'Ocean Blvd' Year End Lists

[PARADIXO]

 

"[...] a sweeping, deeply revealing and even slightly indulgent work of musical art. Her lyrics are as intimate as ever [...]" - Time Out

 

"Thrughout this dizzying, 78-minute swirl of the sacred and the profane, Lana Del Rey pays tribute to her own hodgepodge canon of Americana: Harry Nilsson, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Forensic Files,” John Denver, Angelina Jolie and — finally, provocatively, deservedly — herself." - The New York Times

 

#1 AOTY Music Year End List Aggregate

#1 Sunday Times

#1 Time Out

#1 Metacritic Most Discussed Album of the Year

#4 The New York Times

#6 Les Inrocks

#6 MOJO

#6 Uncut

#6 Pop Matters

#8 Riff

#11 Pitchfork

#11 MondoSonoro

#16 Exclaim!

#18 Gorilla vs Bear

#20 Esquire

#21 Rolling Stone

#24 Paste

#25 Consequence

#36 Crack

#164 Metacritic 

GQ (No order)

Fopp (No order)

 

 

"The seven-minute song, an incredible slither of detuned guitar, brooding piano and staticky detritus, feels like that body stretching and spreading out luxuriously, defying tidy convention. For as much as Del Rey has been contorted into this impossible space – by men, by critics, by society – her essential self remains intact in her sublimely freaky, wayward music." - The Guardian

 

#1 The Guardian

#1 NME

#1 Pitchfork

#3 Rolling Stone

Esquire (No order)

[Mer]

49 minutes ago, PARADIXO said:

#21 Rolling Stone

 

I literally cannot name 20 other albums that were released in 2023 let ALONE 20 BETTER albums than OB. 

[Vertimus]

I'm only a mild fan of OB, but I'm glad the world is finally waking up to Lana's work and giving her the props she deserves. 

[Genesee]

now how did metacritic see it was the #1 most discussed album among fans and still put it at #164  goes to show critics really shouldn't exist, LET ME ASK THE AUDIENCE 

[MrFameKills]

Ben and Ed, you better tell her 

[jimmyjimmycocoapuff]

ranked at #11 for Pitchfork Best Albums

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-albums-2023/

 

[Olympia]

One of the biggest German newspapers presented Tunnel in their top ten albums of the year. The list is not numbered, but it's the first album mentioned. ?

 

https://www.zeit.de/kultur/musik/2023-12/alben-2023-lana-del-rey-taylor-swift-metallica?dicbo=v2-hUb0T5q

 

Google translation:

 

Sometimes you have to defend Lana Del Rey against her own fans. The world loves her for her worn-out glamour, but because of all the clichés it tends to forget what sets Del Rey apart from many pop stars of her generation: her music is not only just as interesting as her fictional character, it's actually getting more and more interesting. The single A&W, for example, begins as if a song by Mazzy Star had been dropped in a boat on the open sea. The story of a broken woman, the eponymous American whore, who can't expect any pity from anyone, slowly unfolds. After all, she is someone who challenges her own misfortune - just look at her hair, her face, her body.

Then suddenly the scenery changes, the silent song transforms, rears up into the beast. A strict trap beat, a ten-pound bass, ghost songs from the last corner of the club, and this shattered soul, who has just opened her heart, is dancing on the pole in hot pants. The fateful guy in this story, his name is Jimmy of course, only loves his girl when he wants to have fun, but bad things are done to him too: "Your mom called, I told her, you're fucking up big time," she sings towards him callously. Rarely has the experience of taking refuge in intoxication and destruction in moments of greatest loss been put to music in a more harrowing way than here. Never has a Lana Del Rey song sounded more insane than A&W, never has one of her albums sounded more spooky than Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd with its shot-up family stories and samples of manic preachers. There isn't a greater storyteller than her in the pop mainstream right now. (Julia Lorenz)

 

[honeyslow]

5 minutes ago, Olympia said:

One of the biggest German newspapers presented Tunnel in their top ten albums of the year. The list is not numbered, but it's the first album mentioned. ?

 

https://www.zeit.de/kultur/musik/2023-12/alben-2023-lana-del-rey-taylor-swift-metallica?dicbo=v2-hUb0T5q

 

 

omg also the way they fucking ate this:

 

Nothing against Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, and nothing against Phoebe Bridgers for that matter. But Boygenius, the band of three musicians from Virginia, Tennessee and California, is less than the sum of its individual parts. In an honorable way, their joint debut album rebels against the cult of destructive rock stars and other rock 'n' roll folklore. It doesn't add any new perspectives to the male and heterosexual genre narratives, but at least some previously underrepresented ones. Nevertheless, The Record is not a system disruptor. Boygenius' songs remain too shallow for that and the band's staging as suit-wearers and guitar destroyers too firmly anchored in traditions that cannot be broken by reversing the most obvious signs. The fact that Boygenius were nevertheless celebrated in 2023 - also and especially for their positioning as a female-fronted band, especially by platforms and magazines that had previously shown little interest in rock music diversity - says more about the state of music journalism than about them. (Daniel Gerhardt)

 

[Cult Leader]

8 minutes ago, honeyslow said:

 

omg also the way they fucking ate this:

 

Nothing against Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, and nothing against Phoebe Bridgers for that matter. But Boygenius, the band of three musicians from Virginia, Tennessee and California, is less than the sum of its individual parts. In an honorable way, their joint debut album rebels against the cult of destructive rock stars and other rock 'n' roll folklore. It doesn't add any new perspectives to the male and heterosexual genre narratives, but at least some previously underrepresented ones. Nevertheless, The Record is not a system disruptor. Boygenius' songs remain too shallow for that and the band's staging as suit-wearers and guitar destroyers too firmly anchored in traditions that cannot be broken by reversing the most obvious signs. The fact that Boygenius were nevertheless celebrated in 2023 - also and especially for their positioning as a female-fronted band, especially by platforms and magazines that had previously shown little interest in rock music diversity - says more about the state of music journalism than about them. (Daniel Gerhardt)

 

Yes! It's so well articulated too, they ate

[Ethel Cain]

they dont build statues of critics