Unpopular Lana Opinions

[PinkVelvet 382]

I hate Lana's Nina covers. The original TOW and DLMBM are so beautiful, you can hear the pain in Nina's voice and she's perfection on the low notes. But with Lana well... you don't really feel anything! There's no soul to it. I know that sounds harsh but idk from Lana's vocals on the tracks it seems as thought she doesn't feel much regarding the feelings in the lyrics/vocal melody. It's nice to listen to I guess but I'd prefer if Lana sang songs that complemented her voice. Like maybe an Amy Winehouse cover (actually idk) or a peggy lee cover. But no nina my dear lana

 

agreed! and i also think if you're going to cover a song you should be really transforming it and making it your own. otherwise you're just kind of stealing the power and magic of the original by trying to claim it for yourself.

[Harpunn 399]

Me too. I can't believe there are people that don't like it. 

That and the Interlude are probably the most played so far, closely followed by The Blackest Day and HBTB. 

 

I don't really care about Salvatore, if only for the name connection to Backfire.

The tracks you listed are among my preferences as well, so that's a start indeed. I don't see what's so special about Salvatore, perhaps it's Lana being cheesy as hell with some of the most colorful lyrics of hers in the recent times, or who knows, I could be wrong. It's always a matter of subjectivity when it comes to ranking certain records from an album, but I feel that Religion and Salvatore are way too cheesy for my liking, and feel as though  tracks like The Blackest Day, Terrence Loves You, God Knows I Tried and Swan Song are generally superior to the ones I've listed earlier. I'm not judging, of course, but it's a forum where absolutely everyone can express their own opinions.

[TRENCH 15,360]

 

Don't know if this "unpopular," but it is a series of opinions.

 

I remember reading a piece that spearheaded Lana’s importance: holding up the lonely torch of the female depressive in pop culture as a voice that deserves to be heard.

 

I agree with this. It's so easy to see her disaffected nature as a defect, but it's at the core of who she is and why she makes art to begin with. It's what gives her introspection, but also brings forth isolation.

 

Lana's perspective, from a 'marketability' and thematic angle, is one that would have made more sense in the mid 1990s. She would have kindred spirits in Garbage, Tori, Fiona, even Alanis. But in some ways, her perspective is even more needed now, because there is SUCH a lack of diversity in the females we hear from in pop culture, and the kinds of stories they tell. Shirley Manson of Garbage has pointed this out, fittingly enough. We need to hear from the miserable girl, the loser, the ones who don’t want to play nice, and maybe don’t even get out of bed some days. There’s always been a place for that girl in other media: literature, film, art. Music, especially pop music, doesn’t know what to do with this personality type. If it’s Kurt Cobain or Leonard Cohen (or any number of current male indie mini-gods), it’s tortured genius. If it’s a woman doing it, it’s pathetic, INDULGENT solipsism. How dare you be so lazy, inwardly focused and torpid when there are SOCIAL ISSUES to examine and crusade. That's the attitude Lana faces.

 

 We live in the age of the Totally Transparent, Fervently Disciplined, and Manicured Go-Getter. Taylor. Katy. Demi. Even Rihanna. They are corporate workhorses, THIRSTY for the fame, and more than ready to play and stay in the game. The personality type this workload requires is not for the delicate, sensitive, ambivalent type. They don’t look inward. They are fixated on the crowd. You see these same types in offices all over the world. Type A middle managers. They get shit done, might seem like “team players” (dictators in disguise), but they aren’t interesting and don’t offer a lot of innovation or insight into life, creativity, or much else. I’m sure the economic collapse of the past 10 years and the wreckage of the music industry has a lot to do with why this middle manager pop star archetype has prevailed. It’s sheer survivalism.

 

The truth is the Lana of Born To Die, and that album itself, is an anomaly. It’s a character study in what it would be like to be a famous pop star. In philosophy, there’s an idea that to create a character, you have to lack what that character has for it to work (Homer vs Achilles is a classic example.) Lana was never a natural star by any means, but she’s clearly seen it as a way to transcend herself or try to another skin on. (“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde.) To parallel her to Britney, Lana never has had a pre-Blackout glory era. This is where I think some LDR fans get it wrong. BTD was not her Baby One More Time or Oops! or whatever. Even on BTD, she was a propped-up simulacrum of what a pop icon might be like. She represented the IDEA. It was NEVER natural. She was the weirdo philosophy major playing dress up as the cool girl, singing into her mirror. The fact that she found an audience is a small miracle, but her intuitive habitat is still dancing around, alone, with her headphones on, wondering what it would be like to be onstage. The actual stage is foreign to her, and almost besides the point. I bet when she’s up there, she imagines being alone.

