longtimeman

I listen to it every day - lots of days twice a day. When I had the version with 14 tracks, I would feel satisfied by the end of FK, but since I got the Target version with Flipside, I always feel like starting it again as soon as it finishes. I've only heard it twice on a friend's big loud speakers - every other time on iPod or in my car.

'Skid Row', as well as being a real place, is also a metaphor for experiencing hard times - see http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/skid+row for an example I've always understood the line 'I wear my diamonds on Skid Row' to be the narrator making herself look flashy despite being in hard times - the rest of the lyrics are about an 'outsider' finding her way 'in' (much like National Anthem, and the way the narrator of that song goes from being uncool to being too cool). So in a way, it's a class war, but from the other end - a low status person taking on the trappings of success, and making herself fit in with those at a higher status. This song also has two of my favourite Lana-isms. Of course, the classic first line, which is a brilliant boast in the tradition of years of hip hop singers, but it also has a self-mocking tone that is so often missing from that sort of line. She's selling herself (as a product, not necessarily in a prostitution sense), but winking at the challenge she's throwing out there. The target of her pick up line is first going to laugh and say 'that's bullshit', and then have to pause for a second and say 'but I better check, just to make sure'. Glorious. The other classic line is recasting the Beatles' phrase about an LSD-inspired vision of a lady among the stars, as an old rich guy in a jet. Too fucking funny and clever.

I thought this was a pretty good interview - a few points. - This explanation of what happened with Lou Reed makes a lot more sense than the previous account, which made it sound as though they had a recording session set up on the day he died, which was clearly not true (he had been unwell, and wasn't doing anything that strenuous in the last weeks of his life). The fact that she just took it upon herself to visit him, and had the bad luck to pick that day, at least could have happened. - How many times does she have to explain the whole persona/LDR thing? I know that it's the law that interviewers have to ask her about it, but she's said it so many times it should have sunk in already. It's her 'artist name', but that doesn't mean she's inventing more than any other songwriters, regardless of whatever name they choose to put on their records. (I've always thought it was closer to someone like Chan Marshall/Cat Power, who made out that 'Cat Power' was a band name, but always referred to just her and whoever she happened to be playing with, or just solo - I don't remember people hassling Chan at the time about how similar or different 'Chan' and 'Cat' were ...) - The drinking question reads worse than it sounds - it can seem from reading the transcript that she's planning on going back to drinking, but listening to her, it really sounds as though she's being honest with herself and not setting herself up as someone who thinks she's going to be 'sober for life'. The media has such a distorted view of drinking and alcoholism that she doesn't need the extra pressure of some bullshit article being written if she's photographed at a table where there are beer bottles (memo to the self righteous - it's quite possible for an ex-drinker to happily be around other people drinking and not feel drawn in to it, which she explains in this interview beautifully).

This is a fairly rough transcript but I've tried to be as accurate to the meaning of the questions and answers as possible. If I've made any substantial mistakes, please let me know.

This is great stuff - I'd heard about Father Yod, etc, but had not thought of him being an influence on Lana. Very nice research @@Lanakai

Lou Reed: "Come take a walk on the wild side" (Born To Die) Bryan Adams: Cruel World: "You're young, you're wild, you're free" // Heaven: "We were young and wild and free". Funkadelic: "Feet don't fail me now" (Born To Die/One Nation Under A Groove) Phil Collins: "I can feel it coming in the air tonight" (Guns and Roses)

ETA: stoopid post deleted

A couple of (generally positive) podcast reviews of UV - both of them show the time that the part of interest begins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBbt7Xt6egM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg-TtwXj7W8

It's probably important to put this here - a song I hated for many years, but now kinda like, and Bryan has shot some nice pics of Lana too.

We get it. You made it, you're proud of it. You don't need to spam every thread with it.

I wouldn't call it philosophy - just the usual moralistic garbage from the religious right. I'd file it next to the 'Lana is a brainwashed puppet of the Illuminati' videos.

This is more of a general LDR piece than a review, but it's of interest (and I don't think it's been posted here): http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2014/06/20/323943849/darkness-comes-alive-the-paradox-of-lana-del-rey

Aren't we all

"Music to watch boys" doesn't really make sense in English - it sounds like you're saying that the music is watching the boys. The 'to' at the end is a construction that tells what you're doing while you're watching boys - meaning, listening to this music. ETA: Or, if you want to stretch the phrase out into a sentence, it would be something like: "This is the music that has been made especially to be listened to, while you are sitting on your banana lounge, watching the boys (or girls, or whatever it is you enjoy looking at)."

This song has been growing on me, but I have to repeat from another thread that there are certain lines in songs that capture a person or a situation so densely and perfectly, and are just about the best statement of Lana's whole body of work, bringing to life her, her partner and the room they're in within a few mundane sounding words.

Aside from UV, Chvrches - The Bones Of What You Believe 2CD set - I love this, but the extra songs and remixes are a bit boring Lorde - Pure Heroine Elbow - The Take Off and Landing Of Everything

I knew there was something about that photo of Chuck and Lana Lana, like a lot of artists, draws from a whole range of sources, including real life, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Source was one of those (if you'll excuse the pun). My first thought, like a lot of people, was that Jim = Jim Jones, but nothing else in the song has anything to do with the People's Temple, except possibly for the violent end, and mass murder isn't really Lana's scene.

I find this all disturbing, in the best sense of the word.

I'm glad we can be united in this

I thought it was a fun set, pretty typical of Lana's recent live shows, and she didn't seem more or less nervous than at any other performance. I was worried about this going to sleep last night, but waking up this morning to the video, I'm happy.

If somebody would like to do an HQ needledrop rip and share it with me, I wouldn't complain.

I really wonder if you've ever seen any other performers, to make a comment like that. I've seen performers do all sorts of things to deal with their insecurities (which every performer has, and tries to mask in one way or another) - I've seen them get drunk and abuse the audience; I've seen them ignore the audience completely; I've seen them turn up the 'rock star' act to 100% in a tiny club where they looked ridiculous; I've had artists pull me up on stage so that I could dance around [note: I'm a not particularly good looking guy who clearly wasn't being brought up for the eye candy value], and distract everyone's attention from what was going on. Lana, in those times she's directly with her fans, seems so embarrassingly, ridiculously real that it almost hurts to watch her. If she acted any differently outside of shows, I'd wonder, but she's the same in every video I've ever seen of her meeting fans in the street, outside shows, at random encounters, and so on. She actually doesn't owe anybody anything in these meetings, but she has always seemed to me (as someone who's only seen videos) to be as genuine as is possible. If you want to experience a singer who introduces every song and sings every line to the back row, you can check out pretty much every other pop artist in the world at the moment. Lana is one of the very few singers around who is actually unpredictable and exciting enough to make watching videos worthwhile - you never know how she's going to sing something, or what she's going to do. Almost nothing is scripted, and the things that she repeats are so awkward and charming that she never looks like she's just crossing them off her list. The end of relationships in real life is almost never like it is in the movies - it's messy and ugly and heartbreaking, and it never makes any of the parties involved look good. Lana herself puts it beautifully in 'Cruel World' by singing 'I'm finally happy, now that you're gone', and sounding like she's about to break down. I find the easiest way of making sense of all of her contradictions and strange statements is to consider her a regular person, unschooled in how to act correctly, but trying to do the right thing. Sort of like the rest of us, when we're at our best.

Come on folks. This is Lana we're talking about. 1) It's probably a joke. 2) Wouldn't we rather her talking about getting right onto another record than saying she's quitting music again? 3) I want this now!

This would be too perfect