longtimeman

I was hoping someone would tell me what music I'll be listening to in the future. If someone can tell me what I should have for lunch, I'll be set 

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.

Scans (by https://twitter.com/TROPICOCUNT):
 

 

 

 

 

CONTINUED
 

Someone's been reading Lanalysis.   Actually, between this and the age thing and the FMWUTTT/Lorde thing I think this guy's been reading a fair amount on LanaBoards.  

This is really interesting. It explains why her high school yearbook photo said she was college bound for SUNY Geneseo even though she ended up at Fordham and the apparent gap between high school and her starting college. But it makes when she might have lived in Alabama all the more mysterious. 

Ha! Me and my momma we don't get along, indeed. Though I can just see her being the kind of waitress that tries to make up for shitty service by flirting with her male patrons. 

She still remembers these lovely early songs.   

Say hi to your Bond girl sister Pussy for me, will you? 

Ha, look at get all defensive about his cardinal error as her manager. 

I guess you guys weren't the only ones that noticed this.  

I'll be posting more about this soon. 
This is too long to type up. Read from the paragraph beginning "Then, really without warning" to the end:

   
"Maybe I'm sensitive. Do you think?"
"You're asking all the right questions. I just really don't want to answer them."
"I'm just uncomfortable, and it has nothing to do with you."
 
I think these quotes really highlight what's going on here. Interviewers ask her perfectly reasonable questions to ask, nevertheless she still feels uncomfortable being asked them. What I don't understand, given that so many of her interviews have turned out this way, why she still does them or why she doesn't just say "No comment" or "I'd rather not answer that" and move on rather than throwing a hissy fit at interviewers who are just doing their job.
 

Why should it be out of bounds to ask about something she has consistently volunteered detailed information about unprompted in multiple interviews and may be referenced in several of her songs?

This is bound to be a controversial opinion, but I think this is a fantastically well-done profile, perhaps one of the best. I don't believe it's the job of a journalist, even in the fluffy realm of music journalism, to humor the people they cover. The job of a journalist is to portray their subjects accurately and in-depth. This article accomplished that in spades. It goes into great depth about her history and provides new details about unanswered questions, it demonstrates the author did his homework, confirms the recent NYT profile's angle that she's been misunderstood and the backlash was premised on bullshit, but pulls the curtain back on what it's like to interview Lana Del Rey and her mercurial nature.
 
That said, the one quibble I have is that I felt they removed all context from her comment about not wanting people to hear and think about her music when promoting this profile online.
 
Some specific thoughts:
 

Like lemonade.  
What'll really make me happy is if those fuckers on Wikipedia will change it permanently now without me having to make a case for it on BLPN.
 

I can't say I am anywhere near as familiar with other pop stars to say if this is true, but it's nice to see even music journalists that aren't as fawning as the NYT's John Pareles say this. I also like that this article describes her name change as merely "showbiz-as-usual" and said this:
 

Get it girl   

 

Let's see. She started breaking up with Barrie "starting in December or so", right around the same time she previously said she stopped having writer's block and her concept for the album started to come together and she began recording stuff for it at Electric Lady Studios. And then there are those lyrics. Hmm...  

Give us the demos Dan!  

Fucking labels, man.  

The irony of this has always struck me. Her parents moved away from the city to the countryside because they had Lizzy who of course was powerfully drawn to the city when she grew up. 
TO BE CONTINUED... Fucking quote limits.

It's one of her best songs ever, if you ask me. 

It's one of her best songs ever, if you ask me. 

It's one of her best songs ever, if you ask me. 

It's one of her best songs ever, if you ask me. 

Ive seen a lot of hate towards Sad Girl, the opening "triumphant marchy" type melody is so cute, and the jazzy sassy verse is great, and as it makes its way to the chorus "he's got that fiREEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH" and the lyrics are pretty great too, cause they're so clever and true, sure saying I'm a sad girl a few times isn't seen as poetry but you know, everything fits in the song, loving someone even though you have to share them.