 

Look at ALL her work before, and after, BTD. The work of an outsider dreaming her life away, imagining that fame could transform her, fulfill her, then finding nothing there. Even before she became famous, the lyrics suggest she already was aware of its empty promise (probably due to her study of doomed cult icons). If anything, what she’s doing now is getting back to her roots: turning her LACK of fulfillment into art, trying to make something tangible of a void within. It’s hard work, and clearly she’s not always up to making it a complete vision. To create and share art is an attempt to tell your story in the hopes of CONNECTING with people. But that’s where it stops for Lana. In solitude, she records her vision then hits “send.” Then she disengages, unable to sustain the ideal in real-time. Unable to fulfill the pop duties. Unable to deliver the big pay off, for herself, or for her fans. It’s like a surrealist film that cuts off in the ‘wrong’ moment, just to leave you on edge. How many times can you get away with it? We’ll be finding out.

 

And that’s another thing. I think Lana’s “failure” to rise the occasion affects certain fans personally. Not just because they want her to get a Top 10 and compete with the ‘normal’  pop stars. But because maybe they, too, are depressed and know too well what it means to not deliver, to not function optimally, to disappoint people. When you’re depressed, being able to complete ANYTHING can feel like an insurmountable challenge. If you’re blessed with the strange mix of being both ambitious AND prone to depression, you are constantly at war with yourself, which Lana seems to be. Sometimes she has the energy to fight through it and deliver us true magic. These are her little victories. Other times, she drowns in her own ennui and forgets everyone but herself. Some fed up fans say she doesn’t care, but I don’t believe this is true. I’m sure she’s in a state of frequent frustration, with the “world,” but more often, with herself.

 

Part of what drew me — and many others, I’m sure — to Lana’s work and persona was that she seemed malcontented, if not quite tormented. Life is too much, and not enough, for her. I remember that little-known Gwen Stefani lyric (“I sip on dreams and choke on real things.”) To me, that’s Lana constant M.O. She wants desperately to escape, to isolate, and to never work another day again (the ultimate sin of today’s life-hack-driven, entrepreneurial, “optimize yourself!” digital nomad climate). She never makes it clear what it IS, exactly, that would make her happy, because what she’s asking for is impossible. A LOT of people empathize with this ambivalence, despite the fact that this passive, me vs. the world view of reality is literally censored out of modern day music. You’re not supposed to complain! Things will get better if you live, laugh, and love! LDR will never live, laugh and love first-hand, but she’ll always wonder what that might feel like. And pine for it like its her to mourn.

 

Female depressives can sustain a career. It doesn’t have to end in a Sylvia Plath/Amy Winehouse tragedy. Shirley Manson and Fiona Apple are still going strong 20 years down the line, and in some ways, seem more connected and ‘healthy’ than ever, while still finding a way to channel their grievances through their art. They’ve evolved their artistry to a level that is undeniably iconic. They will never top the charts again, but that was never the point. They have huge cult followings that will always follow their next move. It’s a family. I’d love for Lana to have this in her 40s, too, but I believe at some point she’ll have to start making art as part of a conversation, not just a soliloquy, for this to happen.

Thank you! I've been thinking about this for a while and you put them into words..totally agree

[Solar Fields 4,158]

Lately I've been liking Lizzy Grant's music a lot better than Lana's (and I can't help but wonder what would have become of her music if she never became Lana).

[James19709 632]

I literally like no unreleased material from her, I strictly only like the albums.

 

I have tried to like some of the unreleased but they just don't do it for me, I'm not keen on a lot of her acoustic sounding stuff either, which in my opinion, there seems to be a lot of.

 

I wouldn't go this far, there are tons of unreleased essential LDR songs imo, but her actual released albums are better for sure.

[lanaaddict 32]

I wouldn't go this far, there are tons of unreleased essential LDR songs imo, but her actual released albums are better for sure.

 

Ok well now I think about it, there are like a small selection I like...Angels Forever and Hollywood. That is literally all.

 

I prefer her music that kinda ties in with the theme/sound of her albums, which in my opinion, a lot of the unreleased stuff doesn't do. I'm not saying it's bad music or whatever but say she had released those songs instead of all the albums we have now, I doubt I'd be a fan if that makes sense

[baddisease 15,907]

I doubt this is unpopular at all but:

 

I would really, really like Lana's label to give her the Bootleg Series treatment. It would be nice to get her unreleased work officially put out (and in better quality). Like the original version of the Ultraviolence album, Lizzy Grant-era demos, live performances, etc. could all be put out onto CDs and stuff. They've done it for so many artists and bands, she should get it done for her.

