PrettyBaby

led zeppelin- hey hey what can i do

None of our basic business tbh.

If someone told me to download Lana Del Rey's lead single "Born 2 Die" off her new album Do U Luv Me Yet?, I would have told them to fuck off.

HDB, check these out. I wanted to give you something more tangible rather than a rambling post.
 
Here’s Wouldn’t It Be Nice by The Beach Boys in mono (how it was originally mixed in 1966) and a modern stereo mix of the song.
 
First Stereo:

 
Make sure you do NOT turn the volume all the way up, leave a little room to play the mono back louder. Listen to the clarity and separation. You can pick certain instruments apart. In this mix you can actually hear that, yes, indeed, the driving force of the backing track is two accordions! Listen to how the background vocals pop out and shimmer. Listen to the bed of horns and all the percussion. You can hear different parts weaving in and out and you feel the sound sort of enveloping you from all around, like you're in a pool that's filled with the music rather than water. The song has a certain elegance in stereo.
 
Now Mono:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E4FRtrD9aQ
 
Turn the volume up slightly louder than you did the stereo mix. All of the aforementioned is gone. Everything blends. It’s like the whole song is one big well-oiled machine, all the parts indistinguishable from each other, coming together to create a whole. It’s not about the details at all (many of which are lost!) but rather the big picture. If everything before was a collection of separate sounds, this is just one big mass of a single sound, but listen to the power that it carries. It’s like a train that’s coming straight at you and it’s going to rip your head off.
 
 
Is one "better" than the other? Of course not, it comes down to personal preference. But it also doesn't have to be about one or the other. To me, they're BOTH essential, they both have their own value for totally different reasons. When i listen to the stereo mix, i marvel at the intricacies of the composition, arrangement, and production and i think, Wow, Brian Wilson was not of this earth. How the fuck did he compose, arrange, produce, and sing this? When i listen to the mono mix i just FEEL the song and it makes me want to cry.

The still used for the stereo mix YouTube video makes me wonder what auto-tuned animal noises Emile Haynie would have put on an album entitled Pet Sounds. Or imagine "Good Vibrations" with auto-tuned loon instead of an Electro-Theremin.
 
The mono mix brings back memories of when I first fell in love with pop music during my oldies phase in grade school. After I'd go to bed, I'd turn on my crappy alarm clock radio just loud enough to hear it well and just quiet enough to avoid my parents' detection. I'd listen late into the night, marking off songs I'd heard on a Top 1000 Oldies list printed on an advert in the local paper for the oldies station, checking them off one by one by the light of a flashlight hidden under my pillow. Ah, memories...

There's been a lot of drama over comments in status updates about the line "I'm a fan of pro-ana nation." I think it's an interesting subject, and would like to discuss it here, if we can avoid the drama.
 
While I agree with people critical of the line that it would be problematic if Lana were advocating anorexia, and I see the potential for anorexics to latch onto this, but I don't think that's what she's doing here. To the contrary. She's no more advocating anorexia than she is advocating drugs, drinking, getting beaten by someone with tats on his ass, or fucking your teachers. She's painting a picture of how fucked up she or other girls were in boarding school. The song is written from that perspective, but portrays that perspective as something fucked up.

I did this too (until I hid it). Unfortunately, it had a very different effect on me than Maru probably experienced.

What if it was a Diet MTN Dew demo, but recorded with the Phenomena?!
 
Thanks
 
 
Indulge this theory for a second, please, I'm feeling pretty good about it:
 
Lana has gone on record saying that her first three singles--"Video Games", "Born to Die", and "Blue Jeans"--are a trilogy. As a fanbase, it's our job to read really far into this. A safe point to jump to is that these songs are a trilogy in the sense that they're all about the same love story. I readily accepted this for a while and assigned this trilogy to her criminal love story, K. "Blue Jeans" has the most detail of any of these three songs, specifically relating back to "For K", so this as a logical jump of intuition. But if you think about it, really think about it, these songs don't have any particular details in common. Sure, they're all mournful. But it ends there.
 
Just recently, some stalkers insiders made it vaguely apparent that they were positive "Video Games" is about Mike Mizrahi. Mike's story doesn't cohesively fit with the mysterious K's, so we're all left in the dust of that trilogy theory. But that's how Lana herself described it--a trilogy. So what if these three songs aren't a trilogy in the sense that they all connect back to one guy, but that they connect to three separate things she holds dear. For instance, what if this trilogy is about the three most important loves of her life?
 
