wilting daisy

some of you guys are being deliberately dense…
anyway, if you don’t like the album, good for you? what do you want us who love it to do? not love it? not defend an album we love? it’s okay to love it or like it. but to get on a website dedicated to discussing Lana Del Rey and specifically getting on the NFR thread to say you don’t like it and imply that you think everyone who praises it is wrong or stupid or something… that’s bold. telling people their interpretation of music is wrong or simply just caused by “groupthink,” is even bolder. you can just say what you don’t like about it. you don’t gotta be mean to those who do. hope this helps, and if it doesn’t, oh well! i won’t pretend to be genuine or civil because this conversation is getting so beyond old. 

To me, it might have been an accidental thing, that Norman painted through her stories a picture of the times in general. And yet, it does give it an interesting dimension, whether intentional or not. 
Because it’s another round of « we love NFR » vs « this album is overrated AF » 

also political and social commentary are different, lfl was politcal and nfr was social.

On BTD, we also see a good picture of the times, where her relationships reflect many aspects of nowadays relationships. But not so much on UV or HM. LFL has those elements but they’re more in certain songs rather than sprinkled throughout the whole album. 
NFR was almost prophetic, with COVID embodied in both FIILY as « the rush », the « culture running though its own disaster »… ending with the greatest, which is « the death of the culture » like Jack and Lana said in interview. (Another brilliant aspect of this album is that, after the culture died on THE greatest, there’s almost a « restart » of the culture with simpler, piano-driven songs).
 
anyways, I love NFR and I know it’s not your cup of tea, which I totally respect. All I wanted to bring up was that critics probably love it more than some of her other LPs is because we see a larger scope of the time we live in. 

i feel like to an extent its a defensive thing. just like when she said most of her unreleased are objectively bad or that she didn't want anyone to hear blue banisters. like it seems like she's more outwardly critical about her music that's very personal. almost like it would hurt more for people to drag her music the more personal it is so she beats them to the punchline so if someone says fingertips is a bad song or that blue banisters isn't worth listening to or that her unreleased songs are unreleased bc they suck, she can be like "well i already said that first so i don't care!" almost like her "the reviews aren't aupposed to be good" from the other day

it is a NECESSITY
 

this photo is so iconic lmao

queen

You forgot the 4 year stretch of just Blue Jeans , a White t Shirt, and a pair of Toms

my first listen i thought the new version was a bit awkward despite loving hearing lana more probably bc i'm so used to the other version lol but after a couple listens i can say i really do like this version better. the second verse was given more of a mellow lana vibe for her which was nice and the tempo change makes the song more interesting and i was pleasantly surprised to here her more on the second chorus and to hear her closing out the song. its a shame this version will only be on streaming tho. taylor should release a till the dawn edition vinyl so we can finally have all the 3am tracks plus this new version of snow on the beach on vinyl

what are you talking about? amongst lana fans, its just gotten to the point where we're finally allowed to love nfr without being accused of being a new fan or only liking things that are critically acclaimed. 

what are you talking about? amongst lana fans, its just gotten to the point where we're finally allowed to love nfr without being accused of being a new fan or only liking things that are critically acclaimed. 

what are you talking about? amongst lana fans, its just gotten to the point where we're finally allowed to love nfr without being accused of being a new fan or only liking things that are critically acclaimed. 

what are you talking about? amongst lana fans, its just gotten to the point where we're finally allowed to love nfr without being accused of being a new fan or only liking things that are critically acclaimed. 

honestly i am so confused about this conversation because is lana's entire thing not americana?  like obviously her works incorporate american culture/ideals/politics lmao this was just the first album she explicitly stated that was the concept for the album.

Regardless of everything else.. NFR is just vibes, not sure how anybody can hate it 

Literally everyone who is saying that isn’t the concept of the album or they “don’t see it” has said they don’t like the album😭😭 like obviously you aren’t spending the time to analyze and understand the songs on a deeper level if you don’t like the album 

I’m walking to work right now so maybe I’ll explain it more later, but I think you’re confusing political commentary with social commentary. I would not consider the album political. But the album is very much a social commentary. I would consider “a modern day woman with a weak constitution” the thesis of this album. Like @PARADIXO said, it’s very much about the modern day LA citizen. And I agree, many of her albums do this, but it’s a few songs here and there, the most important thing though, is even if you personally do not sense that in your own analysis, it is the actual concept for the album, and why the album is titled “NFR” and why the cover has LA burning in flames .

In all honesty I see both Born To Die and Norman Fucking Rockwell to be tongue-in-cheek exaggerations of certain aspects of modern Western culture. 
 
On BTD, even the title itself seems to make fun of both the nihilism in American culture and the consumerism of drugs, glamor, etc. (I.e., you aren't born to live or born to succeed, you're born to live fast, consume as much as possible, and die doing so). The songs explore this teenage-fantasy-wasteland where a lot of life's problems can be escaped by having sex, doing drugs, and constantly living on the run. It's about the extremes of the excess in our culture. 
 