[strange weather 1,950]

 

Don't know if this "unpopular," but it is a series of opinions.

 

I remember reading a piece that spearheaded Lana’s importance: holding up the lonely torch of the female depressive in pop culture as a voice that deserves to be heard.

 

I agree with this. It's so easy to see her disaffected nature as a defect, but it's at the core of who she is and why she makes art to begin with. It's what gives her introspection, but also brings forth isolation.

...

 

i don't have anything meaningful to add except that you said everything so perfectly that i am floored. this is exactly what every lana fan needs to realize, that i sympathize with, that i even relate to in myself. thank you.

[TRENCH 15,360]

I doubt this is unpopular at all but:

 

I would really, really like Lana's label to give her the Bootleg Series treatment. It would be nice to get her unreleased work officially put out (and in better quality). Like the original version of the Ultraviolence album, Lizzy Grant-era demos, live performances, etc. could all be put out onto CDs and stuff. They've done it for so many artists and bands, she should get it done for her.

We probably won't see this for a long time as we're still so early into her career (official wise) 

 

but one thing that keeps getting stuck in my mind is that in 2020 she'll rerelease AKA (for a 10 year Anniversary??) idk just something that would be cool 

[James19709 632]

Ok well now I think about it, there are like a small selection I like...Angels Forever and Hollywood. That is literally all.

 

I prefer her music that kinda ties in with the theme/sound of her albums, which in my opinion, a lot of the unreleased stuff doesn't do. I'm not saying it's bad music or whatever but say she had released those songs instead of all the albums we have now, I doubt I'd be a fan if that makes sense

 

I'm more of an album person in general. Lana definitely has an amazing unreleased collection of music that could make 1 or 2 cohesive albums realistically (because there are so many of them) but they wouldn't match up to any of her released albums imo. I feel like Lana's unreleased work gets more credit and ultimately just comes across better because of the fact that it actually is unreleased. Just the fact that those songs she didn't choose to release or include on albums (that are publically listed or available) and a lot of them are so strong makes them special to people, I think. Honeymoon is her best work to me out of anything. She has some overrated unreleased songs for sure (Serial Killer, Damn You & Children of the Bad Revolution) but there are TONS of gems there too. They're still essential for me really.

 

And yeah, Angels Forever, Forever Angels and Hollywood are great. Glad AFFA is unreleased because of Ride similarities (and using it as a closer on Paradise wouldn't have been a good move imo), but Hollywood and JFK should've made it after Gods and Monsters (imo of course).

[PARADIXO 31,624]

Hit and Run could've been the biggest pop hit of the last decade

[letsescapelizzy 672]

 

Don't know if this "unpopular," but it is a series of opinions.

 

I remember reading a piece that spearheaded Lana’s importance: holding up the lonely torch of the female depressive in pop culture as a voice that deserves to be heard.

 

I agree with this. It's so easy to see her disaffected nature as a defect, but it's at the core of who she is and why she makes art to begin with. It's what gives her introspection, but also brings forth isolation.

 

Lana's perspective, from a 'marketability' and thematic angle, is one that would have made more sense in the mid 1990s. She would have kindred spirits in Garbage, Tori, Fiona, even Alanis. But in some ways, her perspective is even more needed now, because there is SUCH a lack of diversity in the females we hear from in pop culture, and the kinds of stories they tell. Shirley Manson of Garbage has pointed this out, fittingly enough. We need to hear from the miserable girl, the loser, the ones who don’t want to play nice, and maybe don’t even get out of bed some days. There’s always been a place for that girl in other media: literature, film, art. Music, especially pop music, doesn’t know what to do with this personality type. If it’s Kurt Cobain or Leonard Cohen (or any number of current male indie mini-gods), it’s tortured genius. If it’s a woman doing it, it’s pathetic, INDULGENT solipsism. How dare you be so lazy, inwardly focused and torpid when there are SOCIAL ISSUES to examine and crusade. That's the attitude Lana faces.

 

 We live in the age of the Totally Transparent, Fervently Disciplined, and Manicured Go-Getter. Taylor. Katy. Demi. Even Rihanna. They are corporate workhorses, THIRSTY for the fame, and more than ready to play and stay in the game. The personality type this workload requires is not for the delicate, sensitive, ambivalent type. They don’t look inward. They are fixated on the crowd. You see these same types in offices all over the world. Type A middle managers. They get shit done, might seem like “team players” (dictators in disguise), but they aren’t interesting and don’t offer a lot of innovation or insight into life, creativity, or much else. I’m sure the economic collapse of the past 10 years and the wreckage of the music industry has a lot to do with why this middle manager pop star archetype has prevailed. It’s sheer survivalism. 

