pagancult

Keep it.

a full year of emotional cock and ball torture, and I thought we had finally reached the end of the road, but Mistress Del Rey said no, Sad Gays, it never ends, and laughed wickedly as she brought out the paddle, it never ends, it's White Hot Forever

Is there a single pop song in existence where the lyrics read well in plain text? Especially with Lana, like...I like her lyricism, for all its occasional (being generous) tackiness, but her music has always been something that's greater than the sum of its parts. And this Honeymoon slander is so ugly. It's her (current) best record, and while that may be subject to change come August 30th, y'all need to be respectful until then!

Man...lots of blink and you'll miss it fuckery this era, huh? Can Team Del Rey get it together? Like how did this even happen...? She must have decided to postpone the release at the literal last second. Also, anyone putting MAC or HIADT after Doin' Time in their ranking is an uber clown.

IMO, she's not complaining about Kanye "being a thing still" but rather that he's lost his way. Definitely a dig at his support of Dump, and who Kanye's become artistically. She's not some old lady whining about hip hop, because we know she loves it. I think the "lit" line is a double entendre, the second meaning being that "the culture" is literally on fire. A lot of people she admired are dead and gone, or changed, the world is in ecological collapse, life is too fast paced, and people are more interested in watching their fave's livestreams than they are in worrying about anything real. She's had a good time, but she's done now. She's got no hope for the world. But at it's core, I think it's just a song about heartbreak. It reads like her having a (possibly drunken?) breakdown. It begins with him being gone, that's the catalyst, and then it's her missing New York and the indie scene and being sick of fame, before it spirals into absolutely nothing about the world being right anymore.

The Greatest also isn't the end of the album's narrative. We know that it ends with HIADTNKJDFNFKJNDKF-BOOTY, so I don't think we need to mourn her just yet.

I don't think Lana is a racist, or that her critique of Kanye has anything to do with his race, but I can't with someone here really pulling the "she has lots of black friends!" card. Anyways, the song wrecked me. I was expecting some simple love-lost shit, not some heart-wrenching decree about the hollowness she feels in today's world and in her life... She may have fucked around for a year, but she is really about to come through with her best record...

I'm sorry, like no offence to Miss Del Rey, but I'm personally glad that she's sticking to offering nice thoughts and singing a wistfully hopeful song. She's got good intentions, it's cute, and from her, it's good enough. I'm not really trying to listen to a Rich, Straight, White woman from New York pontificate on issues like racism, feminism, or transphobia/homophobia, etc. We, and Jack Antonoff, have seen what that looks like. It's simply not her place, and she has nothing of value to offer to the conversation. Anybody implying that they really want to see Lana get her hands dirty and try to tackle complex societal issues has lost it. She's not the one. Also, why is this the response to her trying to do a little good with her music? Like the one time she's not just spewing Nostalgic Americana and singing about some dude with tobacco breath, and y'all are mad it's not a marxist folk tune, or something? Ma'am this is Lana Del Rey...

The cover honestly could have been executed better, like the font is ass no matter how much I squint, but I really do like the concept, and seeing the tracklist in its proper order has me thinking that the narrative of the record is more apparent. Her best ablum incoming, ladies. Buckle up.

The only thing I really hate about the cover is the little explodey cartoon bit behind the title? The font isn't great, but if that wasn't there and the title was a little further to the left, it'd be fine. I actually don't mind her wearing the ugly windbreaker and having neon nails. She's always had a way of juxtaposing low-class, everyday things with her phony, vintage-glamorous pastiche. I kind of love the romantic pose with her outstretched arm with the American flag right behind her, and California on fire in the background, all while she's dressed like some instagram mom with her beatnik boyfriend. It's like...so her. Of course my favourite album cover of hers is Honeymoon, so I think it's safe to say that I'm not the majority.

My main qualm with this Shazam thing is that it apparently recognises a bunch of her unreleased tracks, as well, and unless you're going to have me believe that her label has sent all of those in at some point...it would seem that Shazam has a few different ways of sourcing their data, some of them less than official. There's also precedent for Shazam recognising to-be-released songs, and simply having the wrong titles, for whatever reason. I'm not saying this all couldn't turn out to be perfectly accurate, it's just not a guarantee, as far as I see it.

Hey guys, thought I'd pop in to condescendingly insinuate about your collective mental health again!

Who is sadder, the lonely souls playing songstress and penning these tragic fake lyrics, or the fleet-water-for-brains locals in the replies each time tagging their friends?

I like the swearing on Cherry, too. I think it kind of makes the song. There's something deliciously ridiculous about it, and it just works. And though I do think hope is a really great song, lyrically, there's a couple awkward moments that should have been reconsidered. I don't mind the "shaking my ass" line because it feels warranted, and the crudeness of the phrasing is in step with the casual, honest tone of the song, but the "fucking white gown/nightgown" lines feel and sound stilted, and they bother me every time I hear the song. It's like "fucking" was added there just so that she'd have enough syllables to fit to the melody, or something. I am here for her cussing up a damned storm if she pleases, I just can't help but cringe when it sounds awkward or forced, and not like how people actually talk.

The font itself feels a little tonally mismatched with the very honest vibe of MAC and VB and HIADTNKJDFSNDFKJ-BDFD, but maybe instead of a comic book vibe, it's more like a vintage brochure in some seaside town? The Bronco may be for a single cover, or something, too. I'd assume the actual album cover would already be shot. The photos of her and that guy are giving me a bit of a surfy vibe, and a little Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield, it could be cute. Definitely not what I was expecting for the album, but cute.