Unpopular Lana Opinions

[West Coast 45,897]

Truth.

You're back! Danny DeVito I love your work!

[LanaBoi 1,810]

I co-signed this.

 

My problem with Ultraviolence is that Cruel World, Sad Girl, Money Power Glory, Fucked My Way up to the top kinda merge into a dirge for me (sometimes Pretty When You Cry as well) + Guns and Roses and The Other Woman are both very meh (to me). Ultraviolence, Shades of Cool, Brooklyn Baby, West Coast, Old Money, Black Beauty and Florida Kilos are all fantastic, which is why I'm not the biggest Ultraviolence fan despite my 7 standout tracks. 

 

 

My interest in Ultraviolence is very up and down. Sometimes I really enjoy the 5  (Cruel World, Sad Girl, Money Power Glory, Fucked My Way up to the top and Pretty When You Cry) but often I really don't. Thus Ultraviolence moves around in my ranking - it's always below Honeymoon and NFR but sometimes I like it better than BTD, sometimes I don't. 

[West Coast 45,897]

My problem with Ultraviolence is that Cruel World, Sad Girl, Money Power Glory, Fucked My Way up to the top kinda merge into a dirge for me (sometimes Pretty When You Cry as well) + Guns and Roses and The Other Woman are both very meh (to me). Ultraviolence, Shades of Cool, Brooklyn Baby, West Coast, Old Money, Black Beauty and Florida Kilos are all fantastic, which is why I'm not the biggest Ultraviolence fan despite my 7 standout tracks. 

 

 

My interest in Ultraviolence is very up and down. Sometimes I really enjoy the 5  (Cruel World, Sad Girl, Money Power Glory, Fucked My Way up to the top and Pretty When You Cry) but often I really don't. Thus Ultraviolence moves around in my ranking - it's always below Honeymoon and NFR but sometimes I like it better than BTD, sometimes I don't. 

 

This is where we're going to disagree even further. I think that from Cruel World to Pretty When You Cry, the album is a ten across the board. Outstanding tracks one after the other. I understand that for a lot of fans lyrical redundancy is a huge issue for them on Ultraviolence, though I kinda felt that way when I first heard the album, nowadays that doesn't bother me as much. I think that Ultraviolence's strength lies in its intoxicating and atmospheric production. Though I prefer the single version (the Rob Orton mix? Anyway the Official Audio on Lana's YouTube page) of West Coast, it truly is a masterpiece in its own right. When Lana sings the bridge in Sad Girl, it's probably the highlight of the album to me. The instrumentals on all these tracks are just otherwordly. As for the rest, well Money Power Glory as its strength and weaknesses, I don't really care for Fucked My Way Up To The Top. Old Money is a gem in my honest opinion. The Other Woman is a fine cover. The reworked version of Black Beauty is amazing, though it sounds off a little in some part. Guns and Roses... and Florida Kilos actually grew on me over time and I actually enjoy it now. The album is not perfect, but it's my favourite. It's a solid 8-8.5/10.

 

I simply do not feel this way about NFR, I definitely enjoy songs like the title track, Venice Bitch, California and to a certain extent The greatest, but even on these songs I find myself cringing over the lackluster production. I simply do not enjoy how flat/dry and tinny the instruments and overall instrumentation and voice mixing sound on this record . I know it doesn't seem to be a huge problem to most fans on here, but it is for me. After listening to records like Born To Die, Ultraviolence and Honeymoon, which all had their strength and weaknesses, but overall sounded pretty amazing and outstanding. A record like NFR to me sounds utterly flat and quite forgettable from a production/instrumentation and mastering point of view. From the first track it sounds off; the piano (and overall instrumentation) in the title track sound so cheap and tinny, too much ambient/white noises, and utterly flat and compressed vocals. To me NFR is more like a 6, maybe a 7/10 on a good day.

 

I guess we're going to have to disagree about this forever, I went back to listening to the album a couple times over the past five months and I still feel the exact same way. What's worse is that the few tracks that I actually liked are already losing their luster. I just simply do not think of NFR as being this amazing record that stands out in Lana's discography. To me it stands out in other ways.

[Rorman Nockwell 56,940]

This will absolutely be unpopular but it's also a bit of a "my crackheaded diary entry"

 

I think the reason I find it really difficult to love NFR is because it feels disingenuous.

 

There are songs on her other albums that are not 100% based in reality due to the persona that she claims she never had. However, she touted NFR as being "day in the life" and I don't feel that the dichotomy is due to persona, but rather ... disingenuity.

 

Take Bartender, for example. It's about hiding her relationship from the paparazzi and trying not to relapse into alcoholism, yet she's plastering her latest boyfriend all over insta and it appears, due to several accounts, that she's drinking again. Both of those things are her prerogative, but in the context of NFR's music supposedly being "honest" and "day in the life", I find it a bit

 

Then there's the matter of NFR, the song. I mean ... if any of her boyfriends are Norman Rockwells, it's clearly him ... life imitating art?

