Dazed

I just don't understand why she just let the album go. She was so passionate about it before - I remember her saying it made her "forget the old record". There were billboards being put up and pictures and promos and teasers in April/May. Even if it flopped sales-wise, does she not still love UV for what it is and have that connection with the songs themselves? I'm hoping this is a label issue rather than her. I mean, I guess its only 4 months in so at this point in the BTD era we didn't even have NA or SS videos yet, so I guess she could come up with something still, but theres no real indication anything is in the works. 
 
Oh well, at least nothing is better than half-attempts which would just be even more disappointing. And she is starting to sing more UV live so that's something too.
 
     

Lmao this killed me.

You can tell she loves performing MDM, she ain't gonna drop it any time soon

nah, sorry. most artists focus on their new album during their most current tour and only play the singles from their other albums. 
 
lana hasn't given UV its due quite yet and it's not fair. 

I love Jessica Lange and I love Lana (what?!), so of course this was giving me life, but I really didn't like it. It wasn't just the lyrics, it was the vocal delivery and tbh I was kind of cringing throughout the whole thing. I'm not pointing fingers at Jessica because she's not a musician, but yeah, no. I was so excited when I found out Lana was being covered and now I'm just like .

Yes, IMO, because it hasn't gone the way she wanted it to.

Pretty When You Cry is one of her best lyrics!

Don't know how unpopular this is, but I wish she did more monologues for her videos. They're so interesting to listen to and I especially love it when she recites poetry in then (eg I Sing The Body Electric in Tropico). Her voice is really suited to it and I just enjoy the way she speaks in the Tropico & National Anthem monologues SO much.
 
I'd also love another film for Ultraviolence a la Tropico, but that's another matter.

Don't even dare to say anything against MDM

Lana should just do a guest appearance.

The question I have been asking myself recently was: would UV have made me a Lana Del Rey fan that I am today? Well, I have to be honest: No.
Let's not fool ourselves, the BTD / P era was incredibly exciting: the images, the videos, the endless amount of leaks and the AKA album that somehow blended itself into the same time period. Everything seemed, well not just seemed, it was so exciting. She seemed to care so much about her output, the presentation, everything was just spot on.
 
This era is actually a huge, huge disappointment. Even with the material given, she could have created so much more and interesting stuff. When you want to put a distance between the last era and this one, you can handle it in a way that is still exciting for your fans to live this album with you, not just release it and vanish more or less.
 
I don't care that some people on here, rise their eyebrows and vomit in their mouth when you mention the evil word of "promo", because I will never understand what is wrong with wanting your favourite artist to be on tele, on the radio, playing shows, making exciting videos. She has completly ruined it, tbh.
 
The fact that she herself says that she doesn't feel any drive anymore leaves me stunned. What is the purpose to make music when you don't feel any drive? There is none. When I listen to an album, I just don't want to listen to an album filled with boredom and basically nothing going on there.
 
What is actually going on on UV? Not much, the lyrical content has stayed the same, she has not added anything new, the sound structures are painfully simple at times and it sounds dated which is the worst. You can sometimes cover up the lack of ideas with an interesting sound, but she isn't. It is so painfully obvious that she doesn't have anything interesting to tell.

Yeah that's exactly what I think happened, especially if you go back to the direct quotes she gave in these articles: http://www.nme.com/news/lana-del-rey/72087 and http://www.nme.com/news/lana-del-rey/68937
 
"West Coast inspired" and "moved on to a more spiritual place lyrically" both sound like AFFA and Hollywood, and less like FMUTT/Cruel World/Sad Girl/almost everything on UV. I fully believe the album she is describing in these articles is not Ultraviolence the way we know it. I think West Coast (the demo), Brooklyn Baby, Old Money, ITH, and Black Beauty were the ones intended for the original album. When you put them in a playlist with AFFA/Hollywood/maybeJFKandStarryEyed, you kind of understand where she had been going originally and I think it would have been so beautiful.

I agree with pretty much everything you wrote !! I don't know if she wasn't really inspired for her lyrics (I feel it's pretty much a step back from her previous work but that doesn't necessarily mean it's less inspired). However, she did say, as you wrote, that she felt her muse was being fickle and stuff .. 
It's no secret, I'm a hardcore BTD-Paradise fan, because of the themes, the production (yes, there I said ) and the visuals ... It was a complete and strong package for me, and I was sold. 
 
