LaserKitten

The Blackest Day would make an incredible Ride-esque video, it's got a clear narrative and some striking imagery, as well as being just a beautiful song.
 
Don't know if this has been discussed before, but the backing vocals after "ever since my baby went away" sound like a Greek tragedy/Greek chorus. Like wailing women or something. Am I crazy? Reminds me, in a vague way, of Madonna's Frozen video and the three witch-like Madonnas.

The Blackest Day would make an incredible Ride-esque video, it's got a clear narrative and some striking imagery, as well as being just a beautiful song.
 
Don't know if this has been discussed before, but the backing vocals after "ever since my baby went away" sound like a Greek tragedy/Greek chorus. Like wailing women or something. Am I crazy? Reminds me, in a vague way, of Madonna's Frozen video and the three witch-like Madonnas.

No it's not. I couldn't disagree with this more. 
Mindless praise isn't anyone's job. We're not her PR team. This is a discussion forum for discussing opinions about Lana and her work, both positive and negative.
 
I happen to disagree with the basis of @@leaked_version's criticisms, but he has every right to voice them.

What

Anyone else feel like this is a 'duet' between Lana & Lizzie? The 'white tennis shoes' bit sounds like it's directed at a female - like Lizzie in early promo pics - rather than a male.
Just a random, half-conceived thought, but I listened to it with this idea in mind last night and it changed the whole tone and meaning of the song for me.

While I understand the desire for a favorite artist to create more art, and the hope that other people will enjoy and be enriched by the music you enjoy, I don't understand the almost pathological obsession by some here with sales figures, promo for promo's sake (or merely for the sake of stimulating sales), or needing your listening choices validated by the general public's purchasing decisions.
 
Also, aside from the possibility of not recouping an excessive budget (which seems extremely unlikely here), any metric by which an album that went to #2 on the Billboard 200-- a feat achieved by only 36 musicians on the entire planet the previous year-- would be considered a "flop" is kind of absurd.
 

Okay, I've really enjoyed just lurking in this and pre-release threads (latter was lots of fun and got me through several days of unpleasant illness). But here is where I can't stay silent, I'm afraid. I mean no personal attacks or arguments because I perfectly understand frustration. You really like/love someone's art and they prefer to go in hiding rather than share more of it with the world. I've been there. Really irritating, I know. 
But about that last sentence. I heard it before. I had a conversation with a middle-aged lady who really meant well. When she asked me whether I plan to have kids and I said "No," she basically answered with the same words. Being able to become a parent is such a precious opportunity, and many people would kill to have it but they can't have children for medical or financial or other reasons. And I "throw it away." I really do because I don't want to use it. Guess for some people it's the same with career/artistic opportunities. 
Does Lana effectively use all the opportunities she has? No. But who of us really do? After all, using opportunities is not an obligation, it's a choice. Talented people aren't obligated to use their talent to maximum just like fertile people aren't obligated to procreate. So while I understand and - to a degree - share frustration with Lana releasing an album with lots of potential and abandoning it when it could possibly grow into more interesting things and attract more people, I don't think even dedicated fans are in position to tell what Lana needs. We can only speculate about what we'd like her to do and how. Only Lana know what Lana needs and why she handles her career the way she does. 
Again, I'm not against criticism or pointing out obvious facts (like, lack of promotion hurts sales), but sometimes it almost sounds like some people believe that an artist has some sort of obligation to them or to the world in general. Since when? If they want to waste their talent, that's their choice and it's completely okay. 
 
On topic: though her releasing new album so soon after the last one made me have some doubt about its quality, and though nothing can replace UV as my favorite Lana's record, in the end I'm quite happy with Honeymoon. Despite having numerous flaws that were pointed out here several times already, it does offer something new, it's just as atmospheric as previous Lana's material, and for me it's strong enough to stand on its own, without any additional stuff like music videos. It's lush, it's heartfelt, it's unlike any other stuff being released nowadays, it even has some (intentionally or not) funny moments (seriously, I laughed several times during first listen). 

Hi, I don't have much to add to this but I just wanted to compliment you on an incredibly insightful and intelligent post that articulates so much that I have felt about Lana that hadn't really coalesced properly in my mind. As a child of the 90s, and a fan of Fiona, Tori, Shirley etc, your post helps to put my affection for Lana in a context I hadn't considered before. Thanks! Beautiful writing.

Is she...camping?
 
This is turning into the greatest photoshoot ever.

Scrolling through, I was like 'goddess, goddess, goddess...fucking MEERCAT??!' That dog is perfect and perfectly strange.
Seriously, this woman is murdering me slowly with her beauty. 
 
That pink ensemble tho...