 

The truth is the Lana of Born To Die, and that album itself, is an anomaly. It’s a character study in what it would be like to be a famous pop star. In philosophy, there’s an idea that to create a character, you have to lack what that character has for it to work (Homer vs Achilles is a classic example.) Lana was never a natural star by any means, but she’s clearly seen it as a way to transcend herself or try to another skin on. (“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde.) To parallel her to Britney, Lana never has had a pre-Blackout glory era. This is where I think some LDR fans get it wrong. BTD was not her Baby One More Time or Oops! or whatever. Even on BTD, she was a propped-up simulacrum of what a pop icon might be like. She represented the IDEA. It was NEVER natural. She was the weirdo philosophy major playing dress up as the cool girl, singing into her mirror. The fact that she found an audience is a small miracle, but her intuitive habitat is still dancing around, alone, with her headphones on, wondering what it would be like to be onstage. The actual stage is foreign to her, and almost besides the point. I bet when she’s up there, she imagines being alone.

 

Look at ALL her work before, and after, BTD. The work of an outsider dreaming her life away, imagining that fame could transform her, fulfill her, then finding nothing there. Even before she became famous, the lyrics suggest she already was aware of its empty promise (probably due to her study of doomed cult icons). If anything, what she’s doing now is getting back to her roots: turning her LACK of fulfillment into art, trying to make something tangible of a void within. It’s hard work, and clearly she’s not always up to making it a complete vision. To create and share art is an attempt to tell your story in the hopes of CONNECTING with people. But that’s where it stops for Lana. In solitude, she records her vision then hits “send.” Then she disengages, unable to sustain the ideal in real-time. Unable to fulfill the pop duties. Unable to deliver the big pay off, for herself, or for her fans. It’s like a surrealist film that cuts off in the ‘wrong’ moment, just to leave you on edge. How many times can you get away with it? We’ll be finding out.

 

And that’s another thing. I think Lana’s “failure” to rise the occasion affects certain fans personally. Not just because they want her to get a Top 10 and compete with the ‘normal’  pop stars. But because maybe they, too, are depressed and know too well what it means to not deliver, to not function optimally, to disappoint people. When you’re depressed, being able to complete ANYTHING can feel like an insurmountable challenge. If you’re blessed with the strange mix of being both ambitious AND prone to depression, you are constantly at war with yourself, which Lana seems to be. Sometimes she has the energy to fight through it and deliver us true magic. These are her little victories. Other times, she drowns in her own ennui and forgets everyone but herself. Some fed up fans say she doesn’t care, but I don’t believe this is true. I’m sure she’s in a state of frequent frustration, with the “world,” but more often, with herself.

 

Part of what drew me — and many others, I’m sure — to Lana’s work and persona was that she seemed malcontented, if not quite tormented. Life is too much, and not enough, for her. I remember that little-known Gwen Stefani lyric (“I sip on dreams and choke on real things.”) To me, that’s Lana constant M.O. She wants desperately to escape, to isolate, and to never work another day again (the ultimate sin of today’s life-hack-driven, entrepreneurial, “optimize yourself!” digital nomad climate). She never makes it clear what it IS, exactly, that would make her happy, because what she’s asking for is impossible. A LOT of people empathize with this ambivalence, despite the fact that this passive, me vs. the world view of reality is literally censored out of modern day music. You’re not supposed to complain! Things will get better if you live, laugh, and love! LDR will never live, laugh and love first-hand, but she’ll always wonder what that might feel like. And pine for it like its her to mourn.

 

Female depressives can sustain a career. It doesn’t have to end in a Sylvia Plath/Amy Winehouse tragedy. Shirley Manson and Fiona Apple are still going strong 20 years down the line, and in some ways, seem more connected and ‘healthy’ than ever, while still finding a way to channel their grievances through their art. They’ve evolved their artistry to a level that is undeniably iconic. They will never top the charts again, but that was never the point. They have huge cult followings that will always follow their next move. It’s a family. I’d love for Lana to have this in her 40s, too, but I believe at some point she’ll have to start making art as part of a conversation, not just a soliloquy, for this to happen. 

 

had to go back and read your post again. you write great posts, and it was an very interesting read.

[Capaldi 269]

I don't hate Smarty. 

[letsescapelizzy 672]

Cowboy Junkies anyone?

 

Wonder if Lana was listening to alot of their music prior to writing HM?

