veniceglitch

so mad when people spell Terrence, TerrAnce.

Lana spotted on Justin Parker's IG: https://instagram.com/p/9p62H4gR3G/

Lana spotted on Justin Parker's IG: https://instagram.com/p/9p62H4gR3G/

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them! 
 
 

 

#58 on the Billboard 200 / Week 5

#58 on the Billboard 200 / Week 5

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....

POPMATTERS
8/10
http://www.popmatters.com/review/lana-del-rey-honeymoon2/

Don't know if this "unpopular," but it is a series of opinions.

 

I remember reading a piece that spearheaded Lana’s importance: holding up the lonely torch of the female depressive in pop culture as a voice that deserves to be heard.

 

I agree with this. It's so easy to see her disaffected nature as a defect, but it's at the core of who she is and why she makes art to begin with. It's what gives her introspection, but also brings forth isolation.

 

Lana's perspective, from a 'marketability' and thematic angle, is one that would have made more sense in the mid 1990s. She would have kindred spirits in Garbage, Tori, Fiona, even Alanis. But in some ways, her perspective is even more needed now, because there is SUCH a lack of diversity in the females we hear from in pop culture, and the kinds of stories they tell. Shirley Manson of Garbage has pointed this out, fittingly enough. We need to hear from the miserable girl, the loser, the ones who don’t want to play nice, and maybe don’t even get out of bed some days. There’s always been a place for that girl in other media: literature, film, art. Music, especially pop music, doesn’t know what to do with this personality type. If it’s Kurt Cobain or Leonard Cohen (or any number of current male indie mini-gods), it’s tortured genius. If it’s a woman doing it, it’s pathetic, INDULGENT solipsism. How dare you be so lazy, inwardly focused and torpid when there are SOCIAL ISSUES to examine and crusade. That's the attitude Lana faces.

 

 We live in the age of the Totally Transparent, Fervently Disciplined, and Manicured Go-Getter. Taylor. Katy. Demi. Even Rihanna. They are corporate workhorses, THIRSTY for the fame, and more than ready to play and stay in the game. The personality type this workload requires is not for the delicate, sensitive, ambivalent type. They don’t look inward. They are fixated on the crowd. You see these same types in offices all over the world. Type A middle managers. They get shit done, might seem like “team players” (dictators in disguise), but they aren’t interesting and don’t offer a lot of innovation or insight into life, creativity, or much else. I’m sure the economic collapse of the past 10 years and the wreckage of the music industry has a lot to do with why this middle manager pop star archetype has prevailed. It’s sheer survivalism. 

 

The truth is the Lana of Born To Die, and that album itself, is an anomaly. It’s a character study in what it would be like to be a famous pop star. In philosophy, there’s an idea that to create a character, you have to lack what that character has for it to work (Homer vs Achilles is a classic example.) Lana was never a natural star by any means, but she’s clearly seen it as a way to transcend herself or try to another skin on. (“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde.) To parallel her to Britney, Lana never has had a pre-Blackout glory era. This is where I think some LDR fans get it wrong. BTD was not her Baby One More Time or Oops! or whatever. Even on BTD, she was a propped-up simulacrum of what a pop icon might be like. She represented the IDEA. It was NEVER natural. She was the weirdo philosophy major playing dress up as the cool girl, singing into her mirror. The fact that she found an audience is a small miracle, but her intuitive habitat is still dancing around, alone, with her headphones on, wondering what it would be like to be onstage. The actual stage is foreign to her, and almost besides the point. I bet when she’s up there, she imagines being alone.

 

Look at ALL her work before, and after, BTD. The work of an outsider dreaming her life away, imagining that fame could transform her, fulfill her, then finding nothing there. Even before she became famous, the lyrics suggest she already was aware of its empty promise (probably due to her study of doomed cult icons). If anything, what she’s doing now is getting back to her roots: turning her LACK of fulfillment into art, trying to make something tangible of a void within. It’s hard work, and clearly she’s not always up to making it a complete vision. To create and share art is an attempt to tell your story in the hopes of CONNECTING with people. But that’s where it stops for Lana. In solitude, she records her vision then hits “send.” Then she disengages, unable to sustain the ideal in real-time. Unable to fulfill the pop duties. Unable to deliver the big pay off, for herself, or for her fans. It’s like a surrealist film that cuts off in the ‘wrong’ moment, just to leave you on edge. How many times can you get away with it? We’ll be finding out.

