sparklrtrailrheaven

she literally recorded the next best american record

i didn't wanna have to do it, but i broke down and bought the surf tee it's FR so much cuter than anything on the official site i could not help myself

Absolute toot. Completely crazy and we stan

STILL thinking about this theory And now, I have a bunch of crazy-ass connections and ideas to go with it: So, I'm convinced that, whether intentional or not, the LDR album series -- beginning with Born to Die and ending with Lust for Life -- tell a story, especially with those two bookending albums. This isn't anything I really came up with -- I know it's been said before, but: BtD tells the story of LDR as a debauched, wasted young woman with a penchant for giving herself up to any man who'll take her, and for who death seems like the only release. While the concept of LfL isn't nearly as tight as BtD's, it's still clear that her headspace and way of life has changed in the interim: she's approaching peace, and committing herself to living. Of course, this is especially obvious in the inversion of the titles -- death/life, and the fact that the LfL cover bears so many similarities to the BtD cover, with LDR in a similar pose in front of a similar truck, except now she's smiling. It's a tale that could be referred to as "a story of sin and redemption" Anyway, I think that Get Free appearing at the end of LfL was the exorcism of Lana Del Rey, so to speak: it's her washing away all the darkness and pain of the LDR persona ("out of the black") as she transitions back into Lizzy Grant ("into the blue") -- the Lizzy-esque sound, especially on those "out of the black/into the blue" backing vocals, was no mistake! It even ends with those beachy sounds bespeaking the new record (and the classic ~surf noir~ sound). So, I think Norman Fucking Rockwell! picks up where AKA left off -- in fact, it's almost as if the title track is directly addressing that album. We end AKA with Yayo, Lizzy Grant desperately imploring her lover to throw her on his motorcycle and whisk her away -- then, we begin NFR! with Lana realizing that her lover may be "fun" and "wild", but he's not worth "half of the shit that [he] put [her] through". Similarly, he's not the rockstar god that she got starry-eyed for in For K, Pt. 2 -- he's just a spoiled "man child" who overestimates the legitness of his work. I love that thought -- of NFR! presenting us with Lizzy's return, except now she's a little more grown-up, a little more sure of herself, and a lot less reliant on bad-sad-boy types to make her feel fulfilled. She's the full-fledged artist the lost girl in Ride was seeking to be -- an accomplished singer, poet, and artist, who knows where she's headed -- even if it took some soul searching and exorcising a whole lot of her demons to get there

Cinnamon Girl is just kind of... okay. The end instrumental is more interesting than the body of the song, and it's still the weakest track on NFR

okay,,,,,, thoroughly enjoyed my second listen and now, a few more thoughts -lana repeating "blue" at the end of the title track melts me; she sounds like a dove cooing -Love song is one of the sweetest, most genuine love songs I've ever heard!!!!! the "oh, thanks for the high life" and the "you know that i just die to make you proud" parts ALSO melt me -Cinnamon Girl stays underwhelming me, which is totally frustrating, bc the snippets were my faves + it's getting so much appreciation here!!! i want to like it but it remains the only track on the album i feel kind of 'whatever' abt -- although i do love the ending instrumental and you could've easily convinced me that was some BTD demo before i heard it on the album -i love the How to disappear production more and more every time i hear it!!!!!!!!!!!! it's not what i expected for HtD at ALL and i'm still not sure it matches that song in particular, but i love it so much nonetheless and left-field nature of it gives me big AKA/David Kahne vibes -California,,,,, what a gorgeous song -i can deal with the lyrical changes on The Next Best American Record a lot better than I could at first, and i'm even approaching enjoying them, even tho the original lyrics blow those out of the water and flow a million times better. especially weird that she kept the "i see you for what you really are" line bc altho that *could* be seen in a positive context, that's kind of a stretch and besides the melody sounds so dark right there it just doesn't work -Bartender/Happiness is a butterfly/hope is like,,,,, my favorite sequence of songs on any LDR release -BARTENDER,,,,,,,, this is THAT song i really cannot get over it......... entering my top 5 LDR songs immediately. no words for it yet -Happiness ----- also what a SONG so much emotion packed into it i can't rank the songs on the album but my top 5 are, for sure: 1. Bartender 2. Mariners Apartment Complex 3. Happiness is a butterfly 4. The greatest 5. California also, my album ranking looks like this ATM: Lana Del Ray Norman Fucking Rockwell! Born to Die Lust for Life Paradise Ultraviolence Honeymoon

I love Bartender with ALL my heart but this also irked me!!!!! When mixing issues were brought up, this is what popped into my head!