 

I realise that all of these songs were written as early as 2017, and that things have likely changed, but most of these things I'm talking about are 360s and it makes me wonder if they were ever based on reality in the first place.

 

Then there's Fuck it I love you which, supposedly, isn't about her, but it clearly is. Like, one of the few songs on the album that actually seems really honest and sounds like it's definitely about her isn't about her. K Lanz.

 

She namedrops/shades Kanye in The Greatest but she's honestly not looking a lot better than he is, nowadays.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, four months on from release, the person who made this album is already unrecognisable from the person she is now, and I find that jarring.

[lizyyygrant 516]

A lot of people do. For women, it often manifests as something called Intense World Syndrome. Usually IWS makes people want to avoid intense situations (because they are overwhelmed sooner/more easily), but sometimes it expresses itself in thrill-seeking behavior. Or so I've read. I don't think this discussion is mean at all; I think it's exciting that our society is becoming more open about these things, and learning more about what diverse issues different people cope with every day.Her "un-feminist" lyrics don't strike me as superficial, but rather complex. Sometimes our culture oversells Power Feminism (IMO, like women aren't allowed to have human needs/weaknesses/failings because at this point in history we have to "represent"), and I see Lana's strong perspective of apparent submissiveness as partly in reaction to that -- a stand for individuality. Yet, I also see her sometimes-submissive demeanor as apparent, an act. Not only because it's fun to role-play, but also to some degree because one effective way to subvert a patriarchal mindset is to infiltrate it and bring about change from within. (I may be projecting this, though, based on my own life story. It resonates so much with me.) For example, I see the video for PMIAM, more than the song, as participating in sexual "exploitation" to regain a sense of personal agency, while at the same time protesting it by interspersing clips of a man being taken away in handcuffs. And again, I may be projecting, but I imagine that she could be doing a similar thing in OTTR, to an extent, though perhaps with more participation and less apparent protest.So anyway, that's what I mean when I say I think Lana subverts both the patriarchy and Power Feminism :)Hard living (drugs, thrill-seeking, possible cosmetic surgery) can definitely take a toll. But things like heavy makeup and lack of sleep will temporarily age a person as well. Check out recent airport candids; I think she looks more fresh-faced in them. Also, look at these photos from the Tartan Clef Awards last year -- she's the same Lizzy she always was!http://lanadelreyonline.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=29&pid=103#top_display_mediahttp://lanadelreyonline.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=29&pid=106#top_display_mediaTHIS. I am both an egalitarian and a feminist. (I even occasionally call myself a "masculinist," to what I hope is a healthy and beneficial extent, though I don't tend to focus on it as much.) My life has taken me from a casual feminism through patriarchalism into a fierce egalitarianism that seeks to promote and protect women and girls, men and boys, and those who don't quite feel they fit into those categories. But I am uncomfortable with both Power Feminism and Victim Feminism, and I'm seeking a happy medium, though I don't quite know what to call it yet. (I'm toying with "Shalom Feminism." Might be too obscure.) I believe it is the responsibility of each one of us to see, support, and promote the dignity in every human being, whether or not they make it easy for us.The GQ cover and the boob-groping pic are SO NOT egalitarian, it's ridiculous. Yet it is a human perspective. :shrug: I don't like it.THIS too. I love her so much. Love you guys too.

really hate back then people saw Lana as “complex”. She really wasn’t, she just romanticized Lolita and being a tragic figure. and of course someone would say “I’m not a feminist but I’m (insert word that means basically the same as feminist)” the year this came out lol

[slang 1,533]

#irony

With respect to Put Me in a Movie, I'll bet LDR just figured it was OK to write about Lolita-esque themes because of the amazing amount acclaim Nabokov got for doing so (i.e., "Many authors consider it [Lolita] the greatest work [book] of the 20th century"). It's ironic that Nabokov got that acclaim by writing of Lolita from a 1st person male perspective, which "gives very little information about what Lolita is like as a person, that in effect she has been silenced by not being the book's narrator"; whereas, LDR usually writes from the 1st person female perspective -- as if she wanted to give the character a voice -- and is usually slut-shamed for it. In my opinion, PMIAM is not an overly explicit, or even a raunchy song. It's possibly disturbing, but it's also fair game for an artistic treatment as Nabokov and current societal vices suggest. I also don't think LDR is overly fixated specifically on "Lolita" views of feminine sexuality. I mean smarty, serial killer (if you think the SK character as female), gogo dancer, cola, or even the song Lolita, do not remind me much of Lolita, the character from the book.

 

source for quotes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita

[takeitdoen 10,629]

How I sleep, knowing I don't care about who Lana is dating. 

[Rorman Nockwell 56,940]

^ stop shading insomniacs!

