Lana Del Rey

Especially after seeing her on SNL, I have no faith in her ability to do nuance and emotion; she is all blank effect wistfulness because that is what her singing voice sounds like; if anything, the songs are built around her limitations/inflexibility.

its kinda funny because i watched the SNL thing and was a little dumbfounded that people were so shocked and appalled mainly because to my ears she sounds terrible on the recordings and live so i dont really see the distinction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XrI6bZxsbxk

or rather

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrI6bZxsbxk

lex, I don't think anybody's playing a video game - that's the common reading, but the actual lyrics are more vague and open to interpretation. and a song that can be read 3 diff ways is more interesting to me than one with a single meaning.

dan, my point has nothing to do with her limitations as a singer, just the gulf between the words and the delivery and how it makes the song interesting. if she were singing "you broke my heart, you heartless jerk" in the same tone it'd be boring - maybe the same song amateurist is hearing? either way, she does have other modes of singing as can be heard on the album (that's not an entreaty to listen to the album btw, it's pretty bad).

looool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GdqZm9x7jw

Denny's is a place on earth with food
Eat too much and yr lunch yr gonna lose
I heard you like pancakes with hoooooooney
IS THAT TRUE???

Tbh E3 I feel like you're literalizing stuff that doesn't necessarily need to be literalized; the song itself with its tensions has more than enough pathos without trying to suggest a sensational narrative of loss & degradation a la Novacane: as lex and Tim F, hearing the dramatic tension between the chorus--which imo does a fantastic job of embodying someone rapturously emptying herself out into another, or onto an idealized version of another--and the weariness-tinged verses, where she coolly takes stock of her situation and leaves it wanting. Yes, the song intimates tragedy because it's fucked up but the fucked-upness is all internal; we can see this romance come to a bad end because she can. She knows better but can't help herselfm. That's why we need not invent any sort of dark and degrading backstory to augment this--in the song we are already hearing her degrade her own erotic idealism in real time

seriously, what song are you guys listening to, because it isn't "Video Games"

I think I'm just listening to myself talk at this point DJP

I had no idea the songs her lawyers wrote had so many layers

Well that's what happens when you go to an alpha-male law school

it's almost seems as though you don't like the song dan

idk, don't feel like I'm literalizing anything, the sordid backstory is reading between the lines as much as believing it's about a neglectful boyfriend who plays video games. I guess the larger point is that the song isn't really what I thought it was about because I accepted the video games stuff at face value, and there are other possible readings. just goes to show what the right lawyers can do for you.

xp to DAM

Anyone posted this already (apols if so)
?
http://phatfriend.com/2010/01/12/it-might-blow-up-but-it-wont-go-pop/

http://phatfriend.com/2012/01/25/before-lana-del-ray/

Producer Blockhead worked with LDR, first post is from 2010, second is since then with a link to the track they worked on.

Interesting posts.

Yeah thanks for that Kinder

seriously, what song are you guys listening to, because it isn't "Video Games"

― I spend a lot of time thinking about apricots (DJP), Thursday, January 26, 2012 9:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

seriously, i don't think i've seen such mirthless exegesis of a totally unworthy song since.. o wait this is ilm, right.

mirthless exegesis
eatin reeses pieces
video games

^these keep getting better and better

It's clear at this point she should fire her lawyers and get ILM to write her songs.

"It's you, it's you, it's always you
you took that elephant down hardcore.."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/27/lana-del-ray-born-to-die-review

"After the umpteenth song in which she either puts her red dress on or takes her red dress off, informs you of her imminent death and kisses her partner hard while telling him she'll love him 'til the end of time, you start longing for a song in which Del Rey settles down with Keith from HR, moves to Great Yarmouth and takes advantage of the DFS half-price winter sale."

firm but fair about the words aye.

ah the music guy is the dido guy. that makes perfect sense.

yeah whoever upthread said it's like some UK album from the 90s nailed it

thread always make me think of:

http://covers.openlibrary.org/w/id/2404615-L.jpg

if anything, the songs are built around her limitations/inflexibility.

I really, really think he's on to something here. That and her doe-eyed looks.

seems like a weird criticism for a pop act, or almost any modern musician. ramones songs are built around their limitations too, doesn't make 'em bad songs.

for instance this is languorous but it's not some "video games" style bummer (this prolly won't be up for long btw, copyright cops seem to be on the album tracks like hawks).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOckP_bafIE

the point, though, is that people seem to be going on and on about the way she is delivering the song and I don't have any oh god I am listening to "Radio" while trying to write this and this is fucking wretched gah make it stop

The harp sweeps are the real star of "Video Games". Are those in every song?

sorry

The point here is that a lot of discourse seems to be around how she's singing the song; in fact, pretty much every ounce of textual analysis going on ITT aside from the sex tape reading is entirely dependent upon a wholly ironic/sarcastic reading of the song's lyrics, which you can't have without the voice adding an interpretive layer. I don't buy the interpretive layer; to me, it just sounds blank.

lol dom via twitter:

What if Lana del Ray were black? Since the day she was first blogged, people have asked. The answer isn't what you think.