Hi, I don't have much to add to this but I just wanted to compliment you on an incredibly insightful and intelligent post that articulates so much that I have felt about Lana that hadn't really coalesced properly in my mind. As a child of the 90s, and a fan of Fiona, Tori, Shirley etc, your post helps to put my affection for Lana in a context I hadn't considered before. Thanks! Beautiful writing.

Guess everyone has their own opinions, but I'd rank Swan Song among the better tracks of this album. The chorus is simply iconic, so simple yet so powerful and enchanting. I fell in love from the very first listen.

does the dog kind of look like lana vice versa or am i losing it

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

the only time she smiles on a magazine cover is when she's literally lying on top of 4 dicks 

Who allowed her to dress like this I love stanning a 80yo sultry grandma

I agree a lot with this. I feel like Lana is really staying in an artistic "safe zone" and that's part of the reason why she won't perform on TV or anything. We know she hustled back when she went under Lizzy Grant, performing everywhere, and I think she's said that she sees herself as a singer. But... singers sing. It's disappointing that she seems unwilling to perform or promote a lot of her new material.
 
Lyrically, she continues to write awkward lyrics that circle around similar themes. I wrote once that Honeymoon feels like a parody of an LDR song, and while I have since warmed greatly to the song, the lyrics still feel like someone went through a checklist of Lana references. Being misunderstood? Unusual sexual metaphor? Ill-advised mention of violence? Loving a bad boy? It's like those "Lana Del Rey song title generators" that were popular in the year following Born To Die's release. While I think Lana revisiting certain themes makes her stand out among her contemporaries (we wouldn't have Lanalysis if she didn't have such revered items as diet mountain dew, the chateau marmont, or pink flamingos), it's really easy for it to feel like a retread as opposed to a thread tying her world together.
 
Musically, she continues to show a knack for great melodies. But production-wise, she gets a little monotonous. I like Honeymoon, but I tend to skip the songs after a certain point. When 24 actually starts sounding like the Bond theme it was meant to be, it's great, but the build-up to that part of the song is excruciatingly slow. I literally forget Religion is on the tracklist every time I listen to the album. Similarly, I don't remember how the verses of Art Deco go. God Knows I Tried is a beautiful song, but someone should have told her "okay, stop here." Having the equivalent of a musical editor isn't "compromising your vision." Art doesn't have to be a one-man process. On a positive note, the bridge of TLY is probably one of my favorite musical+lyrical moments in her entire discography, and the best one on Honeymoon. I get chills listening to it every single time.  
 
Visually, I haven't really cared for her official music videos much in general. I like her homemade videos because they're so innocent and direct. It's the closest you can get to having a visual representation of what Lana pictured when she made that song. I wish she would bring that lo-fi but intimate quality back. I mean, she's rich, she can probably afford to clear the rights for her clips and have better quality shots of her, so it doesn't need to be some 240p artifact-ridden mess. It was so unique; none of her contemporaries have done anything like that, to my knowledge.
 
Honestly, if I'm frustrated with Lana, it's because I feel she could be doing so much better. We know from her unreleased catalog that she's an incredibly flexible artist. Her voice sounds unique no matter what her range is. Yet I feel like with all her released bodies of work, there's something holding them back. Too self-indulgent at times? Some poor song choices? Lazy lyrics weighing down otherwise beautiful songs? I have a hard time explaining what it is. But I just really want Lana to deliver that album that's going to be (almost) universally recognized as an enduring body of work. Her "Dark Side of the Moon," if you will (no, that's not my favorite Floyd album, but it's a solid one and that's undeniable). If sales are anything to go by, BTD is the closest she's come to that - it's the album that refuses to die. I love Lana so much, I want the best for her artistically and commercially (and any word that ends with a -ly) but I feel like she's holding herself back and I don't know why. Is she afraid of her potential? Afraid of success? Afraid of being the object of the internet's scorn again?
 
I'm certain that everyone else here who has expressed disappointment at Lana's artistic/commercial choices feels the same way I do - we feel Lana isn't doing her best or not getting the recognition she deserves; we just all have different ideas on what the ideal is or how to achieve it.
 
I'm gonna go listen to Honeymoon now because for all the flaws I've listed, it's still one of my favorite albums of 2015.

I know I posted before saying I think Terrence is about Barrie but yesterday I read an interview in which she said they had an almost telepathic relationship, which would fit in with the lyrics of Terrence "Put the radio on, hold you tight in my mind" "trying to transmit, can you hear me".
 
Speaking to Britain's The Sun newspaper, the songstress explained that they have a deep connection and feel very close: "He is definitely a poet. I didn't really know what being a poet meant until I met him. He has changed me in ways that I didn't expect. On the one hand I have everything I've dreamed of in terms of a soul connection, it's almost telepathic."
 
