PJ is right in that a lot of the criticism of LDR stems from a misunderstanding about how she's pitching herself (or being pitched). If it was clear from the start that she was trying to be a pop star rather than some indie siren the terms of the debate would have been completely different. She still wouldn't be able to sing live though.
― Meme Rogers (DL), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 12:22 (twelve years ago) link
the album sounds a bit like kanye west's mbdtf, in a weird way. who produced thsi? those sampled hip-hop background shouts.
i think this LP so far (listening now) is the epitome of what we can achieve in 2012 insofar the disparity amazing / meaningless
― cuteforce, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 12:33 (twelve years ago) link
Turns out two of the producers worked on Kanye's Runaway.
― Meme Rogers (DL), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 12:37 (twelve years ago) link
"This sounds like a 90s UK album feel to me due to the trip hoppy beats and strings."
all of her songs have sounded like this to me.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 13:58 (twelve years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/pu8HW.gif
― dave cool, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 14:09 (twelve years ago) link
hahaha
― I spend a lot of time thinking about apricots (DJP), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 14:24 (twelve years ago) link
If it was clear from the start that she was trying to be a pop star rather than some indie siren the terms of the debate would have been completely different
it's that entire binary i want to reject though! any debate that takes it as the starting point - she has to be either/or - is doomed to shitness (as indeed the majority of the LDR debate has been). what do "pop" and "indie" even mean in that context? how do they affect her music?
― tinie tempurah (lex pretend), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 14:33 (twelve years ago) link
how is anything about her "indie"? this quote says it all:
Grant's management chose her stage name, "I wanted to be a band but the label I was with and the team I had around me absolutely wanted me to be a solo artist. Lana Del Rey came from a series of managers and lawyers over the last 5 years who wanted a name that they thought better fit the sound of the music."
― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 14:47 (twelve years ago) link
5 years of name negotiations with lawyers!
'ihow is anything about her "indie"?'
exactly, she never did. it was just an assumption people took up because of the self-produced video for video games. i think it was a wrong assumption.
― akm, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:18 (twelve years ago) link
― akm, Wednesday, January 25, 2012 7:18 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
??? that video didn't just accidentally play to indie sensibilities and audiences, though. i refuse to believe that LDR's marketing has been that entirely guileless. it seems to me that she was originally pitched to blog-happy indie culture as a way of creating a sense of "specialness" and building word of mouth. it worked like a charm, but the inevitable reveal that it was all just savvy brand positioning was bound to bruise overearnest indie hearts.
― his hands are a dirty fountain through which lives spurt (contenderizer), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:32 (twelve years ago) link
saw this piece of urban folk art on the way to work today http://i.imgur.com/I84Ke.jpg
― ♈ᘮﬡᕮ-Ꭹᗩᖇᗪᔕ - ᗯ ᖺ ᗢ Ḱ ᓰ ᒪ ᒪ (diamonddave85), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:34 (twelve years ago) link
so what if actually she came up with that name all by herself, and instead spent that 5 years badgering trentemoller and bonnie prince billy to work together to producer her album..... what then?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:35 (twelve years ago) link
Let's have a toast for douchebagsA toast for the assholesVideo gaaaaames
― I spend a lot of time thinking about apricots (DJP), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:36 (twelve years ago) link
I don't care what focus group came up w/ her name, I care that most of her songs suck
― iatee, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:36 (twelve years ago) link
and that I see a darknessand that I see a darknessand that I see a darkness ... video games
― Mark G, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:38 (twelve years ago) link
Grab somebody sexyTell them heyVideo gaaaames
― I spend a lot of time thinking about apricots (DJP), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:38 (twelve years ago) link
fuck washing a hat hi dere how is it made video games...
― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:52 (twelve years ago) link
save us Johnny Feveragain, save us Johnny Fevervideo games
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
Ball so hardMotherfuckers wanna find meVideo gaaaames
― I spend a lot of time thinking about apricots (DJP), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
They see me rollin' They hatin'Video gaymz
― future debts collector (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:54 (twelve years ago) link
I fed a fish to a pelican at Frisco bay It tried to eat my cell phone, he ran awayVideo games...
― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 16:04 (twelve years ago) link
Shaggy's little boys look just like Shaggy And my little boy looks just like daddy video games...
― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 16:05 (twelve years ago) link
the album is a masterpiece of marketing, totally stays on gangsta-nancy-sinatra message. she manages to be front-and-center in big productions without evaporating like on SNL, and her schtick works when she isn't violating the show-don't-tell maxim. unfortunately the lyrical clangers are pretty brutal.
carmen carmen staying up til mornin'only 17 but she walks the streets so mean
― the star of many snuff films (Edward III), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:39 (twelve years ago) link
lou reed ghostwrote the whole thing
― iatee, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:40 (twelve years ago) link
i am the root, i am the tablei am video gaaaaaaames
― markers, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:44 (twelve years ago) link
she's indie in the sense of indie being a cultural code word for dwelling over your low self-esteem + emotional wreckage, but the indie/pop division hasn't meant much since 1991 so
― the star of many snuff films (Edward III), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:46 (twelve years ago) link
she should do a collab album with ghostface killah and destroyer
― the star of many snuff films (Edward III), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:47 (twelve years ago) link
Cuz when the blood begins to flowWhen it shoots up the droppers neckWhen I'm closing in on deathVideo gaaaaaames
― uncle acid and the absquatulators (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:50 (twelve years ago) link
You gotta lick itBefore you stick itVideo gaaaaaaames
― I spend a lot of time thinking about apricots (DJP), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:52 (twelve years ago) link
i'm a bad bitchi'm a cuntvideo gaaaaaames
― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:53 (twelve years ago) link
I like this album in a slow-motion car crash sort of way. Which I genuinely mean as a compliment.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:53 (twelve years ago) link
you need to crawlbefore you ballvideo games
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:54 (twelve years ago) link
hahahahahahahaha
― I spend a lot of time thinking about apricots (DJP), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 17:54 (twelve years ago) link
that was just for you.
you can hide beside me, play your video games;and I won't tell no-one your name
― bernard snowy, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:09 (twelve years ago) link
Can't tell if this NYT piece is meant to be a review of the album or not but if so then he might want to try discussing the music for more than a couple of paragraphs, fun though talking about memes and quoting Brian Williams doubtless is.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/arts/music/born-to-die-lana-del-reys-debut-album.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimesarts
― Meme Rogers (DL), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:19 (twelve years ago) link
music writers not writing about the music at hand is such a bugbear of mine. tons of em do this ;_;
caramanica, as i said on twitter, is the dude who gifted us a PRRs profile piece in the NYT. RIP music journalism
― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:27 (twelve years ago) link
IT’S already difficult to remember Lana Del Rey, but let’s try.
OH RITE WHO? LANA DEL WHO, YOU SAY?
― fauxmarc, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:31 (twelve years ago) link
why do people keep calling her "gangsta"?
― m0stlyClean, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
adjective performed well in the focus groups
― iatee, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
her producer also produced this http://t.co/MZykcyLW
― I Love Pedantry (D-40), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:49 (twelve years ago) link
Nice production.
xp She called herself the "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" despite being considerably less "gangsta" than Nancy Sinatra.
― Meme Rogers (DL), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:52 (twelve years ago) link
that's all it takes?okay, i'm the "gangsta david byrne".did she rob a bank? shoot somebody? does she sell drugs? own a gun? do words have no meaning? wtf?
― m0stlyClean, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 19:31 (twelve years ago) link
it's all contextual, like within her social group of people in the connecticut suburbs, she was the gangsta
― iatee, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
Translation: "I enjoy both the music of Nancy Sinatra and hip hop and I thought this would be a cute, quotable phrase. I regret to say I have never actually committed a felony and apologise for any confusion."
― Meme Rogers (DL), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 19:36 (twelve years ago) link
okay, i guess those both kind of make sense, but why do other people use that?
also, yeah, calling yourself the "gangsta nancy sinatra" is like calling yourself the "jewish woody allen"...
― m0stlyClean, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 19:41 (twelve years ago) link
tbf that was more a piece of fiction than journalism
― buzza, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 19:44 (twelve years ago) link
i want a buzza profile in the nyt tbh
― markers, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 19:45 (twelve years ago) link
how many times in this thread has the phrase "most photographed barn in america" been used
― the "intenterface" (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 19:46 (twelve years ago) link