Okay, after hearing the album, this theory is IT this makes so much sense NFR! literally picks up Lizzy Grant sound/songwriting where AKA left off. Like I said in the post-release thread, it's a matured Lizzy Grant relocated to Cali, and you can't tell me otherwise

I listened to Norman Fucking Rockwell! last night as soon as it dropped in the US, and as badly as I wanted to write out a review immediately, I realized I needed to wait 'til morning But, regardless, here's some thoughts -- I haven't read anyone else's thoughts yet, or given it a second listen, so this is working off all my first impressions: I'm SO impressed with this album. I don't know quite how to express that, but I'm really really really floored with the maturity of her sound and songwriting here. I've been so tempted to start drawing comparisons between NFR! and her previous albums, but the only thing comparable, imo, is AKA -- this doesn't feel like the same artist that produced the string of releases from Born to Die to Lust for Life, this feels like we're picking up at a place where AKA dropped off: of course, the classic references established by the LDR persona are still hangin' around -- party dresses and California and such, but those go back further than Born to Die and the birth of the Lana Del Rey persona, anyway. NFR! is like the sound of a grown-up Lizzy Grant who left New York for Laurel Canyon, and I couldn't be more pleased with it. It's got a distinct *weirdness* at times that we haven't seen since Lizzy, along with unapologetically sweet love songs and emotional honesty that haven't been seen in her catalog in ages. Even the songs are structured differently -- I recall reading someone here say (after the leak) that the songs "never go anywhere" -- but just because she's done away with the dramatic and doom-laden wind-ups of BtD and Ultraviolence doesn't mean these songs are any less potent -- you've just got to let go of your preconceived notions of what an LDR song is supposed to do, and enjoy it exactly for what it is. I think that's key with this release: let go of what you've come to expect from Lana, for once in her career. Since her takeoff with Video Games, she's been an artist working with (and rarely against) her own hype, her own mythos. With BtD, she established a canon that would come to shape her music for years, creating a highly distinctive aesthetic and style that I believe she got stuck in -- it became too easy to use her own shorthand to create a "Lana Del Rey album", and now she's breaking the formula for the first time since her very *first* debut. And, I think this is a change that's going to stick -- "Get Free" was our first clue that a transition was coming, and now a song like "The Greatest" makes it clear that something's different these days -- and I think that difference is that Lana Del Rey, as a persona and a project, is gone, for the most part. I don't imagine she'll change her name back, but I think we've seen the last of the character that appeared with BtD. Anyway, I didn't mean to write quite that much, but, again, I'm so, so, so, happy and impressed with this release, and I think it's the most special thing we've heard from Lana in a long time. For what it's worth, I think my favorite track on the record is Bartender, at least after a first listen -- I couldn't keep a smile off my face the whole time I listened. California comes close, though, and I was incredibly impressed with Happiness is a Butterfly. There were very few misses for me -- Cinnamon Girl didn't quite live up to the hype, although it's not a bad song, by any means, and while I actually really dug Jack's production on How to Disappear, it drowned out Lana at some points (which I decidedly did *not* dig). Also, while I get the lyrical change on The Next Best American Record and I think the shift she was going for is really cute, it just doesn't work as well as the original did. Even still, these are tiny, tiny minuses from what I'll say with confidence is in the running for my favorite LDR album -- I couldn't be happier with what she's created, and I've never been more excited for what's next.

don’t even say this bc this is all I want and we all know good and well she would never

I try so hard not to constantly bring up Lizzy parallels and nods in everything, but... She's serving kitsch, she's serving 2007 wigs, she's serving drive-in, b-movie, surf noir Bollywood Hawaii... She's making my job too easy and I'm LIVING !!!!!!!!!