It makes sense, doesn't it? She cast Bradley Soileau in "Born to Die" based on his appearance, which bears some striking similarities to Jimmy Gnecco's. And just reading this thread, it's impossible not to get the sense that these were Lana's most important relationships--held above Bill and possibly Chris and whoever she dated as a teenager. "Video Games" being about Mike, "Born to Die" being about Jimmy, and "Blue Jeans" being about K.
 
Problems with this:
- Born to Die. Very K, right? Wrong. Who's to say that she means die in the literal sense? She sings last thing I saw before I died, and lo and behold, she's not dead.
- Bradley Soileau, the model equivalent of Jimmy Gnecco, is also in "Blue Jeans". So that song must be about Jimmy, right? Wrong. See, she was already in a professional relationship with Bradley at that point, and maybe even a less-than-professional one. People were fascinated with his image. Business-wise, casting Bradley was a natural move. She originally cast him for "Born to Die" based on his looks--but did she ever say the same for the decision in "Blue Jeans"? As far as I know, the answer is no.
 
Shower me with praise or comments.

I'd totally do A$AP, but I'd tell him he'd have to shut the fuck up.

"You Can Be the Boss"

They suit the videos well, but A$AP and Bradley are just.. erghh you all know what I'm going to say.
 
Josh seems sweet.

:o :o :o :o :o :o :o
 
 
So who's the better melodist, Lizzy or Jimmy? Gonna have to give it to Lizzy in this case, hands down.
 
By the way, the metadata on the "No Kung Fu" version of Little Girls has always been tagged as 2007. Hmm...

Well yeah, I mean she's still in the parking lot...

But the notes in "Yellow" are different. It's the melody that's distinctive in PMIAM and Saints, IMO. I agree there's inspiration going on; the question is, in which direction?

Well yeah, I mean she's still in the parking lot...

and y'all will deal

I think she looks like the young jennifer jason leigh
 

 
also julia roberts/emma watson/liv tyler sometimes

I like Lana Del Ray/Rey AKA Lizzy Grant so much more than Born to Die. I feel like Born to Die is very "packaged" with it's sound and presentation. AKA just feels so natural in many aspects, it just flows better. Born to Die on the other hand just sounds overproduced on a whole.

Yeah, that's the same I found, and fuck, it is the same font! *instantly hate myself* Ok, I fixed it
 
 
 
I did, stupid plants, always finding a way to get into pies
 
 
 
No they're not
 
 
 
Yes, a couple more songs and it would probably be an amazing album instead of a re-release/ep :imbeingsarcasticbitch2:
 
 
Okay I re-did them so they look kind of better:
 
this one
 
 
 
 
and this one
 
 
 
 
a brief description of what's going on:
 
shes in an amusement park you think shes having fun enjoying herself walking down the street as they whistle hi hi but oh oh no! you then remember shes lana del rey and shes just really sad about everything

It will be wonderful to have one post with the links to all the interviews (maybe listed by years with brief description). There was something like that on the .fm site and was useful to refute false accusations by haters/writers/bloggers in my ongoing effort to be Lana's offensive lineman online.
 
I think the David Nichtern interview was really informative, and dispels many, many of the false stuff still raised about her. I think it is amazing it took someone as talented as Lana so long to break through, but I also find it incredibly admirable that she didn't give up, kept trying, kept reinventing herself, until it all came together. Great woman!

i always loved that interview
here's something i re-read recently that sheds some light on what really went down behind lana's departure from 5 points records and the way the new management (it's obvs he's talking about ben) un-did her deal with them and were adamant to take LDRAKALG off the (virtual) shelves:
http://www.mtvhive.c...cords-interview (thanks to your link, trailerparkdarling, we know that david nichtern was not only head of the label but also one of america's foremost buddhist meditation teachers!)
 
also, since i haven't seen it posted here, a 2010 interview with one of the local adirondacks papers: http://www.adirondac...1.html?nav=5050
(evidence that her dad did help her, if not financially, to market the album - and i don't think there's anything wrong with that, he's a fan of what his daughter does and he supports her.)

Most of the negative opinions are unpopular, and most of the unpopular opinions are negative.
 
Deal with it.
 
EDIT: To word this in a less snarky way --> When most of the fanbase consists of people saying "OMG SHE'S FLAWLESS", negative opinions become unpopular opinions. Just because they're negative doesn't mean that they are not ~valid unpopular opinions/criticisms~ and not worth sharing, nor is it worth even pointing out.

I honestly want Lemon Pie to win just so I can see his interview. It would be hilarious.

Congrats PrettyBaby -I voted you
I really enjoyed reading the interview too x

LOVING this image.