SFJ weighs in

i had genuinely forgotten that dom existed

"if anything, the songs are built around her limitations/inflexibility."

yeah, uh, pop music to thread?

and that isn't a negative in my book either.

a lot of the reviews coming out are good writing but - i said this last year re: gaga - please please please please can people live with an album for more than TWO DAYS before pronouncing on it

no wonder some just wrote about the LDR "phenomenon". i'm not ready to write about this album and i doubt anyone else is, really.

(yeah i know this is what publications demand. sighhhh)

already I wanna apologize for posting her mutilated face

it's kinda weird because I liked "video games" when I first heard it, but didn't listen to it much because I couldn't stand to look at her for any length of time. all this reeses pieces exegesis came after I got the album and could listen to the song without gazing upon forlorn baby fishmouth.

hearing "video games" in the context of the other material influenced what I thought about it, and not only because it stands head and shoulders above everything else on there. she or her management team or her cabal of attorneys have put a lot of thought into constructing this florid + sordid persona, so I'm hearing it partly through that filter.

yeah, uh, pop music to thread?

[..]

and that isn't a negative in my book either.

it's a negative if you can't make the limitation into a strength; if your songs come across as "we did them this way because I can't do anything else", that's not good

if i was interviewing LDR i would ask her what about this vaguely lynchian persona/shtick holds so much appeal for you that you want to go "in character" as it across a whole album.

In a tight, cream-colored dress that looked like what Joan Harris might wear if she went back to Roger Sterling, on “Mad Men,”

Really wish this was true. Joan Harris is the real gangsta Nancy Sinatra.

some of the youtube songs have some of the worst lyrics i've heard in pop music since the heyday of Bush. for real. and i am almost completely beyond caring about pop lyrics in general. but they are glaringly awful. i was gonna post an example, but i don't even want to spread them around. i was thinking earlier - on here and in general - that i would like her stuff more if someone else was singing her stuff, but i'm not even sure that martina topley-bird could save some of her junk.

The point here is that a lot of discourse seems to be around how she's singing the song; in fact, pretty much every ounce of textual analysis going on ITT aside from the sex tape reading is entirely dependent upon a wholly ironic/sarcastic reading of the song's lyrics, which you can't have without the voice adding an interpretive layer. I don't buy the interpretive layer; to me, it just sounds blank.

― I spend a lot of time thinking about apricots (DJP), Friday, January 27, 2012 11:46 AM (4 minutes ago)

well yeah I can get this - a lot of ppl are reacting to the song because they feel an emotional tug when they hear it. if it's leaving you feeling dead inside then you are immune to a layer of meaning it has for others.

if i was interviewing LDR i would ask her what about this vaguely lynchian persona/shtick holds so much appeal for you that you want to go "in character" as it across a whole album.

― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), vrijdag 27 januari 2012 17:54 (7 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I think her first big Pitchfork interview some months ago showed she can't really put her money where her mouth is in this respect. The divide between the image she wants to uphold and the way she speaks about it (or rather, is unable to speak about it) was way bigger than I could've imagined.

whatever happened to the woman who sang on the first massive attack album? she could probably spin some of LDR's junk into gold.

Martina Topley-Bird is a fantastic example of someone who sings everything almost exactly the same way in a manner that feels more like a stylistic choice than a limitation.

Del Rey has managed, like a slow car in the left lane, to make everyone around her angry and over-invested, despite doing relatively little.

lol

I think her first big Pitchfork interview some months ago showed she can't really put her money where her mouth is in this respect. The divide between the image she wants to uphold and the way she speaks about it (or rather, is unable to speak about it) was way bigger than I could've imagined.

yup. i didn't read that but that's what i'm getting from the album.

Yeah, the album confirms that. She's doing the talk but can't walk the walk. In that light her live appearances give off the impression that she in way over her head.

I think her first big Pitchfork interview some months ago showed she can't really put her money where her mouth is in this respect. The divide between the image she wants to uphold and the way she speaks about it (or rather, is unable to speak about it) was way bigger than I could've imagined.

― future debts collector (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, January 27, 2012 11:57 AM (2 minutes ago)

the most frustrating thing about the album is there's a vision present that somebody could really mine for gold, she just doesn't have the chops to do it - and when I say chops I don't mean her expressive or vocal range, rather her ability to make aesthetic choices that enhance the vision instead of overselling it. which is another thing that makes "video games" the jewel here, there's some subtlety and mystique at play.

however, I predict this album will be huge for teenagers. dreamo is the new screamo.

xpsssss