I still maintain that she wrote the song about being in love with someone but having to separate yourself from them because they're so dark. It's clear she loved him and they had a deep connection and in the song it seems as if she is saying, I miss you but I wouldn't change how you are for anything, even if it means I can't be with you because of it.
 
"I still get trashed, honey, when I hear your tunes" is self explanatory.
 
The Hollywood legends reference when in the past she has said (of herself and Barrie):
 
While addressing the state of her next album, Lana Del Rey revealed the strange way she bonds with her boyfriend Barrie-James O'Neill. On their down time, Lana and her Kassidy rocker boo reminisce over legendary deceased musicians.
 
"[Kurt Cobain is] a big part of our daily conversation. Jeff Buckley is another big inspiration. And Jim Morrison--I mean, we talk about these people like we know them," said Lana to Nylon magazine. "They're a part of our relationship. We always say, 'All of our friends are dead, and they never knew us.' I'm lucky to have met someone who feels that way, too."
 
 

Correct me if I'm wrong, cos I don't know shit about shit, but it strikes me as super weird that an artist can reach the higher parts of various charts in many countries, but there's little imperative from her label to do more, to make some money?
 
I know Lana, as the artist, has her preferences in terms of promo, but surely she has some contractual obligations to, I dunno, promote her (rather big) release? Strike while the iron's hot, that sort of thing? Aren't some label bosses twitching, even just for another MV or a couple more interviews?
 
I always thought the mighty dollar trumped all...?

Yeah, seems that way. She's such a different artist now to the one I, and most others, first encountered on BTD.
If we're honest, there's nothing commercially appealing on UV or HM, when compared to the kind of music that sells big. But it's like she occupies this really unusual, almost unique middle ground. Good name recognition, infamy even, that most would attempt to spin into something bigger. I increasingly admire her no-fucks-to-give attitude, even if at times it's frustrating for us! Like others mentioned, there doesn't really appear to be a strategy, at least not a typical or cohesive one you'd expect from someone of her level.
I'm so curious to see what her next move is.   

Yeah, seems that way. She's such a different artist now to the one I, and most others, first encountered on BTD.
If we're honest, there's nothing commercially appealing on UV or HM, when compared to the kind of music that sells big. But it's like she occupies this really unusual, almost unique middle ground. Good name recognition, infamy even, that most would attempt to spin into something bigger. I increasingly admire her no-fucks-to-give attitude, even if at times it's frustrating for us! Like others mentioned, there doesn't really appear to be a strategy, at least not a typical or cohesive one you'd expect from someone of her level.
I'm so curious to see what her next move is.   

That's amazing! Maybe it's the intensity she inspires in her fans - there may be less of us, but we are kind of crazy-smitten lol. And you're right about Marina, whom I also like, but as good as she is I wonder if she commands the kind of ferocious, frenzied reaction from fans.
 
(the meaner side of me thinks 'why would anyone line up to meet a Kardashian/Jenner?' but I won't go on)
 
Maybe it comes down, in a large part, to Lana's mystique? You can't fake or buy that thing that she has. Do you agree?

Yeah, seems that way. She's such a different artist now to the one I, and most others, first encountered on BTD.
If we're honest, there's nothing commercially appealing on UV or HM, when compared to the kind of music that sells big. But it's like she occupies this really unusual, almost unique middle ground. Good name recognition, infamy even, that most would attempt to spin into something bigger. I increasingly admire her no-fucks-to-give attitude, even if at times it's frustrating for us! Like others mentioned, there doesn't really appear to be a strategy, at least not a typical or cohesive one you'd expect from someone of her level.
I'm so curious to see what her next move is.   

I've thought about that for a while, and I haven't found anyone who is somewhat similar to Lana. At first, she striked me as the typical Tumblr singer, whose fans were hipster-ish 14 year old girls with suicide tendencies.
Perhaps a major factor into Why isn't she selling that much? is the sheer fact that she's difficult to understand, and when compared to the likes of Tay Tay or Demi you get an odd equation. She's VERY different, and I've told every single one of my friends to at least give her a try and they've all told me she's boring and plain. To sum it all up, biggest thing I've learned from Lana herself is that you need patience, and many people seem to disown her work just because of not posessing any kind of patience.
 
Just my thoughts.

Yeah, seems that way. She's such a different artist now to the one I, and most others, first encountered on BTD.
If we're honest, there's nothing commercially appealing on UV or HM, when compared to the kind of music that sells big. But it's like she occupies this really unusual, almost unique middle ground. Good name recognition, infamy even, that most would attempt to spin into something bigger. I increasingly admire her no-fucks-to-give attitude, even if at times it's frustrating for us! Like others mentioned, there doesn't really appear to be a strategy, at least not a typical or cohesive one you'd expect from someone of her level.
I'm so curious to see what her next move is.