when is it closing? i've still got like 7 hrs until NFR drops here

A question/theory about No Kung Fu and another set of 2007 demos: I didn't realize until today that the version of Get Drunk on the No Kung Fu tape is the same version that Lisandro re-leaked, albeit unedited, in 2017 -- along with a batch of unheard 2007 demos of Disco, For K Pt. 2, and Raise Me Up. I call this the 'bedroom session', to save any confusion with the Studio 356 sessions at the beginning of 2007 that produced a similar tracklist. So, here's what intrigues me: I had always assumed that the No Kung Fu demos, with the exception of Put Me in a Movie/Ruby because it's obviously more produced/less raw, were from the same recording session. They all have that same, acoustic sound, with no real differences to suggest they were recorded at different times. However, if the recording of Get Drunk present on NKF is actually from an earlier session, that either means that: 1. NKF is just an assemblage of various session tracks (actually explaining the presence of Ruby much better) OR 2. The recordings of Brite Lites/Jump/Jimmy Gnecco/Yayo also stem from that 'bedroom session' that produced Get Drunk/Disco/FKP2/RMU. I'm leaning heavily towards the first option, especially because the Mermaid Motel demo was tagged as a No Kung Fu demo, leading me to believe No Kung Fu was not a tape culled from a single session (plus Ruby), but just a catch-all tape for various recordings Lizzy saw potential in. That's how I'm going to treat it for now, meaning that I'm going to, with a heavy heart, finally dismantle my No Kung Fu Demos album truly the end of an era

As LB’s #1 Lizzy Bitch I would like to present the following: I rest my case and I am now crying goodbye

THIS IS LITERALLY EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER WANTED FROM LANA THIS VIDEO AND SONG OH MY god

what a cute song!!!!!! not crazy substantial but it's so pretty and a sign of good good good things to come also are they not playing the greatest lmaoooo

I have no clue!!!! did the leak really kill the excitement THIS much

queen of admitting she hates doing promo lmaooooooo

SURF DRUMS i haven't heard it yet fr i'm so ready........surf noir surf noir surf noir

the fucking lake placid part.... I teared up

It looks like that reference has been deleted out of the album description now

THIS IS THE FOLLOW-UP RECORD TO AKA AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE Literally this is all I've ever wanted from Lana Del Fucking Rey and now I have it......... the wait was so worth it We've literally crossed over into the alt. timeline where Lizzy Grant was a success and this is her fucking album I'm ahdhfhskhksdj this is what Get Free meant I can just feel it

I remember back when I’d wait with bated breath for the live updates from each of Lana’s shows, but once LATTM hit, and we had not only the same set lists (add a slight rarity here or there — Radio or Paradise half-sung) but lackluster vocals and looks as well, it sucked the joy out. (And she didn’t play Wayamaya in Hawaii like she promised, which, yes, I’m still resentful over ) Back in the day, this upcoming show would’ve been incredibly exciting — after a long break, LDR is coming back to perform with an album’s worth of new songs under her belt — but I’m not even getting excited, because we’re all horribly fearful that it’ll be the same show we’ve seen for years. Even when I saw her on LATTM, it was magical because I was seeing Lana for the first time, but it could’ve been a better show — the high point, for me, was Yayo: not only because of my Lizzy Grant attachment, but also because it’s the only song in the set list that wouldn’t allow her to hide behind dances and playback vocals. Even still, there’s been a couple bright spots that can give us some hope — the Apple show was pretty well-done and featured one new and one yet-unreleased (!) song, and there was the show with Jack where she played her ‘country’ songs and sounded the best live she had in years. And what’s sad is that her live shows these days have so much potential — the sound she’s presented with the NFR singles could be so successfully fitted to her hits and even some rarities — imagine Kill Kill by way of Venice Bitch — and the new material is so well-suited to performance. So, fingers crossed — but I’m not expecting too much.

Black Beauty teas — “You'd make it night time all today/So it'd suit the mood of your soul/Oh, what can I do?/Nothing, my sparrow blue” The color blue, the poetry, that line — is this a song about Barrie?

I’ve only seen one mention of Beautiful Thing, but dude..... I watched it earlier this week (and then again last night), and it easily tops my list of favorite films in general — it’s so sweet, but also doesn’t shy away from looking at how bumpy a process coming out (to others and yourself) can be. The characters are wonderful, and the soundtrack is HOLY. I can’t recommend it enough — it’s up on YouTube, please watch