one day, including an official physical release. 4.5/5

     

    Lust for Life: Lust for Life is really a mixed bag. It has soaring highs (Get Free, Heroin, Change, Tomorrow Never Came) and one of the lowest lows (Beautiful People Beautiful Problems) of her released career. The features I have mixed feelings on; I like Sean on Tomorrow Never Came and Rocky on Groupie Love, but hate everything about BPBP (except the first verse), and the features on Summer Bummer add absolutely nothing new to track – it would have been better with the second verse from So Good, and Carti's adlibs could be swapped out for Lana's humming from So Good and the higher vocals toward the end. I think the main problem with Lust for Life is that it tried to do too much with one release – pop singles (Love, Lust for Life), more folk-influenced material (TNC, WTWWAWWKDJSOIAHJFOIF, Change), hip hop (Summer Bummber) classic Lana (13 Beaches), soft rock/pop (BPBP, Get Free), trap-influenced stuff (Cherry, White Muskrat, IMF, Coachella) – and it just kind of came out as an incohesive mess of inconsistent quality. Lana's supposed favorite track from the record (Yosemite), and known superior tracks such as Serene Queen and the original version of TNBAR were brushed off while BPBP, In My Feelings, and WTWWAW stumbled their way onto the album. I can't make it make sense. As I stated though, while it is a hot mess sonically, the highs on this album are top-notch. 4/5

     

    Norman Fucking Rockwell: I don't consider Norman to be a bad album, but there's a few things about it that just feel... off? Weird? I don't know the word I'm looking for here. Though the consistency of sound and quality are greater than that of Lust for Life, the quality of the music here is more middle ground – it doesn't really have bottom-of-the-barrel lows (save for the atrocity that is TNBAR), but it doesn't have many soaring highs. Mariners Apartment Complex; Fuck It, I Love You; and California are the major stand-outs here. Cinnamon Girl, Bartender, and maybe Venice Bitch get honorable mentions. TNBAR, Doin' Time, and the title track are the main songs holding this record back, but not the only issues. I'm in the camp of people that feel that the production on this album is lacking; at times it sounds flat-out cheap, demo-ish, inconsistent, and unfinished/lazy (see: title track, How to Disappear, the cheap piano on Love Song and Hope), though Jack is not solely to blame here (this version of TNBAR still shares the production team with the rest of LFL, and its "reworking" beyond lazy and insulting to what was once a fantastic song). A good portion of the songs here sound rushed and unfinished in terms of writing (which is odd, considering it was released nearly a year after being announced); one may even say half-baked  :creep:; the main offenders here are the title track, Hope, and Cinnamon Girl (as much as I love it). NFR and Hope feel and sound like flat-out demos (though NFR just flat-out isn't a great song), and Cinnamon Girl, even with its instrumental outro, feels like it's missing a bridge, an extended second verse, or even another chorus. I change my rating of NFR to a 3.5/5

     

    Parasite: Speaking of rushed and half-baked, the lyrics on Paradise are also rather lacking to me. The EP is beautifully produced in terms of music/sound, I just wish she'd had more time to spend/spend more time writing. The only real highlights here are Bel Air, Blue Velvet (a cover) and Ride (which could have used another vocal take, sis sounds like a frog). While the instrumental is beautiful, she absolutely butchered Yayo here. I don't like the vocal acrobatics or delivery on this version of the song at all. Her cover of Blue-Velvet is very well-done, sonically and vocally. American, Burning Desire, and Cola, unless I'm just missing something, are seriously lacking in substance, are honestly eyeroll-inducing to me, and could have (should have) been cut from the project completely. Gods and Monsters and Body Electric are okay but don't really go anywhere. As an aside, I do want to say that Young and Beautiful deserved a proper release as part of Paradise. 3.5/5

    2

  12. Posted

    now that it's been 8½ months since the record's release, how do the tracks rank with you guys? for me, it's:

     

    a tie between venice bitch, the greatest, and happiness is a butterfly

    hope is a dangerous thing

    mariners apartment complex

    fuck it i love you

    norman fucking rockwell

    cinnamon girl

    love song

    california

    bartender

    how to disappear

    doin time

    the next best american record

    For me, I’d say (from favorite to least favorite):

    California

    Fuck It, I Love You

    Mariners Apartment Complex

    Cinnamon Girl

    Bartender

    Happiness Is a Butterfly

    Venice Bitch

    The Greatest

    Love Song

    How to Disappear

    Hope Is a Dangerous Thing...

    Doin’ Time

    Norman Fucking Rockwell

    The Next Worst American Record

    1

  16. Posted

    Still haven't done LFL yet

    Oh queso I think I have a rearrangement idea for LFL:

     

    Young and in Love

    Lust for Life (Early Version that leaked in January)

    Serene Queen

    So Good (with the bridge from Summer Bummer)

    Cherry

    13 Beaches

    The Next Best American Record (2016/17 version)

    Tomorrow Never Came

    Heroin

    Change

    Get Free

    0
×
×
  • Create New...