Lana Del Rey - Norman F***ing Rockwell (sixth album)

Dark Carnival said:
How sad. I feel sorry for you am :(
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thank you. i really don't like it. songs like mariners apartment complex and cinnamon girl are pleasant, but i don't hear anything new, it's all retreads of what she's done. i like doin' time, it's fun but it's also a cover.

i find the greatest absolutely awful, it sounds like a earnest lady gaga song with less annoying vocals. the speed is off, the chorus is next level underwhelming, her wheezy, exhale-y singing makes me violent. the instrumental is like some done to death, classic mor american song.

and the lyrics?
those night were on fire/we couldn't get higher?
the culture is lit/and if this is it?

i recognise california as a good song - i love the melody and the build. but the execution makes it more frustrating than enjoyable. i hate her delivery where she tries to make it interesting (see: in my... arms). again, i'm not crazy about the tempo, it's so blah. vocally i kinda enjoy her drawn out singing but every now and then she overdoes the affectation and it really puts me off. like the way she says califonya is cringe-y. and i hate all the just hit me up/hit up all your favourite places/the flip side jargon. you hate the heat/you've got the blues/changing like the weather... it's just cliche after cliche.

tracks like fuck it i love you or hope is a dangerous... are just fuck awful.

i don't mean to sound like a hater but i honestly feel like the world is gaslighting me with this album. probably just bitter i can't get onboard the nfr express.
 
you hate the heat, you've got the blues / changing like the weather, oh that's so like you... is one of my favourite lyrical moments on the whole record :D it's all in the delivery.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about not being on board. It only means you're dead inside. :)
 
for what it's worth here are my favourite lana songs:

01 west coast - the changes, the parliament on fire, the squelchy, rap-like synths at the end, just perfect.
02 video games - super simple song, but super beautiful and powerful. it felt subversive for her to be singing this at a time when everyone else was starting to get really feminist.
03 the blackest day - just a few keys all the way through but brilliant. i'm on my own again.
04 ride
05 gods and monsters - sure it's almost trolling but it's got balls, i love the stop-start beat and it's a song i don't think anyone else could pull off.
06 ultraviolence - the lyrics are pretty much trash (he used to call me dm... cause i was filled with poison but blessed with beauty and rage) as was the spoken word part but i love everything else - the chorus is undeniable, the drums hit perfectly and he hit me and it felt like a kiss was such a good reference though soon after the self-destructive schtick started to spread thin.
07 white mustang - lana by numbers but it just love it. especially when she takes the key up (on the studio recording).
08 honeymoon - i could still get past the drabness of some of the lyrics in the verses thanks to the gorgeous instrumental with its almost sinister undertones and her clean voice.
09 american - just a very well-done, if slightly over-produced song. sure she tries to rub against others' cool with her shout outs and signalling but when hasn't she. paradise is still my favourite collection of songs of hers.
10 swan song - i like the whole salvatore/swan song/24/the blackest day section and basically anytime she auditions for the james bond theme.

worst (off the top of my head)

high by the beach
summer bummer
off to the races
pretty when you cry
 
Iguana said:
The lyrics to The Greatest are EVERYTHING. I see it as a précis of modern life, and not a particularly positive one at that.
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i appreciate the story she's trying to tell but they are just so lazy and meh.

And I'm wasted
Don't leave‚ I just need a wake-up call
I'm facing the greatest
The greatest loss of them all
The culture is lit and I had a ball
I guess I'm signing off after all
 
Where you see lazy I see emotive! It's all subjective of course. And it's ok not to dig it, hopefully you'll be back on board for White Hot Forever :disco:
 
i don't know. i guess it's meant to be basic, maybe that's the point. i'm just struggling to understand it even if i don't like it.
 
I don't think anything about this record is basic and I certainly don't think anything was intended to be!
 
ameraal said:
for what it's worth here are my favourite lana songs:

06 ultraviolence - the lyrics are pretty much trash (he used to call me dm... cause i was filled with poison but blessed with beauty and rage) as was the spoken word part but i love everything else - the chorus is undeniable, the drums hit perfectly and he hit me and it felt like a kiss was such a good reference though soon after the self-destructive schtick started to spread thin.
07 white mustang - lana by numbers but it just love it. especially when she takes the key up (on the studio recording).
08 honeymoon - i could still get past the drabness of some of the lyrics in the verses thanks to the gorgeous instrumental with its almost sinister undertones and her clean voice.
09 american - just a very well-done, if slightly over-produced song. sure she tries to rub against others' cool with her shout outs and signalling but when hasn't she. paradise is still my favourite collection of songs of hers.
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Do you even like her? :D throwing in a dig or two at your favorites

I'll agree with you on "The Greatest", though there are flickers of a good song derailed by tired lyrics and a poor delivery. The Gaga comparison is unfortunately spot on.
 
