Anthem

inb4 Art Deco is now "about" Rihanna 

 

 

thoughts on having kids

 

 

kids

I've always wondered if she wanted to settle down one day. Imagine Lana having babies!

Yeah I think I'll just send him a message. *sigh* I just wanted a Lana promo, of course this would happen.

I'm sorry friend better to find out now while there's a chance to fix it than way later. 

Okay so to add to the suspicion, look at this. This was the listing I bought it from: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lana-Del-Ray-West-Coast-Promo-CD-Single-/281811405091?hash=item419d44c923%3Ag%3A-hwAAOSwFnFWCAvg&nma=true&si=o0QEM2EOaTTq6t6lKH%252BiEaNzaJk%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

If you look at the picture of the back they posted in the ad, you can slightly see the CD through and it looks like the font on the CD shown is the LDR official font, whereas the one I received is not like this... I'm starting to think this isn't real either. What I received is the same as this http://www.discogs.com/Lana-Del-Rey-West-Coast/release/5683968 but without the sticker and the CD sticker is not official looking. Like you said, there is some variation with these promos and some look almost "fake" but are not, so I'm not sure what to do here... The seller has 100% positive ratings also.

I see, you definitely did not receive the CD in the picture as the fonts on the disc don't match which is a huge red flag. The only West Coast promo with that font is this one (http://www.discogs.com/Lana-Del-Rey-West-Coast-/release/7309241) which has a different tracklist and the letter spacing is different. The one I have is the one you linked (mine doesn't have a sticker either but the rest of it is identical). The single art on yours is just so so bad LQ too. I'm 99% sure yours is fake I'd contact the seller and link him to the discog pictures and if he doesn't respond then report it to eBay. 

Got this is yesterday! It looks less official than I thought it would The insert is literally just printed on a piece of regular paper. This is a legit promo right?

 

Not gonna lie... I don't really think its legit. I have one of these that I'm 100% sure is real and its different. The cover of yours looks extremely LQ although the back looks perfect. There is more space above her name on mine and the picture looks a lot lighter in a way that I don't think is just your camera. My insert is also thicker than average paper. What really gets me is the font on the CD itself. On mine (and if you look at it on discogs), the font on the CD is Lana's official font, where yours is not. The brackets around the times of the tracks are different too. On one of the other West Coast promos the same font on your CD is used, but the tracklists are different, which means someone being lazy about making a bootleg might have looked at the other promo CDs and just assumed they all had that weird font. I'm not saying yours is completely fake because there might be some variation to the CDs I don't know about, but I will say that I wouldn't have bought it myself if I noticed those things because I think there's a good chance its fake unless you bought from a pretty reputable person.

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). 

Don't worry, I get all this. I completely understand its very selfish of me to say something like that. I would like to say though that I wasn't really talking about Lana and her lack of promotion when I said that, I was talking about another artist who is probably dropping music completely after her next tour because she's bored with it. I don't think I know what Lana (or the other artist) needs to do at all and I don't feel like either are obligated to give me anything. You probably don't know since you just lurk and I was being intentionally vague that myself and some others here are actively trying to make music careers for ourselves. Coming from that point of view is what makes it extra frustrating to see someone seemingly take it for granted that they have the ability to make music for a living, which is incredibly lucky. My frustration comes 100% from jealousy and I know this and know its not fair. But it doesn't stop me from wishing I even had that option to begin with.

I'm usually not one that is good with the "flow" of albums or playlists but I really feel bothered by Honeymoon's tracklist. I would change it as such:

1. Honeymoon
2. Terrence Loves You
3. God Knows I Tried
4. Religion
5. 24
6. Salvatore
7. Burnt Norton
8. High By The Beach
9. Music To Watch Boys To
10. Freak
11. Art Deco
12. The Blackest Day
13. Swan Song

With this sequence, I can break the album in little "parts"..

Part 1: Drifting Away

Honeymoon and Terrence Loves You both give me this summery vibe. They are the only two songs where I feel like the atmospheres fit the visuals of the album. They are where the daydream starts.

