Monicker

i don't mean to be harsh in anyway but get the fuck over it, ​she wore a headdress which was personal to her in a music video, regardless of the origin of it she did not make a mockery of it. smh.

Hey, i don't mean to do _____ but i'm going to go right ahead and do it!

How about you stop arrogantly insisting on what people should feel and think, eh? Your dismissive attitude is exactly the problem surrounding these sort of issues. Of course it's the prevalent stance taken by the dominant, oppressive group. "Regardless of the origin"--again you're only helping to pinpoint the problematic mentality here.

Also, what the hell does it matter that it's a music video? You think that exempts anything?

This is a GREAT thread topic <3 I have dozens and dozens and dozens of these moments. This is the kind of shit i live for. I’ll come back later with a list of moments, but...

For me, it's the final chorus of "Mermaid Motel". I don't know the musical jargon of the technique she uses there in her vocals (Monicker could probably teach me a thing or two), but it's absolutely mesmerizing and a real contender for one of the most brilliant, effective decisions she's made in her music. How's that for a grand statement? Even if the credit goes to David Kahne for that last chorus, maybe that's just confirmation of what a dream team they were. It just instantly stops me, the way it seems almost...turned inside out? Just go listen to it, it starts at 3:02.

YES YES YES! Well said. This is my #1 moment too! I wrote about it once on LDR.FM, how that part is otherworldly, on another level entirely. I sincerely believe that it’s one of the best moments in pop music of the last, oh, 15 years. MM is what i use to first introduce my friends to Lana.

I’m honestly really terrible when it comes to harmonic theory and analysis, so i’m not exactly sure what’s going on there. She’s obviously changing the melody of the chorus, but there’s more going on. I used to think the song changed keys there from its home key of D minor, but now i realize there’s no modulation there, she’s just flatting the fifth (in this case the A become an A flat) which makes a tritone (the interval that was once viewed as the devil in music, its use prohibited by the church!) and creates some diminished harmonies, introducing some really nice dissonance. That’s as much as i can tell you, if you know theory at all this tells you almost nothing, and if you don’t know theory, then this tells you nothing at all. Any musicians here? Anyway, this section is FUCKED and totally, totally, totally, totally, totally brilliant. Sitar, to say that it sounds “turned inside out” is a very keen and intuitive observation because the tritone is the most unstable interval in music and is always looking to resolve; it's used mostly to create musical tension before a release/resolve.

Let’s start a petition for Lizzy to work with Kahne again even though she probably doesn’t want to! Give Emile the boot!

Any song she has a country twang to her voice - I would love a country-inspired album

YES.

- "savior" in Kinda Outta Luck

Highest note she's hit on record, i believe. Lana enters the false register.

Yeah, it's weird, to me, AKA is the ultimate summer record. When i first started listening to it in November/December of last year, i would anticipate being able to finally hear it in the middle of summer while riding my bike during the magic hour. This is especially the case for Kill Kill. Some songs on the album are summer day songs while others are summer night songs.

- I don't like the "National Anthem" music video at all.

You are welcome into my home anytime.

- I prefer the demos/acoustic versions of the BTD songs to every single studio version. I love it when Lana plays with her voice (e.g. that thing she does live with "Million Dollar Man"). The studio versions are kinda boring in my opinion.

This is probably one of the more popular opinions on the forum.

The entire song is almost always sung at the same pitch.

This is not even close to being true. I think you would have quite a laugh if you heard what the song, or any song, would sound like with a one note melody.

- I think the "Ride" video tells Lana Del Rey's story, not Elizabeth Woolridge Grant's.

I think this is a good point to raise in general because there is a tendency to take every single word of every single song of hers as (factual) autobiography.

This one time--it was in Nevada if i recall--i was pole dancing while i was on meth and everything just looked so beautiful, you know, and it didn't even matter that my daddy's rich or anything because i'll always have Mr. Campbell. I guess when i think about it all, these memories and experiences seem kind of Lana related in a way, you know?

Uhm, i’ve just generally enjoyed the (fairly quick) journey of getting a few of my friends into Lana’s music because most of my friends (as well as i) don’t generally listen to a lot of pop stuff. I enjoy their reactions and enjoy playing the role of the their supplier. Pretty scant with the Lana related experiences/memories, i guess. None of these friends even live in my same state. And it's, like, three friends. Look, i'm an isolated person with very little human contact, okay? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

You have to do it anyway. I have my own questions, you know.

I've always wondered if Emile would have done away entirely with the Phil Spector backbeat on DICWB.

I don’t know about best performance, but that white mini dress with those little slits on the side and those white oxford heels are THE SHIT <3

I personally think that band was boring and too slick.

Jesus, when i saw the title of this thread i thought it was going to be, like, scans of track sheets and maybe a video clip of Lana cutting a vocal track, or perhaps Emile doing a mixing session or something. WHAT A LET DOWN.

The question for me about possible BTD outtakes is not so much which songs are BTD outtakes, but rather, where are the actual BTD versions (Emile Haynie productions) of these songs because lord knows the versions we have of any possible BTD outtakes were not touched by Emile (or our beloved loon).