POP! said:
Do you even like her? :D throwing in a dig or two at your favorites
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it's a love/hate relationship i guess (the npr piece and subsequent conversation have forced me to re-evaluate her work and presence in contemporary culture) but i still try to be objective about the music.

anyway, sorry to have caused so much upset.
 
The Greatest is definitely a level of schmaltz we're not really used to hearing from her, and it's far from my favourite on the record... but I have to say when it comes on I can't help getting swept away in the sheer cinematic beauty of it.
 
I haven't been interested since Born to Die but this is steadily growing on me... some great moods there
 
I'm so deeply in love with this album.

Love Song, California really are somewhere close to career best songs. She just keeps on getting better. Poor the other girls who don't have that level of on-demand access to artistry. Happiness is a Butterfly has been a huge grower.

Left the canyon, drove to the club
I was one thing, now I'm being another

I love the way her lyrics have become subtly meta and can frequently double up as both parts of the story the song is telling and self-referential comments about her identity as a star. She's come a long way from the lyricism of her first two albums.
 
best to worst on this lovely gorgeous body of work

01 California
02 Love Song
03 Doin' Time
04 The Next Best American Record
05 Cinnamon Girl
- small gap -
06 How to Disappear
07 Happiness is a Butterfly
08 Norman Fucking Rockwell
- gap -
09 The Greatest
10 Mariners Apartment Complex
11 hope is a dangerous thing
- big gap -
12 Venice Bitch*
13 Fuck It I Love You
14 Bartender

*I know this will not go down well but for me outside of the nice electronic swirls (which 13 Beaches does much better anyway) the song itself is not that strong.

Ranking Doin' Time among the others in the top half is extremely difficult because it's so good but it's such an outsider/standalone moment of whatever.
 
I would agree entirely with that ranking (especially Love Song being so high) but "Mariners Apartment Complex" is WONDERFUL!

ME, ME & LOUIE :disco:

Lana really did bring the goods with Norman Fucking Rockwell!
 
Still loving this album. I'll do a rank with my favorite moment of each song. The only one I'm still not really feeling is "The Greatest". The rest is varying degrees of amazing to good. It is definitely a headphones album I decided.

01 Cinnamon Girl - "If you hold me without hurting me you'll be the first who ever did..." (the whole song really)
02 California - "I'll pick up all of your Vogues and all of your Rolling Stones, your favorite liquor off the top shelf, I'll throw a partyyyyyy all night loooooong"
03 Happiness is a Butterfly - "Left the canyon, drove to the club. I was one thing now I'm being another"
04 Love Song - "Dream a dream, here's a scene touch me anywhere cause I'm your baby..."
05 How to Disappear "But I love that man, like nobody can, he moves mountains and pounds them to ground again..."
06 The Next Best American Record "My baby used to dance underneath my architecture"
07 Bartender "Baby remember I'm not drinking wine, but that cherry coke you serve is fine, and our love is sweet enough on the vine..."
08 Venice Bitch - "You're in the yard, I light the fire, and as the summer fades away, nothing gold can stay"
09 Fuck it I Love You! - "It's killing me... slowly"
10 Doin' Time - "Tension, is getting hotter...."
11 hope is a dangerous thing... - "I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown 24/7 Sylvia Plath, writing in blood on your walls cause the ink in my pen don't look good in my pad"
12 Mariner's Apartment Complex - "Cause in the dark I can feel your resistance, you can see my heart burning in the distance...."
13 Norman Fucking Rockwell - 3:17 "You make me bluueeeeeeeeeeee-hoooooooo"
14 The Greatest - it's consistently just OK, I guess I like that thing she does with her voice around 2:35 to 2:45.
 
INTERESTING rankings!

@POP! I love seeing the lyrics like that, they're poetry really.

Mine:

01. California
02. Venice Bitch
03. Cinnamon Girl
04. The Greatest
05. Mariner's Apartment Complex
06. hope is a dangerous thing...
07. Happiness Is A Butterfly
08. Norman Fucking Rockwell
09. Doin' Time
10. Bartender
11. Fuck It I Love You
12. Love Song
13. How To Disappear
14. Next Best American Record

I do love them all though! I think I may have mentioned that before...
 
She has no idea how popular California is. In a webchat, she was all like "Umm why do people keep mentioning California? Weird". I also heard her refer in an interview to "a little song on the album called California". No, it's a corker, Lana!
 
what a BITCH!

also her current tour setlist is the ultimate Lana trolling :disco:

I"I've a new record luvs but oh who cares here's Born To Die, Blue Jeans and Videogames for the 74th time"
 
I've never seen her live, so I don't mind getting literally the three best songs off her debut. It's stuff like Bartender and Off To The Races that need to go.
 
Dark Carnival said:
It's stuff like Bartender and Off To The Races that need to go.
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ok now move along sister

1yn8o.gif
 
bitch hasn't updated her setlist because she's so LAZY. see also performing every night in mom jeans and a white blouse. Queen of being an off-the-rack kinda girl who doesn't wanna rehearse.
 
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