Part 2: Retro

God Knows I Tried and Religion give me western vibes and they feel set in the past, so it reminds me of the old days of the "wild west". I think 24 also fits into this vibe since it sounds like a song for an old action movie (or the character described is like that of old heros like Bond and Indiana Jones). Salvatore is thrown in here because it gives me old Italy mafia vibes. It, like the others in this section, just feel like they take place in the past. The outro of Salvatore I think goes nice into the quiet speaking of Burn Norton.

Part 3: Interlude

Burn Norton is where the album moves from the retro to the future. I think the interlude comes at an awkward time in the official tracklist. The album can clearly be divided into past and present, so I don't know why it wasn't with this wonderful track to act as a bridge. So here we are.

Part 4: Future

The intro to High By The Beach serves as a much better transition with its little instrumental bit than the immediate vocals of Religion. It gives the listener a few seconds to also transition into the "future" period of the album. Starting with High By The Beach kind of starts at the end of the story, with the woman already breaking up with the man. Moving into Music To Watch Boys To is kind of like a flashback to when the girl and boy met. Freak is them running away to California, to the beach where she'd eventually break up with the guy as explained in High By The Beach. Art Deco is next and is unrelated in the previous trilogy. It can't really be separated from Freak but even if they weren't gapless I think this would feel right still. The instrumental to Art Deco is very mechanical, which fits in with the "future" theme.

Part 5: The Present...?

I really didn't know where else to put The Blackest Day because its too powerful to not interrupt the flow of the rest of the album and is kind of singular among the rest. So it just goes here and I don't think its a terrible place for it either. Swan Song obviously closes it out. I do like Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. I feel like it and Swan Song are interchangeable but are awkward next to one another because they are both closing songs. Imagine The Other Woman and Flipside one after the next. Both are perfect album closers but would sound weird right after each other.  In this case, I went with Swan Song because its an original Lana song and I like it better in the context of the rest of the album. I also think the end of Swan Song loops better back to the beginning of Honeymoon than the other.

Sorry this is long and probably doesn't make sense. I don't know how to better express why I changed the order and I'm too tired to go back and edit. Hopefully it makes sense

Well in Marina's case, she actually promoted her album a bit, she sang at GMA lol. 

Yeah I know, she is (or was) promoting Froot a lot actually. I meant more about after her tour. She's basically said she's done with music after this upcoming tour. Its hard seeing some people who really want to make a living from art because they truly love it barely getting by or not getting a chance at all and then seeing someone else who has everything they could want just throw it away because they are bored/lazy/whatever. I know its not fair to think that way at all because everyone has the right to do what makes them happy, but still. I realize in Marina's case its not a decision she is making lightly and she really does recognize she is lucky though. I think for her its more of a sense of fulfillment, that she got what she wanted form her career. But at the end of the day, she's still throwing something out that so many people would die to have.

I don't see how people can say that a.) her lyrics got worse from UV and b.) that Honeymoon has no variety. Ultraviolence is about ~so many things~ but literally every track but BB, MPG, FMUTT, OM, TOW, and FS is about loving a bad boy. And they all give the exact same imagery and vibe, which is great from a cohesive standpoint but Honeymoon has literally western, italian, beachy, metallic, summery, and west-coast sounding songs and still sounds coherent. Visually I see Ultraviolence existing in only two settings - LA and New York, which is as typical Lana as you can get especially paired with the bad boy love song thing. I feel like in HM her lyrics are so much more colorful and paint such vibrant pictures compared to UV and to an extent BTD. But with BTD we had so many visuals to fill in the gaps for us.

Honeymoon does almost get lost in its own tracklist. There isn't so much of a storyline like what UV has which kind of makes it hard to follow, but stories are a luxury and not required for an album so its alright. Some of the sequencing makes sense but I'd change the tracklist a lot if it were up to me. UVs is perfect though. Also, Honeymoon is also made of up mostly love songs, although I think they are from a more interesting perspective.

I don't believe that HM is any more slow than UV. Please someone point out a fast-paced song in UV besides FK. 

I really do love UV, don't get me wrong, but I feel like its gotten a bit overrated on the boards. Its wonderful but really doesn't completely overshadow everything else that Lana has ever done. But then again, I am in the tiny minority that loves Paradise so what do I know 

Also, I think if you all are going to do comparisons then this is a little more fair. Its not perfect but makes a tad bit more sense...

