lazybooklet

Not many people talk about it, but NFR is such a uneven album in terms of lyrics quality. There are so many great lines, but unfortunately as many horrendous. I wish Lana decided to have a co-writer. Anyway, here is my subjective list of the lows and the highs. 

 

 

WORST

“You're fun and you’re wild” – Norman Fucking Rockwell (so cliché)

“My, my, my, you found this, you need this” – Mariner’s Apartment Complex (the repetition of “my” sounds so forced)

“Fear fun, fear love

Fresh out of fucks, forever” – Venice Bitch

“Ice cream, ice queen” – Venice Bitch

“Wha- wha- wha- wha- whatever

Everything, whatever” – Venice Bitch

“In the car, in the car, in the backseat, I'm your baby” – Love song (cringy!)

“Make you real proud of your baby” – Love song (also cringy!)

“Lying on your chest in my party dress

I'm a fucking mess, but I” – Love song (terrible, cliché rhymes, sudden end with “I”, very poor writing)

“Baby, it's the best, that's a test and yes” – Love song (poor rhyming)

“Touch me anywhere 'cause I'm your baby

Grab my waist, don't waste any part” – Love song (waste – waist is atrocious + cringy)

“Cinnamon in my teeth

From your kiss, you're touching me” – Cinnamon Girl (has absolutely no flow)

“Baby, you don't ever have to

Go faster than your fastest pace or faster than my fastest cars” – California

“You make me feel like

There's something that I never knew I wanted” – The Next Best American Record (does not go well with the melody, sounds forced)

“We play the Eagles down in Malibu and I want it” – The Next Best American Record (same here)

“Those nights were on fire

We couldn't get higher” – The greatest (one of the worst rhymes on the album)

“The culture is lit, and if this is it‚ I had a ball” – The greatest (the stressed rhyme lit – it is so bad)

“Hawaii just missed that fireball

L.A. is in flames‚ it's getting hot” – The greatest

“With my bartender, hold me all night

Bartender, our love's alive” – Bartender (again, horrible rhyme)

“Happiness is a butterfly

Try to catch it, like, every night

It escapes from my hands into moonlight

Every day is a lullaby

Hum it on the phone, like, every night

Sing it for my babies on the tour life, ah” – Happiness is a butterfly (no flow, repetition of “like every night”, which itself does not sounds natural, rhyme butterfly – lullaby, generally poor writing)

“I had fifteen-year dances

Church basement romances yeah I've cried” – Hope is a dangerous thing (the last part – yeah I’ve cried – does not sound good, like the phrase ended to quickly and she put anything there; there are more lines like this unfortunately in this song)

“Hello it's the most famous woman you know on the iPad

Calling from beyond the grave, I just wanna say, "Hi dad"” – Hope is a dangerous thing (the worst part of the song that kinda destroys it for me, bad rhyme and cringy)

“There's a new revolution

A loud evolution

That I saw” – Hope is a dangerous thing

 

Overall worst: 1. Love song 2. Cinnamon Girl 3. Venice Bitch

 

BEST

“Goddamn, man-child

You act like a kid even though you stand six foot two

Self-loathing poet, resident Laurel Canyon, know-it-all

You talk to the walls when the party gets bored of you” – Norman Fucking Rockwell

“You took my sadness out of context” – Mariner’s Apartment Complex (great line, a bit spoiled by a horrible rhyme context-complex)

“And if I wasn't so fucked up, I think I'd fuck you all the time” – Fuck it I love you

“All of the guys tell me lies, but you don't

You just crack another beer

And pretend that you're still here

This is how to disappear” – How to disappear

“He moves mountains and pounds them to ground again” – How to disappear

“My baby used to dance underneath my architecture

He was '70s in spirit‚ '90s in his frame of mind” – The Next Best American Record (amazing first line)

“The culture is lit and I had a ball

I guess I'm signing off after all” – The greatest (If the first line is ironic)

“"Life on Mars" ain't just a song” – The greatest

“Wine is flowing with Bacardi” – Bartender

“Playing games of levitation

Meditating in the garden” – Bartender

“If he's a serial killer, then what's the worst

That can happen to a girl who's already hurt?