On NFR, the title is sarcastic. Norman Rockwell was an American propagandist who drew picturesque scenes of rural American life, and helped sell the idea of "the simple life" in suburbs and rural areas. Putting the "fucking" between his name expresses mockery and disdain of Norman and what he stood for. The songs themselves are softer, calmer, and the subject mature more introspective. The songs discuss the burnout caused by trying to create this perfect little suburban life for yourself, and in a way it echos the theme of BTD--in that whether you embrace the teenage-fantasy-wasteland of degeneracy, or try to embrace the Norma Rockwell suburban utopia, you still end up empty, alone, and craving something more concrete than either empty version of Western culture. 

I think the difference is that Norman Fucking Rockwell! was the ultimate version of her message. The one that mattered the most because it landed at the right time, a time where a lot of people resonated with her and her message. The only other time that this happened was with Born to Die, because it opened a place in music, songwriting and art in general for people who felt disconnected with what was "popular" at the time (EDM, high energy pop music). Norman Fucking Rockwell! totally opened (or rather contributed) a new conversation regarding the state of the world and culture. It really felt apocalyptic... and then came the pandemic lol.
 
exactly what i said

to me nfr encapsulates the feel of modern america (more so the world, in my opinion as i’m not american) because the subject matter in the songs just reflects the shift in western culture over the last decade. yes it’s from lana’s pov, but the more conscious and educated lens she writes through on the record - in my opinion - sums up the change in attitudes western society accumulated by the end of the 2010s.
 
i mean, born to die was written from her pov but the commentary on excess, drugs, depression and rebellion was a universal experience for the youth at the time which were growing in subcultures across the internet - hence its popularity and solidification as the ‘american’ album of the last decade. 
 
contrast btd with the subject matter of norman and it reflects the maturity and growth of a generation, for better or for worse.
 
that’s my two cents

I have a lot to add to that but have a few minutes, so here are a few of my observations: 
It’s not so much that she doesn’t tell her own story but through her story, we get a glimpse of the times we are living. It probably was unintentional but still, I see those elements in there:
- title track: going out with a narcissistic man but she owns it: how many girls are living that, in the social media age? Same with the failed relationships depicted ln the album, although she wants her « love song ».
- MAC, Hope, HIaB and all the songs where she references her own sadness: the younger generations are not afraid as much to acknowledge their sadness/ melancholy / sad feelings.
- Doin Time is a 90s cover, a decade that inspires a lot this decade, culturally. 
- TNbAR is about creation, another trope that many of us are trying to explore, much more than passed generations. 
- There is still the hope of wanting to live in a better world, but that world is shattered in The Greatest, like you said. 

NFR, just like BTD, has this incredible feeling of « encapsulating the American culture » of this peculiar era, stepping a bit outside of Lana’s realm, into a larger scope, to tell the story of the decay of the US dream and American loneliness pre-pandemic. I guess it’s why it is still today considered her « best work » by critics. 
UV, HM and OB, although phenomenal, all lack that « time capture », concentrating on Lana’s story or getting into a certain vibe (although there are some « sprinkles » of postpandemic world in OB, it’s not as «present » as Norman or Born to Die, IMO). 

Lana's music has always been about the spiritual themes she's signing about today just portrayed through "cooler" themes..
 
Like Gods & Monsters for example
 
"In the land of Gods and Monsters
I was an angel living in the garden of evil
...Doing anything that I needed
Shinin like a fiery beacon"
 
Like here she's talking about how she was good and she had good intentions (she was an "angel") but everyone around her may not have had those same intentions (she lives in the "garden of evil")
 
But then when she says "doing anything that I needed, shining like a fiery beacon", she's asserting that she will find a way through art. She was going to do anything she needed to do to make her dreams come true, even if she knew it was a lost cause in the sense of finding true fulfillment, bc at the end of the day "life imitates art"
 
Like she's been singing about the same themes she sings about in songs like Grandfather it was just filtered through the lens of whatever era she was feeling at the time

Some of you are actually so funny...
Lana's career consistently peaking over time in terms of commercial success
even pre Midnights and post Snow on the Beach bump consistently one of the most streamed women daily 
 
releasing a 16 track album full of beautiful melodies and orchestras that is certainly unique (what other artist is releasing GPSOTSOMFWHDSF or Fingertips or title track??? - and even if they did everyone would recognize the LDR influence lol) and yet you're sitting here trying to convince everybody that Lana appeasing her management to release a trending tik tok song somehow means SYTH (which, as much as the delusional BOZ crowd is sad to admit, was never produced by anyone other than Rick Nowels) is better written or produced than her recent work...truthfully it's a cute girl but if it got 7 different reworks it clearly wasn't doing it for Lana lmao
 
a lot of you who discovered born to die in 2017 (or in 2012) simply want its accessibility (BEATS) in her production because you think fast = better hence the sped up version nonsense lmao
you just made that up???  "Never thought I’d see the day when this song got an official release. Thrilled it finally came out in it’s original version. Congrats" is legitimately all he said lmao AGAIN you BOZ heads and ur fan fiction it's hilarious