Cruel World - The Blackest Day (guitar power song - could possibly go with PWYC too)

Ultraviolence - Honeymoon (title tracks)

Shades of Cool - 24 (Bond-ish songs)

Brooklyn Baby - Freak

West Coast = High By The Beach (lead singles)

Sad Girl - Religion

Pretty When You Cry - Swan Song

Money, Power, Glory - God Knows I Tried

Fucked My Way Up - Art Deco (tracks about other people..?)

Old Money - Terrence Loves You (slow ballad)

The Other Woman - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (cover)

Black Beauty = Salvatore

Florida Kilos - Music To Watch Boys To (exotic..?)

I don't want to be one of those fans, but I've got nothing to lose...

 

Lana doesn't love music as much as she says. Or, I don't know, she does but it's different. Waaaay different. She's so lucky to have so many people buying her albums and listening to her songs and watching her videos. She's super lucky and she doesn't know that. If I had her luck, I would do a lot of stuff, but she's not like that. And that's a shame since Lana is really smart and creative, but she's too lazy. 

 

And that's a shame, really, because everyone is doing the opposite. Some new artists are working their asses off because they want to show how talented they are. 

I completely understand this, especially knowing a bit of the perspective you are coming from. Like, I wish I even had a music career to throw away. I feel the same way about Marina. Maybe there's just something we don't know. 

 

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. 

 

This is my favorite post on this whole site.

It'll be up very soon I promise, what did you think of the song?

Not lying at all just to make you feel good, but its probably my favorite of yours. I still really like Tears of Gold too. 

Where's that download? Xx

I just noticed one of the models has "West Coast" tattooed on the back of his neck lol

Hint: if its posted on one page three times already, it might not be unpopular

I like Paradise and Honeymoon more than her other albums and I like their covers more than the other covers too 

I don't think UV is some untouchable masterpiece. It's very good, maybe her best, but its not miles high above her other work like everyone has been acting lately.

Oh and I did see a clip from the teaser in the video, did you guys notice? I'm hoping that means another video for Freak with the kool-aid scene and the man.

I try to keep the reaching to a minimum but to me the end of the video just doesn't seem to be the end of the story in the video. Just the sequencing and some of the scenes almost seem like its leading into something else. I hope we do get something Tropico-esqe, or at least another music video that kind of acts as a continuation. With the inclusion of an interlude in the album, I feel like its kind of possible since that could easily be used as a bridge from one song to another.

Noooooooooooo! This album's amazing!! :/

I know, it's tragic maybe a good listening session of it all the way through will help.

I'm disappointed with how quickly I was over the album :/ I still really like Melanie and the idea of the album but when it comes to actually listening to the songs I rarely do. Maybe it was just bad timing with finding another artist right after and then HM so I've had plenty of other things to listen to.

This is my fucking jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqMaOb6Mogk

 Also unpopular opinion I guess but UV is not actually that dark, except like for the last 3-4 songs and the bonus tracks : it's moody and melancholic, bitter and sometimes desperate, but it's not the pits of Hell like it seems to be for some people (except maybe TOW , ITH and Flipside, where she sounds hungover, mortified and wrecked). That's what I liked about it, it's an emotional journey but she's not sinking that much in a self-pity mode, she's more subtle, even with the basic lyrics she came up with for this record. I mean there's far more depressed and depressing in the world... but nothing as moody and dancing, in it's own way

God I'm glad someone said it. I think of UV as a cloudy day, Born To Die being right after nightfall in a chill carefree way, Paradise is the party at midnight, and HM is just a warm summer day. None of them are waking up in a terrified cold sweat in the dead of the night.

Thought so. It won't ship until the box set is ready. The same happened to me.

The whole thing isn't going to ship until then? 

That's weird. Did you only order the vinyl?

I ordered the vinyl, limited edition vinyl, and CD box set (I know that's not until Nov though). :/ I'm considering canceling the order since I already have a vinyl, can probably but the LE vinyl easy form a store in town, and can just preorder the box again.

My order from the UK store still hasn't shipped 

I really like the teaser! Ill be waiting for the full thing