Man, Madrigal sure does go off the deep end when the Truth becomes threatened. DA FACT POLICE IS IN DA HOUZE, U GUYZ.

Madrigal, go invite all the producers to this forum so we can all talk shop, please!!

What a bunch of yachties.

Dang. Isn't that so fulfilling when you discover that a familiar concept has an existing term?

^ Such a good song. I totally called it when i said it was your theme song.

Any song with tube bells in it automatically makes my list of top songs.

Will u guis stop talking about me? LEAVE ME ALONE.

You're the one who was hitting on me with this English teacher business, saying it was ironic that I thought you were my teacher because Lana may or may not have fucked hers.

I just thought it was ironic that you were suggesting I was your former English teacher at the very same time I was finding interesting stuff about Lana's English teacher.

Is that really irony, english teacher? Or just coincidence? Or actually just nothing at all.

Okay, fuck it for real now, let's just ALL touch dicks in the dark.

It's a good question and one that i've asked myself before, not in regards to myself, but how it applies to others in general.

"Droughts" are more than okay. In fact, i often crave them. Life and other stuff, ya know?

I've never understood why people think this or any forum needs to be constantly active.

There are a lot of things i don't understand.

I sometimes wonder if some people are into LDR--by nature of her being a mainstream pop singer--more so as a result of being a consumer of pop culture, and so when someone/something else inevitably comes along, some people will move on.

I'm taking up a new posting approach in which i will obnoxiously separate thoughts into their own line like so.

Do any of you ever feel that there's an oversaturation of Lana Del Rey? Or is that just an inevitable feeling to have when coming to a forum of any artist?

I was thinking today how a forum is probably one of the most troubling things for an obsessive person to have in their life. It just fosters obsessive and habitual behavior.

I was also thinking earlier about fanaticism.

I desperately wish i didn't have this completist mentality with artists that i'm into.

I want to appreciate what we already have and spend time with the stuff, rather than constantly desiring more just to fulfill a curiosity/obsession.

Whenever i see mention of the word "leaks" i think of the Diva Cup™.

Mentions of holocaust and sluts in this thread.

That is all for now. Merry Christmas.

The vocals on Trash Magic were for sure not recorded with her laptop's built-in mic the way songs like Little Carmen, White Pontiac Heaven, and Methamphetamines were. I peg the whole of the recording of Trash as probably being recorded in a decent, treated home studio--not a bedroom recording and not a proper studio recording. It's definitely recorded "better" than Jimmy Gnecco and Get Drunk from that period--big noticeable difference in engineering. Not sure what you're saying about the Trash demo being different and Ahmed saying something about something being fake (?) The Trash Magic portions of the Trash Magic demo are taken from Trash Magic. They B da sayme, dawg.

CUM ON, A-TL, ZOOPHILIA! LOVE ONE, LOVE ALL, ONE LOVE, SET YOURSELF FREE.

ASSHOLE.

I think it's one of the more..hmm shall we say passionate fans who just so happens to hate lanaboards for some reason. Rme

This begs a question that i was thinking about recently: I imagine that the majority of Lana fans (all the tumblr/twitter stuff, etc...shit i know absolutely nothing about) have to at least know about this forum, right? Are there any other LDR forums?

Also, from what i've seen, Ben Mawson's actual writing style is highly unprofessional, so don't go by that alone when trying to discredit something like this. Though, in this case, i strongly believe this is fake. The internet is so fucking weird.

The "I am a RACIST" bit is even more ignorant than sporting the headdress in the video...

Oldies apply to evilentity's childhood? Crazy.

Couldn’t a young child today, in the year 2012, be listening to oldies, you know, like, on the oldies station? I don't think evilentity was lying in bed listening to AM radio in 1966...

I love these! I just really like french songs from the 60's in general. They were carefree, playful, smart and catchy. La Boite à Sous isn't the most well known songs they did together. Have you heard of these two? I'm pretty sure you know them.

Yup, I love those two, but especially Comic Strip, it’s one of my favorites. That backing track is off the hook, and BB’s onomatopoeia backing vocals are wild.

Here are some other favorites of mine:

Nope, that wasn't it. I'm gonna keep quiet about this though. Bye!

That's how marketing and branding works with major labels with the marketing and business models featured around the artist as a product. In theory, the more unified the package around a product is, the easier it is to estalish a "brand". Lana's brand is doing great by the way, with H&M and Jaguar endorsements. Musicians get asked about the "sound" of their albums all the time. Producers mean a whole lot too, think of Ride with Rick Rubin (who is an industry big-wig).

 

Lana also has stated that marketing was one of the reasons why she pulled the LDRakaLG album. . .because 5 Points wasn't going to market the album. But also have my own conspiracies about Lana and her recording contracts.