 

And that’s another thing. I think Lana’s “failure” to rise the occasion affects certain fans personally. Not just because they want her to get a Top 10 and compete with the ‘normal’  pop stars. But because maybe they, too, are depressed and know too well what it means to not deliver, to not function optimally, to disappoint people. When you’re depressed, being able to complete ANYTHING can feel like an insurmountable challenge. If you’re blessed with the strange mix of being both ambitious AND prone to depression, you are constantly at war with yourself, which Lana seems to be. Sometimes she has the energy to fight through it and deliver us true magic. These are her little victories. Other times, she drowns in her own ennui and forgets everyone but herself. Some fed up fans say she doesn’t care, but I don’t believe this is true. I’m sure she’s in a state of frequent frustration, with the “world,” but more often, with herself.

 

Part of what drew me — and many others, I’m sure — to Lana’s work and persona was that she seemed malcontented, if not quite tormented. Life is too much, and not enough, for her. I remember that little-known Gwen Stefani lyric (“I sip on dreams and choke on real things.”) To me, that’s Lana constant M.O. She wants desperately to escape, to isolate, and to never work another day again (the ultimate sin of today’s life-hack-driven, entrepreneurial, “optimize yourself!” digital nomad climate). She never makes it clear what it IS, exactly, that would make her happy, because what she’s asking for is impossible. A LOT of people empathize with this ambivalence, despite the fact that this passive, me vs. the world view of reality is literally censored out of modern day music. You’re not supposed to complain! Things will get better if you live, laugh, and love! LDR will never live, laugh and love first-hand, but she’ll always wonder what that might feel like. And pine for it like its her to mourn.

 

Female depressives can sustain a career. It doesn’t have to end in a Sylvia Plath/Amy Winehouse tragedy. Shirley Manson and Fiona Apple are still going strong 20 years down the line, and in some ways, seem more connected and ‘healthy’ than ever, while still finding a way to channel their grievances through their art. They’ve evolved their artistry to a level that is undeniably iconic. They will never top the charts again, but that was never the point. They have huge cult followings that will always follow their next move. It’s a family. I’d love for Lana to have this in her 40s, too, but I believe at some point she’ll have to start making art as part of a conversation, not just a soliloquy, for this to happen. 

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them! 
 
 

 

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them! 
 
 

 

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them! 
 
 

 

Exactly. This song is the key to truly understanding her inner dichotomy. And I love that she references the white tennis shoes of procrastination, inviting the listener (herself?) to hide away, evade responsibility and dream instead of do. It's the opposite of every other message we're sent, which equates leisurely rest with guilt.

Exactly. This song is the key to truly understanding her inner dichotomy. And I love that she references the white tennis shoes of procrastination, inviting the listener (herself?) to hide away, evade responsibility and dream instead of do. It's the opposite of every other message we're sent, which equates leisurely rest with guilt.

Swan Song is my favorite song on the album, followed or perhaps i should say equalled by Blackest Day.
(i would have tightened the drawn out choruses in a bit on Blackest day tho..) Freak is right behind these and
close for me as well.. really great songs..Iconic for me.

Exactly. This song is the key to truly understanding her inner dichotomy. And I love that she references the white tennis shoes of procrastination, inviting the listener (herself?) to hide away, evade responsibility and dream instead of do. It's the opposite of every other message we're sent, which equates leisurely rest with guilt.

Dive in, dive deep and dive blue my sweet (I think these are the right lyrics?)
Rushing up from the water where the ice meets And you've been gone so long, you missed everything The world can change in a day if you go away   To retreat within her own depths is her impulse as a mystic … but, to follow that impulse would risk being forgotten by the world. Why say anything to her that she has not already contemplated? #Introvertedpopstarproblems.

Billboard this week #26
Mediatraffic week 3: #5 45k
 
It's #33 on the HDD building chart right now but that will change. Hopefully will end up still Top 40 for week 4.

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them! 
 
 

 

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them! 
 
 

 

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them! 
 
 

 

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them! 
 
 

 

@ god bless you

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them! 
 
 

 

Got a PR blast this AM...
 
LANA DEL REY COVERS MARFA JOURNAL, ISSUE 4
The cover was shot at Jean Harlow's house in Beverley Hills, California and the creative direction was in collaboration between Lana and Alexandra Gordienko.
View the full shoot and access images here: http://we.tl/txzqiZSYPq
 
Sorry, I'm at work, but hopefully someone else can upload them!