Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over The Country Club (2021)

oh nooooooo

her making an album where she Responds to Her Critics is surely going to take her lyrics from 'uninteresting' all the way down to 'insufferable' and fuel another wave of equally exhausting thinkpieces

the album won't be out june 1st though she's never been good with planned release dates

Lana's next album:

https://tenor.com/view/half-baked-fuckyou-gif-5926484

Oh well, that didn't work. It's the "fuck you...fuck you...you're cool...fuck you, I'm out" GIF from Half Baked.

I love that line; my wife and I quote it a lot.

responded to a Harper’s Bazaar article titled “Lana Del Rey Can’t Qualify Her Way Out Of Being Held Accountable.”

I'm wary of artists who feel the need to respond to their critics directly (and I dread the results) but come on no way this article isn't completely insufferable

also yeah no way that comes out this year

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a35311661/lana-del-rey-appropriation/

this is the article and it's a bit of a mess yeah

it makes plenty of fair criticisms (the same ones i'm sure everyone is familiar with) of her weirdly defensive album cover announcement post and that 'question for the culture' post she rightfully got a lot of flack for last year. there's also mention of her wearing native american headdresses early in her career (obviously bad) and using "he hit me and it felt like a kiss" as a lyric in ultraviolence as an example of her glamourising domestic abuse. all reasonable

then it delves into a messier critique of her whole persona being 'cultural appropriation'. like there are certainly criticisms to make of her relationship to race (and the article does make some fair ones) but i think reducing that down to 'cultural appropriation' is clumsy and totally unhelpful. an example given of her 'cultural appropriation' is her hairstyle in the "fuck it i love you" video was popular among latina subcultures in LA in the 90s and then more recently became a celebrity fashion trend, which on its own isn't really indicative of anything but the article seems to imply this is an example of her being problematic. as part of the broader point about the way she borrows significantly from black & latina culture while not fully including actual black & latina people, or being weirdly defensive about it etc., sure i guess, but then the article reduces that all down to 'cultural appropriation' which to me fumbles the whole point.

ugh why did i think this much about a ldr thinkpiece

there are so many actual genuine predators and villains in music, why waste column inches going after the merely dunderheaded, is my only real take on this subject

A previous version of the article incorrectly stated Lana Del Rey's father was a millionaire, which has been corrected.

I think for me it's just getting to the point where it's like Arab Strap or the Ramones, like I just don't really need any more albums like this

I’m just here to show off the display name fgti gave me

i agree with simon, upthread.

I think for me it's just getting to the point where it's like Arab Strap or the Ramones, like I just don't really need any more albums like this

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

This is how I'm feeling. There's nothing particularly bad about this album, but there's also nothing to really convince me this is anything more than just another Lana Del Rey album. Listening to Chemtrails at work the other day, when it ended it went straight on to NFR and just 30 seconds of that first song sounded so much more compelling than anything here. Honeymoon is the only one that took time to grow on me, everything else was really instant and I've gone back to them all a lot. I'll probably give this another chance to see if anything sticks.

it feels pretty distinct to me as far as her albums go, much more folk-y and atmospheric than before & her vocal approach has changed too with much more falsetto than before

First 2-3 tracks are great, maybe her best lyrics. The rest is kind of a featureless blur (though the line "I love you lots/Like polka dots" always makes me smile).

Yeah, I'm in the "this is kinda boring" camp. As background, it's unobjectionable but mostly doesn't distinguish itself. The production does achieve a consistent vibe, but it kind of flattens her melodic instincts, which really carried NFR imo.

flattens her melodic instincts

This. Her weakest since Honeymoon.

Late with this, but...

ugh why did i think this much about a ldr thinkpiece

^^New board description?

was really looking forward to the djp livetweet of this record but i also couldn't survive the falsetto in "white dress"

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson),

Oof the falsetto in the chorus is the thing I liked the most on first listen. Love how thin and powerless it sounds, it’s a nice break from the usual Lana vocals. Maybe it just stand outs to me because at this point in her career every song of hers fades one into another for me.

Yeah, exactly, I love "White Dress" and specifically the way she sings the chorus (also the video makes me want to go out and cruise the sunny spring Paris streets on rollers !).

I also hope the awkwardness of fitting way too many words into a line like she does in “white dress” or Ariana Grande on “positions” becomes a trend in pop.

Yeah, I think my favorite moment on this record is when she does that in the second verse of "Wild At Heart"

the forced phrasing was really bugging me the other day, like "swim-MING pools" in the title track and "schoo-ellls/joo-ells" in for free

the one that is driving me nuts is the "every time I said 'no' it wasn't quite what I meaned / if you know what I mean" in "Not All Who Wander", just c'mon.

Overall I'm feeling pretty middling on this, feels like a kid sibling to NFR - starts out pretty great, but much of the rest of it just feels like lesser versions of what she did more interestingly on NFR.

Okay, I have to retract part of that, hadn't made it to the last two songs. I really like the vibe on "Dance Til We Die".

it hadn't really occurred to me until just now how funny the phrase "The Men In Music Business Conference" is

it's hilarious, one of my favorite lines on the album

I haven't listened to this but the title is awful, so awful, I can't bear it

Old favourite Cherry Blossom rumoured to be on the next one; she did an IG post quoting the lyrics. I do yearn for a ‘Best of the Unreleased Tracks’ compilation with Driving In Cars.., Serial Killer, Queen of Disaster, Yes To Heaven, Pawn Shop Blues etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZuT6ltpFKI

yeah it would be nice to see some of those officially released though so many of them seem like the work of a different person at this point. Driving in Cars is still one of her best pop songs.

xp at first I thought she was saying "mini music business conference." Would be pretty funny either way

I haven't listened to this but the title is awful, so awful, I can't bear it

it's her best album title!