I'm already hurt

If he's as bad as they say, then I guess I'm cursed

Looking into his eyes, I think he's already hurt

He's already hurt” – Happiness is a butterfly

“Maybe I'd get less stressed

If I was tested less like all of these debutantes

Smiling for miles in pink dresses

And high heels on white yachts” – Hope is a dangerous thing

“I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown

24/7, Sylvia Plath

Writing in blood on the walls

'Cause the ink in my pen don't work in my notepad

Don't ask if I'm happy, you know that I'm not

But at best I can say I'm not sad

'Cause hope is a dangerous thing

For a woman like me to have” – Hope is a dangerous thing

“Spilling my guts with the Bowery Bums

Is the only love I've ever known” – Hope is a dangerous thing

 

Overall best: 1. How to disappear (the only song with no weak moments in lyrics, overall solid) 2. Norman Fucking Rockwell 3. Bartender

If you have to break the lyric down like that you're not really enjoying the music. Just please stop judging things by face value 

1. Norman Fucking Rockwell

2. Honeymoon

3. Ultraviolence

4. AKA

5. Born to Die

6. Lust for Death

7. Parasite

OMG Parasite is my favourite album by Lana! So dark and mysterious it's like a horror movie!

My top 4:

1. Cinnamon Girl

2. Venice Bitch

3. California

4. Happiness is a Butterfly

This album is so consistently good though all the other songs would be #5 for me

Good...I've been trying to read/watch everything and this is the only one I'm missing.

I heard the story of how the sublime cover came to be so many times the past 36 hours.

it's hard when you have to do 10 interviews in a day, she would be tired and it would be difficult to have new things to talk about

On all my social media I see the casual fans talk about NFR (song) the most, specially the first couple lines. I think it outgrew Cinnamon, to be honest.

Besides, since it has the same title as the album, it's easier to promote that single while also promoting the whole brand, it's like a 2 for 1 deal.

Yeah that line "You fucked me so good I almost said I love you" is gold. Interscope better save Cinnamon Girl for a single with an expensive music video later!!

(Though I bet 'casual fans' like that don't have the attention span to listen to over an hour of Lana, or even get pass that 10 minutes masterpiece of Venice Bitch to appreciate the whole album)

Why did Interscope chose the title track NFR to promote post-release? (It was the only one mentioned by Apple Music's New Music Daily playlist and on its Hot song list). I mean it's good but why not use the hype from Cinnamon Girl to promote it further?

The title is White Cock Forever featuring the single In The Cock

Featuring the one and only Cock Destroyers!

She's also going to be working with Jack again for this, it is so obvious. They are in this momentum together, they complement each other so well and they seem to have developed a real camaraderie. Poor Rick. 

nah we will always have songs like BAR and Bartender to rely on from Rick

TIME has the nerve to call Cinnamon Girl one of the worst track 

Y'all know what I'm thankful for? Lana having another smash hit since Young and Beautiful.... Us hardcore fans appreciate all of her music but it needs hits like Doin' Time to get more people to discover the extraordinary Lana Del Rey...

I gave up all my hope on Lana making decent quality music videos until Doin' Time... queen mother is back!!!!!

Can she get rich lee to turn this into a visual album? Every song deserves iconic visuals like this

All I ever wanted is a Cinnamon Girl music video. A good one not like White fucking Mustang

Nvm I edited the booklet photo out and it's... the best for now

 

why does she look like she's ready for the gym

honestly I did not like Love Song at all but when I listened to it just then it blew my mind

I loved it when cassette leak came out. Got bored when the HQ leak came out. Now I can't stop humming it in my head. This song is simple but it's something else (like White Mustang, but better)

WHATTTTTTTTTTT THE BLACKEST DAY AT THE BOTTOM!!!

Love Lana but that song is waaaaayyyy too depressing, even worse than Pretty When You Cry

not valerie again

who the f is Valerie??

Anyone got a link to the bonus conversation??

Completely agree. I hope Jack won't produce her next album or at least put as much effort in to it as he did with Melodrama etc

No honey if it sounds lazy and muddled it's Lana's fault. We all know how much creative control she has over her music. I for once actually like the muddled sound

NFR is the only Lana album that I like every song except for one (it's Hope...). The only other album that got this far is Age of the Understatement by Last Shadow Puppets

but that would require effort and caring

I mean she refused to say the whole title of the album at the Apple event whereas Annie just brushed off and say Norman Rockwell

Fuck BBC1 and this pre-recorded telephone bullshit I want Zane Lowe and Beats 1 premiere back!!!

Can't believe I gave up Bake Off for this piece of crap...

Turn out to be a pre-recorded interview.... what did I expect 

Politics oh nonono...

Love Lana but honestly don't wanna hear about politics from her...

We suddenly don't care if she's gonna play the whole album on Annie Mac or not, cause we already have it

BBC would never play full album don't give it any hope, last week they didn't even bother play The Greatest or Fuck It I Love You for the second time for the gays to summon. The fact that Lana is not important enough to be included on their promo as much as Bombay or whatever band it is last week is a crime really. Just go to Beats 1 who cares about the BBC and their horrible taste with whatever they have been playing for the last hour....