UPDATE:
 
Hers'a  Youtube video, with pretty cool singing (by Lana, not so much the crowd)

 
 
And right now in Paris, FMWUTTT
 
https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/B26823FE5A1101649808160174080_24d7a30a889.1.0.13877645531925941730.mp4?versionId=E9iiqQsLPvs_Yssx5FcbOZN0t36jh5Pd

UPDATE:
 
Hers'a  Youtube video, with pretty cool singing (by Lana, not so much the crowd)

 
 
And right now in Paris, FMWUTTT
 
https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/B26823FE5A1101649808160174080_24d7a30a889.1.0.13877645531925941730.mp4?versionId=E9iiqQsLPvs_Yssx5FcbOZN0t36jh5Pd

The sound and vision on this aren't the best, but it sounds like it was a pretty cool performance.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQiinQcRkw0

Ultraviolence - Audio Commentary. I added song snippets in the background, because I'm not the copy/paste kinda guy. http://picosong.com/PpAj

The sound and vision on this aren't the best, but it sounds like it was a pretty cool performance.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQiinQcRkw0

The BTD version of 'Lolita' makes me feel like I'm going insane. I don't even know if I like it or not, but every time I hear it, it completely changes how I'm feeling, in a sniffing glue sort of way.
 
I like the demo of Dark Paradise more than the album version, but think the verses should be in a different song than the chorus.
 
I would have been just as happy if Emil only used the Rick James sample on one song, instead of on every song.

The sound and vision on this aren't the best, but it sounds like it was a pretty cool performance.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQiinQcRkw0

The sound and vision on this aren't the best, but it sounds like it was a pretty cool performance.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQiinQcRkw0

The sound and vision on this aren't the best, but it sounds like it was a pretty cool performance.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQiinQcRkw0

I can't believe Lana's lying in bed, touching her pussy on the cover of a magazine. I've completely lost my respect for her.

I love all of this art, Alex, and have a couple of things I'd like you to work on if you have the chance, but I need to get the pictures and text worked out.

Just so I don't look negative all the time about analytical writing, I think there's one really interesting paragraph in the text that doesn't go far enough.
(this is a little long, so I'm spoilering it)
 
 

This all reminds me of why I needed to get out of academia. It must be hard to write about a rock record when you've obviously never heard one before in your life, and you compare the increasing intensity of 'Cruel World' to EDM, when Ultraviolence has as much in common with dance music as it does to polka (a better comparison would be to the Velvet Underground's 'Heroin', which is actually similar to it stylistically)