[Valentino 884]

Her lyricism really didn't improve that much on Ultraviolence. She wrote about new themes, I'll give you that, but whereas before her fault was just stringing pretty quotes together, now it sometimes seems nonsensical. "He used to call me DN  - that stood for deadly nightshade." Is DN some double entendre? A pop culture reference? It might sound less stupid if DN sounded like an actual nickname as opposed to the most hamfisted acronym she could come up with. "He used to call me poison like I was poison ivy." Lana did the poison ivy thing better in DICWB - "call me poison ivy cuz I'm far from good, but pretty from afar, like a dark star." The UV line feels very obvious. And there's no way she can sing "bright tears of gold like lemonade" without bringing the imagery of her crying urine, I am simply sorry (same with Ghetto Baby "you got a face like the Madonna crying tears of gold"). I think the "nothing gold can stay, like love or lemonade" is a better lemonade reference, if only because there's alliteration and it's an interesting juxtaposition, something abstract like love and something so banal and concrete as lemonade. "I'm a dragon, you're a whore." Girl, you're the one saying you slept your way to the top, don't be throwing stones from your glass house. And if this song really is about Lorde, that's even worse, because she'd be calling a freaking seventeen-year-old a whore. Come on, Lana, you're better than that.

 

I cannot stand her vocals on PWYC. By which I mean, I skip the song every single time because of her bleating on the verses. "But I don't really mind," "shine for you," are particular problem spots. And I actually like the song, when I can bring myself to ignore the forced drug references and obviously improvised lyrics. But the pitchiness... only once in a blue moon can I bring myself to listen to PWYC.

 

Old Money was better as Methamphetamines. Her vocal delivery on Meth. is very her, got that Doris Day wobbly thing going on at "Methampheta~mines." It's so beautiful. And I prefer it being sung acappella to the boring string arrangement Old Money got. But what really kills Old Money for me is the chorus. If this thing really ever was in the running to be the Gatsby song, I'm glad Y&B won out instead, because I don't like the chorus at all. Melodically, it's just uninteresting, as opposed to the verses. Whereas the two-note motif from Y&B was invoked throughout the film for different moods. Old Money's chorus is just a disappointment, really.

 

I like The Other Woman. When she sings "her life alone," it gives me chills. It sounds so beautiful, what a lovely tone! And I like the arrangement they came up for the song, too, so that there's still harmonic progression after "her life alone" (it simply returns to the tonic in the Nina Simone version). I just don't like the filter they put on her voice, it's unnecessary. I also like DLMBM, but it would have been better off as a bonus track. It feels unnecessary after Swan Song. Blue Velvet is alright. I hope she won't continue putting covers on future albums, though; I simply don't like covers on albums. I didn't like it when the Beatles had half their albums composed of covers, and I continue to prefer albums of all-original material. Especially since covers usually contrast with the rest of the album (case in point: DLMBM).

 

The "beatboxing and rapping in the summer rain, like a boss he sang jazz and blues" line is awful out of context, but it sounds perfectly sensical in the context of the song. The way she sings it, even though it's ridiculous, it feels like it totally belongs in the song. Unlike, say, "now it's time to eat soft ice cream," or even "cacciatore" (no more food, please) which is still silly but I can ignore because the chorus's melody is so compelling. I love Salvatore (and I'm glad he's her baby boo  ).

Although I feel like by any standards of music, songwriting, literature, etc., Big Bad Wolf is an awful song... I still kinda like it? This is the most shameful thing I've ever written on this forum, and am ever likely to write again. 

I think I like Honeymoon better than UV but not as much as BTD?  But I like all her albums, even Paradise. I luh dis gurl.

[theeternalstars 4,576]

Freak and Art Deco are the weaker tracks on the record.

[LaSalle 37]

I absolutely love Without You

I feel like this song could either be about her fans or her sister. I love this one!!!! 

 

I don't like Honeymoon(the album) all that much.. A few songs are great however I think there was more feelings in Ultraviolence. 

[Tristesse 1,761]

Honeymoon (song) is a masterpiece

[luminom 3,275]

i love pwyc??

actually i think its my fav song on ultraviolence

[smoledman 199]

I found this gem on a web site review:

 

http://meetinmontauk.com/2015/09/07/song-of-the-day-2601-ride-lana-del-rey/

 

 

Dana says:

September 7, 2015 at 8:40 am

For me, she is a less interesting, less innovative Lorde.

 

 

Uhu. Never mind that Lorde's first album came out 2 years after Lana's first single and is aimed squarely at teenagers. What the hell is innovative about Lorde?