Heard it first as Meta-Music Conference (or metal?), all of which (along with "men in music") sound like a title you'd see in a dream.

Ok on my third listen now and this might be the first LDR album since Ultraviolence in which I love more than 2 songs in it.

I’m actually surprised how much this one works for me. I know people loved NFR but I didn’t. This one was so easy to like in comparison. For starters it’s one of her shortest albums and it’s very intimate sounding. I love the vibes going on and how the instruments mostly provide ambience, waiting for the vocal hooks. I guess fans of her more “maximalist” side might find it boring.

Love these: White Dress, Yosemite, Dark but Just a Game.

Like these: Chemtrails, Dance till We Die, Tulsa Jesus Freak

Bored by these, haven’t really won me over: let me love you like a woman, wild at heart

Thoughts on the alternate cover (HMV exclusive vinyl)?

https://images.genius.com/9cdfa2ba25187376f756075ce635817d.644x644x1.jpg

wow, the original cover looks like a friggin masterpiece now

it's bad but in a completely different way to the regular cover

At this point there's only one song on the album that I don't like : "Breaking up Slowly" (it's funny because at first I thought it was a duet with Stevie which would have been a nice concept since in the following song she mentions her as well as Joni who she covers on the final song !).
The highlights imo are the first 3 and "Dark But Just A Game" which low end during the verses sounds HUGE on good headphones/hifi. One of my favorite moments of the album.

I like the cover of the album.It's certainly not worse than all her previous covers !

yeah "breaking up slowly" is just kinda melodically trite

I don’t find any of her album covers particularly offensive but they’re not great either. It has always seemed weird to me how clear her aesthetic in terms of sound is yet it isn’t quite mirrored in her artwork and music videos.

Yeah she's got the worst sleeves of a big act since Oasis.

NFR! is the only one I find actively repellent. I like the Lust for Life cover a lot.

I like all her album covers except for Born To Die and Paradise, even when I don't like the albums (e.g. Lust For Life). The Honeymoon cover is great, and I liked the NFR cover even more once I realized the background was a painting (which of course it is).

She has stated that she regards album art as a complete afterthought and for single releases would just use whatever picture she found on her phone. The alternate NFR cover with her friends sitting in a park with godawful fonts is a good example. I wish she had a better aesthetic sense for these things; I really only like the covers of BTD, UV (the original B&W cover, not the alternate cover of her knee which I assume was another iphone shot), and the alternate Honeymoon.

DArk But Just A Game is one of my favorite songs on here too, it's recorded really well, the guitar tone is really nice, and opening up the soundstage with the bridge was a great touch. Arrangement-wise it reminds me of the White Album or something.

Arrangement-wise it reminds me of the White Album or something.

hum. Interesting. I hadn't thought of it that way but now I can totally hear that !

I have to admit the bad cover art might be part of why her music gives me weird nostalgia for the 90s cd era.

it's weird that she doesn't care about the album artwork when she seems to care very much about the visuals for her videos etc

alternate cover looks like she shot out just out of frame of this

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LNX-E07tXM8/maxresdefault.jpg

yes, this has the full prechorus. for some reason there was subsequent mix that edited it down and it sounds stupid

i really dont' know why this was never released officially, I guess maybe she felt it never really fit on an album (true, other than BTD it doesn't fit with anything else) and she doesn't really release non album singles (I do appreciate that she remains very album focused).

anyway "miss america with the blue mascara on" is a wonderfully delivered line

BTD could have been so much better, considering what else she had to work with. Some of the creative choices seem so bizarre or rushed to me... like how the first line of "Born to Die" and "Radio" have very similar lyrics and the same melody; or the phrase "take (your/that) body downtown" being used in two different songs. And "This is What Makes Us Girls" is such a bizarre choice to end the standard edition - it feels so random and abrupt as a final song (the bonus tracks obv improve the landing).

I also think it's funny how, for an album (and artist) so heavily steeped in "Americana," she pronounces the word "vitamin" (in "Radio") a way that no American has ever pronounced it – just for the sake of a (corny) rhyme.

You guys, I’m at a party where there’s a karaoke hookup – I asked the host to pull up “Let Me Love You Like a Woman,” and I did it, it was awesome and so much fun even though I sounded like ass #noragrets

P.S. I’m actually wearing my LDR T-shirt from hot topic

Ooh ooh!

Ahah

Just realized I'd love to hear The Magnetic Fields cover "Let Me Love You Like A Woman."

dang. good call.

From "Arcadia":

I'm not from the land of the palms, so I know I can't stay here
I'm not native, but
My curves, San Gabriel all day
And my lips like the fire licks the bay

It strikes the listener that palm trees also aren't native to Southern California (except one variety) – instead, they were mostly planted for symbolic reasons, and to lure visitors and new residents. So the couplet sets up this inherent irony: calling SoCal the "land of the palms" (not a common phrase), and then declaring "I know I can't stay here." Plenty of other folks move to L.A., but many put down roots and stay (you know, like palm trees). It's a fascinating (and I think intentional) contradiction, in a song where Lana presents her own body as so deeply ingrained with the local landscape that it's a kind of living figuration of it (literally, "a map of L.A.") – but then she skips town at the end, because ppl got mad at her Instagram posts or whatever.