Lana Del Rey, the sad indie singer   Depressives songs and a blasé look, the american singer became a popstar and opened doors for another girls that may be considered "different" in the musical scenario. The american singer have 28 years, and have a lot of qualities. She is beautiful, famous, have a big crowd in her performances at festivals and have some special fans like: Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, Daniel Radcliffe and David Lynch. Talking about Lana and Kim, the popstar was invited to sing at the Kardashian's wedding earlier this year. And there's some rumors that say that George Clooney asked the same favour and he will pay any price to have the indie singer doing a performance at his wedding. Besides her popularity, Lana recently said that wishes that she was already dead. Her beautiful lips, sad/blasé eyes, and a deep voice made Lana a success. In 2012 with her album Born to Die, her second album in a studio, sold more than 7 millions of copies all around the world.  Ultraviolence, released in june, is following the same way, in a month, the album already sold 300.000 copies on USA   “I was a risk for the record label. It wasn't a good investment. But I'm persistent and I never gave up”
VEJA: Your road to the fame was long and was ever changing. How do you feel about being the center of the attention?   LANA:It's good to see my style and see how things are working good. I've performed a lot of times and the experience of doing a show in different places is great, they fit with the changes of my mood . The energy that my fans gave to me are great and scares me at the same time. It's always a surprise. Even having some experience, I feel kinda nervous when I see the crowd. VEJA:Do you still have some issues about having a big crowd? 
LANA:No, especially because I'm not nervous about my album. Now that it's finished, I can give more attenton to my shows. While I'm touring, I can't be creative. But now I feel that it's all okay, it's a part of the job.
VEJA: When you became famous, a lot of rumors about you were spread, saying that your style is fake . How do you deal with this? 
LANA: It's easy to judge somebody when you do not know them and know how their personal growth happens. When a singer gets bigger, it's hard to say if they care about their music and if they deserve their success. I'm gonna still doing my work and I'll became more and more mature. On set, I do not have a lot of people helping me and I do not have somebody that makes me do stuff that I do not like. 
VEJA:If your style wasn't created, it probably have bothered a lot o people because your style is different compared to the actual pop music scenario.Does somebody tried to change your style to fit the mainstream pop style?    LANA: Only at the beginning of my career. I was a risk for the record label. It wasn't a good investment. But I'm persistent and I never gave up. I felt great when "Video Games" became a hit. I really like that song and the version that became famous was the version that I wanted to everybody hear.I played it for like a year and my actual record label liked the song, but they were kinda worried about it because it was too slow.   VEJA:Dan Auerbach produced Ultraviolence. How this work begun? Are you a fan of The Black Keys?
LANA:I know the work of The Black Keys, but I didn't knew Dan very well. We had a great work together. We've decided to make the album while we were knowing each other in NY. We were having such a great time with a couple of friends and he looked at me and we said "Why don't we make this album together?. I realized that he was the producer that I was looking for. He put on some electric guitars and a 70's style on the album. He also uses the same weird references that I use. Also, it was good to change the producer, I've worked with the same guy for like three years.
VEJA:With a several leaks, your album was prejudiced. How do you felt about do the same work again? 
LANA:It was prejudiced, but it was a blessing because I hate those songs. It was basically songs that I wrote for some singers or songs that I was working at, so, when these songs wew leaked, I've realized that I do not like how they sounds like, so I've started all over. When I thought that I had finished them, I met Dan. It was wonderful, it was I met this new sound that I've fell in love.  
VEJA:Why "Ultraviolence"?
LANA:It's my darkest album, even with some romantics elements, I do not like to hear some songs, even if I've wrote them. I do not feel okay to listen some tracks, but I feel great when I listen to anothers. Make this album was hard in some moments because if it's not natural, then I do not work well. The time was almost ending, so I had some anxiety crisis, I do not work well under a lot of pressure, but at the end, everything worked in a good way.
VEJA:So you had some anxiety crisis while you were doing your album?
LANA: Yeah, I had the feeling that my album would not become a big hit. I really try to not be sad and be a pessimist, but that's who I am. I couldn't like anything that I've wrote for the album, so, I begun to tour and my fans made me feel more confident. In the first week, I realized that it is what I want to do for the rest of my life. It was great, because I was afraid to sing again, but, this year made me feel confident about still singing
VEJA:Are you okay now?
LANA:Absolutely. I'm really excited and I love "Ultraviolence". I was really worried and I wanted to write something that I'd like to, because everything in my life was complicated. Music is the only that was really stable to me. I wanted this album to be perfect because I've worked so hard on it and I'll perform the songs at my concerts.
VEJA:Your "visual identity" and your videos walks besides your musical style. When you write a song, do you think about how the video will be?
LANA:That's for sure, I always think about the history that influenced the song and how it get connected to what I've wrote. I'm lucky because I've always worked with great directors like Yoann Lemoine and Anthony Mandler. We have a great and unique connection. I've alway wrote the video concept for they. I think that it was kinda boring for they, probably that's why they do not work with me anymore. But the magic is that at the end, everything is like I was thinking about, and it's pretty hard to happen. That's the opposite control that I have at my personal life, I've showed every detail to the directors and they've made a beautiful work. 
VEJA:Do you have the same cares with the album artwork?
LANA:Yes, I do. I do love to see the progress of the artwork. For "Ultraviolence", I've worked with Neil Krug, he changed the way that I've seen some stuff. He have transformed polaroids into perfect portraits for my album. For me, the artwork helps to give the album some individuality. So, when I saw the artwork, I've started to see "Ultraviolence" as it is, like the story that it is. The story begins with a electric guitar solo that Dan made in "Cruel World", the first song.
VEJA:You've moved from NY to LA during the process of creation of the album. How this change influenced at the album?
LANA:I was living in London for some time and I moved back to USA. So, I've moved to California, I also lived in NY for several years, and these years influenced me to write "West Coast". In "Broolyn Baby", I sing about Brooklyn, as the title suggest. Well, I could bring all my worlds to a album. That's great and makes me happy.



_______________________________________________



Sorry for the several mistakes! I'm kinda sleepy, but I've tried!

This all reminds me of why I needed to get out of academia. It must be hard to write about a rock record when you've obviously never heard one before in your life, and you compare the increasing intensity of 'Cruel World' to EDM, when Ultraviolence has as much in common with dance music as it does to polka (a better comparison would be to the Velvet Underground's 'Heroin', which is actually similar to it stylistically)