I feel that she got so hurt by the backlash she received that she thought "Ok they think I'm fake.." and so she went for a more "indie, rockish, underground" sound to be more "real" (Deliberately or not, who knows). I think she's always been inspired by rockers but she isn't one. 
 
I think West Coast and Brooklyn Baby are two standouts of the album. Ultraviolence was what I wanted to hear, it has that "Paradise" sound, imo. Old Money is beautiful. Florida Kilos is a great tune, but she didn't include it in the original tracklist so yeah. But I love it, nonetheless ! The rest is filled with songs I never listen to anymore or very rarely ... 
 
Whereas I still listen to BTD/P daily almost in their entirety. But that's just personal taste.
 
I also agree with you on the visuals. To me, Lana is a singer AND a music video creator, but she didn't show it during this era yet.
 
If she goes back to BTD/P, AKA, or Unreleased type songs, or if she goes any another route for that matter, I think I'll like the album more, thinking it was sort of an experiment. 

Pretty when you cry

I wish she would start wearing her signature cat-eye again, she looked so good with it

... or do you? Does it play a role in how you appreciate her music?
 
For me, I started out just loving her voice, but at some point I became - let's face it - obsessed. I found I could relate to her and her music on many levels, but there were SO many things I could not relate to that I found fascinating because they were so different from me.  
 
Ways I relate to her:
Her undercurrents of depression, understanding of loss, deep love, falling for dark and sad men, fascination with death, love of Whitman, similar age, love of the 1950s, need to have alone time yet doesn't like to be alone, health issues, ability to maintain love for someone who no longer loves you back.
 
Ways I don't relate:
Her past alcohol and drug use, living on the edge, her independence at a very young age, her apparent sexual history seems kind of wild, hip hop references, love of Brittany Spears. 
 
But no matter what, everything she does is interesting to me and adds to the legend that is Lana the Queen. What about you?!

I relate to the love of men, the comfort in them, the freedom and independence at a young age, the daddy references, complicated relationships with guys relating to drugs or money ( or both), the vintage feels she oozes, the free mind.
  

I don't think Brooklyn Baby is sarcastic. I think she believes what she's saying in it. And if she's ever called out on it, she'll say it's satirical to cover her butt. I liked to believe it was satirical, but someone here said that it was "too close to home" for Lana to poke fun at and now I can't see it as joking.

This reminds me of that time someone photoshopped Lana's face on a pic of Priscilla Presley & people thought they were related 

Just as long it's not the "loon" sound, I am here for it. Although, I also don't want Dan Auerbach on it. I just want music with more layers than on UV sonically. I think that some of the sound of Paradise was actually a good move, it was just that some songs were not that strong. I think that songs like "American", "Ride" and "Bel Air" sound exceptional. I will however forever and ever hate "Gods and Monsters" and "Body Electric". 
 
But I'd rather take another great full lenght than an EP with half-baked songs. She needs to be careful with not running out of ideas for new music. I think she will keep on changing her sound. Thank God she has changed it for Ultraviolence, I honestly couldn't have handled another Haynie overproduction.
 
 
Maybe she should allow her music to be more playful, fun & upbeat   . No audience wants to listen to slow songs all the time, Lana   

Sorry but the Y&B video is very atmospheric and haunting. Simple, but perfect for the song and she looks gorgeous.

I have NO problem with simple, unpolished videos with atmosphere and meaning.
 
However, tell me, what kind of meaning has this? I mean, if you search hard enough you can make up something, but I don't see anything intentional in there. It's just a super lazy execution of what could have been a good idea.

Every video this era so far is just SO FREAKIN SLOW. In fact, there is hardly anything going on . And in all of them Lana herself looks so bored half of the time, that you'd think she will fall asleep in her own video. 
 
Disappointing and totally ruining her reputation as an artist who knows how to bring her music alive through visuals.

I hope this pans out to be something epic. Like this is found footage like those in a horror movie. The next video hopefully makes up for this