 

I also think that you hit the nail on the head when it comes to the challenges in the creative process for an album. Should artists be self-reductive and go into their backlog for material? Or should they keep on creating new material? Should an album's sound be diverse or cohesive? If think it is sonically harder for artists when they decide to put out an general/diverse albums because then their team would have to be well-educated and well-versed in so many different styles. And when you specialize in a sound I think it's easier because then the artist can trailblaze in a niche. Both approaches have made great albums for various artists.

 

I would say the AKA album is more diverse and BTD is more unified in sound. I am actually confused about BTD because VG was the song that catapulted Lana in the spotlight, but VG is pretty unique on the album.

Very well said, greymillenium. That's the train of thought i was chasing: branding. I think it's just the name of the game when you're dealing with an artist at that level of exposure/fame. It's always easier to sell a product and the brand when there is something cohesive, easily recognizable, digestible, and, dare i say, even a little predictable about it. This conversation can easily go into the butterfly effect thing we were talking about in the Would Lana be as well-liked if she wasn’t attractive? thread. That is, we'd most likely be listening to a pretty different sounding record had she not gone the Interscope/mainstream route and been marketed a certain way.

Great point about Video Games--it's definitely the sore thumb on BTD. It seems that everything surrounding the song is just an anomaly, really.

Speaking of Rick Rubin, i still don't like what he did with the drums in the chorus of Ride. But, damn, those verses are magical. What a weird career...How does one start out with LL Cool J and Slayer and end up with Lana Del Rey 25+ years later?

Lily, i have a feeling that maybe you were thinking of L’appareil a sous, the first track from BB's first album (one of my most beloved pop songs--i think i posted this once on ldr.fm), which was written by Serge and recorded by both of them. BB version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=725ZHftWQrU

And here’s his version. Both fantastic. The STRINGS on this one, gah. I'm sure you're familiar with these songs anyway!

Damn, i need to move my body RIGHT NOW. BRB.

Didn’t see this post until just now. The forum has been acting buggy lately with the going to last unread post feature--sometimes it just skips over a lot of unread posts for some reason.

Is it disrespectful to wrap yourself in the American flag?

I don’t know. It’s a good question. I’m sure some people in the military would be offended. Offended by what exactly, i don’t know. I mean, any country’s flag represents its people, no? And an entire country’s people is a diverse population. And any person of any country is entitled to identify with their country and whatever symbols are used to represent the country, no? What is she doing with the flag that is damaging to its people? Some would probably argue that there are only certain things that are acceptable to do with a flag, and that draping it over oneself is not one of these things. I’m personally not offended by her doing it. I don’t feel as if she was misrepresenting, stereotyping, or belittling my or anyone’s culture by doing it. I should make it clear that i’m not necessarily offended by the use of the headdress in the Ride video, i just think she’s being stupid and thoughtless.

Re: fashion: What about wearing a t-shirt with an American flag on it? Is that offensive? It’s so broad, you know? (see above). A headdress, though, is very specific with its meaning, connotation, and history. Wearing something, a symbol, that is sacred or meaningful to an entire group of other people as nothing more than a fashion item simply because you think it looks pretty or cool is dismissive of the value that those people place in it.

Even if it was basically respectful, it was still a culture that she basically has no business making art out of.

I don’t know if she has no right making art out of gay culture. Maybe she has had conflicting feelings about her sexuality before? Do we know with complete certainty that she’s totally straight? But the more important question is: was gay culture really being represented in Summertime Sadness or were we just watching a love story where the characters’ sexuality could have easily been interchangeable? Were Native Americans represented in that section of Ride or was it just a white girl using a Native symbol (for either purely aesthetic purposes or to identify with another people's struggles)? Either way, i don’t think she was making art out of gay culture in SS. She was telling a love story with characters that happened to be gay, but their sexuality wasn't pertinent to the story, lesbianism wasn’t the crux of the narrative nor was she making a particular point about it. Again, it goes without say, but homosexuality is present in every culture, ethnicity, sex, class, age, etc. It’s universal. Specific Native American symbols and customs are not. She could have very well been playing the role of a mother in SS. She’s not a mother in real life (that we know of, at least!) so would that have been offensive to all mothers? Motherhood is not unique to any one specific culture just as homosexuality isn't.

I don’t know, i feel that at this point we may just be asking each other rhetorical questions back and forth. Which, don’t get me wrong, is totally fine--it gives us stuff to think about.

I see what you've done there, evil. Clever as always.

Additionally, i'm starting to really believe that the Auto-Tuned Loon wants to, uhm, fuck me, no?

How does one felt compellingly sad and scared for watching machines working, ferrous sparks and all?

Industrial farming? The defilement of animals, the land, the consumer, and even the workers? Agriculture and factory farming are inherently destructive? This video embodies malaise. I think it's definitely one of her most powerful videos of the homemade ones. It kind of gives "purpose" to her whole DIY video approach. I feel that within the first 10 seconds you can already tell it's better than most of her other ones, there's just something about it. It helps that it's one of her better songs, too!

Lana, come on now...

Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Hawaii Five-O, Charlie's Angels, Remington Steele, Dynasty, The Bold and Beautiful, Border Town, McGyver, A-Team...

What?

Alright, who wants to start the A-Team thread?!