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

But it seems like maybe around ... Madonna maybe(?) that women singers began receiving some credit for songs for which they weren't the primary songwriter (kind of an interesting reversal from how the Morris Levy's of the world used to just assert credit for songs they had nothing to do with outside of making mob payments). My guess is that the justification was something along the lines of "if the woman vocalist is going to be the brand responsible making these songs valuable that they deserve a cut of the publishing royalties."

Poor example. Madonna absolutely is the primary writer of her material. (So is Mariah Carey, for those who don't know.)

Also, my (limited) understanding is that when an artist receives credit, they have contributed to the lyrics or melody in some way (just like the other credited songwriters)… it’s not like the credit is just handed out as a sort of consolation prize

Madonna since 2008 has written with phalanxes of writers, but that's the state of affairs in pop in the last dozen years, especially since the "Blurred Lines" case. Up until that point, though, she almost always co-wrote with her producer; in the case of Music it's clear Mirwais had the production ideas and could play guitar but not much melodic talent (as his own album showed). She brought the melodies, song structure, and lyrics.

But I agree with your large point, NTI.

even in those most recent madonna albums a good portion of the tracks are just credited to her + the producers she's working with

fwiw swift's first songwriting partner was a woman (liz rose). she's said she finds it much easier to write by bouncing off someone else's ideas, usually just writing to someone else's instrumental sketch these days.

It’s interesting that Lana was 27 when she finally got her break (after recording EPs and stuff for years)… like, she’s four years older than Taylor, but didn’t get on the map until over 5 years later.

(I started a thread for the new album, FYI: Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (2023))

And the album is 77 minutes long, which is...too much.

This is just her coded nod to ILX.

I fell into a YT/SoundCloud rabit hole with her early demo EPs and other unreleased stuff... holy moly. She has clearly been super talented from the beginning.

Some of the demo tracks are not entirely different from Liz Phair's Girlysound material — just as a point of comparison that I wouldn't have expected, based on Lana's later aesthetic.

This is my favorite of the three(?) extant versions of "Brite Lites"... what a banger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57oYg3mhJXM

...and here's an example of how strong her earlier acoustic stuff could be:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hecdLBfl8z8

some of those may jailer songs are really good

"Let Me Love You like a Woman" (from Chemtrails) has become one of my favorite songs... like, by anyone. Don't really know why, but it's like my anthem, lol... I don't do karaoke (and can't sing), but it makes me wish I could passionately belt it out in a karaoke booth.

I know this is a trite observation, but I think it's so clever how the first two lines in the chorus –

Let me love you like a woman
Let me hold you like a baby

– are grammatically identical; but "like a woman" and "like a baby" have opposite meanings, in that they're referring to different people (her, and the person she's singing to, respectively). Language, man... far out

you might like this, the original version which didn't make Ultraviolence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UgdhObcwbE

(lots of people seem to prefer this version but to me her vocals sound pretty strained, she's grown immensely as a vocalist since this)

I had no idea about this earlier version. Interesting that the opening verse on the finished version is new and is so 2020 (the idea of leaving L.A. for, wherever, Ventura County or Joshua Tree.

Don't really know why, but it's like my anthem, lol... I don't do karaoke (and can't sing), but it makes me wish I could passionately belt it out in a karaoke booth.

Totally cosign with this (other than that I love doing karaoke). I can listen to this song on repeat 5-10 times.

Thanks for the link, akm! I read about that version in "Lanapedia," but didn't think to look it up (she has so many demos / unreleased songs floating around, it's bonkers).

Yeah, I'm not so fond of that particular "voice" she was using in that era. It is fascinating to hear how she reworked the song.

She probably has as much leaked unreleased stuff as she has officially released, it’s kind of crazy. A lot of it is very good. She seems to have allowed it to happen as well; stuff has been on YouTube for years.

Fwiw now think the title track to Chemtrails is my all time favorite song by her.

She has so many unreleased traxx, I've had to kind of stop digging into them, b/c it fries my completist-oriented brane. (Just today, I discovered this entire fan-compiled album consisting of Ultraviolence outtakes.)

oh yeah I found that last night too. FWIW I think most of those outtakes are pretty subpar; that version of Diving in Cars with Boys sucks balls; the original version, particularly the one without the truncated lyric, is still one of her greatest songs

This version?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCfvH0h2_SU

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.