[lizyyygrant 516]

 

#irony

With respect to Put Me in a Movie, I'll bet LDR just figured it was OK to write about Lolita-esque themes because of the amazing amount acclaim Nabokov got for doing so (i.e., "Many authors consider it [Lolita] the greatest work [book] of the 20th century"). It's ironic that Nabokov got that acclaim by writing of Lolita from a 1st person male perspective, which "gives very little information about what Lolita is like as a person, that in effect she has been silenced by not being the book's narrator"; whereas, LDR usually writes from the 1st person female perspective -- as if she wanted to give the character a voice -- and is usually slut-shamed for it. In my opinion, PMIAM is not an overly explicit, or even a raunchy song. It's possibly disturbing, but it's also fair game for an artistic treatment as Nabokov and current societal vices suggest. I also don't think LDR is overly fixated specifically on "Lolita" views of feminine sexuality. I mean smarty, serial killer (if you think the SK character as female), gogo dancer, cola, or even the song Lolita, do not remind me much of Lolita, the character from the book.

 

source for quotes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita

 

 

what? how would it be slut shaming when people re criticizing it bcus its a GROWN WOMAN commenting on a 13 year old's sexuality?!? thats just off limits. I'm all for expressing your sexuality all you want and the way you want it, but don't involve children in it, even if it is fictional, its just tasteless. 

[daphnedinkley 13,746]

The Clams Casino remix of Summer Bummer is one of my fav moments of Lana's discography

 

(love the original too as i've said many times on this thread loool)

[Creyk 11,726]

I just want to say....angels forever forever angels is still THAT song! Whew it's so beautiful and good I love it

[slang 1,533]

what? how would it be slut shaming when people re criticizing it bcus its a GROWN WOMAN commenting on a 13 year old's sexuality?!? thats just off limits. I'm all for expressing your sexuality all you want and the way you want it, but don't involve children in it, even if it is fictional, its just tasteless. 

 

Maybe "slut-shaming" is too triggering, but my comment still pertains to being overly criticized for topics that are neither as provocative nor as fixated as some critics/fans make out. But to reiterate my OP:  so a GROWN MAN who talks about a 13-year-old female sexuality (or was it closer to 15) in the 3rd-Person-Male perspective gets a pass on tastelessness? Well obviously Nabokov did in some complex way, by a lot of the literary critics and writers (and I did read the book to try to figure out why), although it was also a "banned book". Also, I thought I was arguing LDR wasn't fixated predominantly on a Lolita-style view of female sexuality but a more complex style (at least as I understand the diversity of her early songs on the topic of female sexuality). Finally, my comments that were related to a Lolita-style were specifically about PMIAM from AKA. I suppose you could argue that's a tasteless song, but I just see it as an artistic statement (of lesser magnitude than Lolita, the novel, to be sure, but an artistic statement nevertheless). It's just about a provocative subject.

[finalgirl 2,412]

re-watching the video when lana broke down in dublin during video games back in 2013 makes me feel something. she looks so much more happier now, although i am much more of a fan of her slower, sadder songs, i’m glad she’s healthier and living her life. 2013 was a mess.

[Bootynugget 2,926]

The Clams Casino remix of Summer Bummer is one of my fav moments of Lana's discography

 

(love the original too as i've said many times on this thread loool)

Summer Bummer is amazing 9.9/10 but Clams Casino remix is 10/10. 

[West Coast 45,897]

Re-watching the video when LDR broke down in Dublin during Video Games back in 2013 makes me feel something. She looks so much more happier now, although I am much more of a fan of her slower, sadder songs, I’m glad she’s healthier and living her life. 2013 was a mess.

 

I feel the exact same way, I'm living for Lana's first three albums and the meaning behind them, how intense they are. But, I see that she was ultimately a sad person at heart at the time.

 

Now I couldn't care less about her newer stuff, but I'm glad she seems to be in a happier more healthier place on a personal level.

[Barttender 1,118]

I feel the exact same way, I'm living for Lana's first three albums and the meaning behind them, how intense they are. But, I see that she was ultimately a sad person at heart at the time.

 

Now I couldn't care less about her newer stuff, but I'm glad she seems to be in a happier more healthier place on a personal level.

Exactly! Wishing for good music at the expense of Lana's suffering is selfish (and very malicious)... In my view.

[Ultra Violet 19,026]

I guess I did like Lanas music and style better when she was sad and had no friends but yeh it doesn't mean I wish than on her again

[OverYourHead 6,278]

The majority of her unreleased stuff is just terrible, there’s only about 3-5 songs that are actually good, the rest are....no

[sjatib 5,174]

Sure this will fit as "unpopular", so

 

Love Song is one of her laziest, worst composed and most poorly produced and structured songs ever. The lyrics aren't that much either. The only thing that saves it for me is that she sounds honest on it.

[PARADIXO 33,062]

Sure this will fit as "unpopular", so

 

Love Song is one of her laziest, worst composed and most poorly produced and structured songs ever. The lyrics aren't that much either. The only thing that saves it for me is that she sounds honest on it.

 

Why?!