Thoughts while listening to Lana Del Rey and Googling

Friday, February 3, 2012

Thoughts while listening to Lana Del Rey and Googling

Lana Del Rey recently dropped her album “Born to Die.” Do I want to buy this album? The only way for me to know for sure is to listen to every song she has on Grooveshark and read Internet gossip; it’s a system that works for me.
Some thoughts:
It used to be “Ray” but now it’s “Rey” so don’t feel dumb if you misspell in your Google search. It also used to be Lizzie Grant, which does indeed sound like a Disney tween hero.
This music is for girls who like “The Virgin Suicides”—movie version. Point one to me: Tavi Gevinson, stylerookie blogger and rookiemag editor (and highschool sophomore) digs both.
She has a pretty good vocal range. The lower register songs are more interesting but at the same time not as dynamic. There seem to be only three low-voice songs.
Her SNL performance did, indeed, suck. But most of them do. Kanye West, anyone?
On “Gramma,” she sings, “Gramma, I want the whole world to want me; is that wrong?” or something to that effect. Which is a pretty accurate response to a lot of “is she real or is she manufactured?” argument going on on the internetts.
She is not a “gangsta Nancy Sinatra.” Further, people who describe themselves as “gangsta Nancy Sinatra”s are really saying: I want to rebel against my father, like how Nancy wanted to rebel against Frank; I also want to align myself with ol’ Blue Eyes and the Rat Pack, if only by a loose, Kevin-Bacon-y association; I’m super white, if the baddest bad girl I can think of is Nancy Sinatra; I love a good, hipster-riffic sound bite; I don’t really know any gangsters if I refer to myself as one; I don’t really have any good friends, because a good friend will tell you to not refer to yourself (except for in the most ironic way) as an anything “gangsta.”
There is nothing remotely “gangsta” about this music.
She is also not “Nikki Minaj in the body of Lana Turner.” I mean, please.
This music is for girls who like Mazzy Star and Tricky, if they’ve even heard of those guys, but think those artists are too old, urban, or European.
“Sneaking out looking for a taste of real life.”—one of the opening lyrics for “This is What Makes Us Girls.” Again with the whole “Virgin Suicides” thing.
The whole late teens, early twenties wild nihilism of the suburban young lady. Who can have a drinking problem while attending private high school. Who might really be experiencing something, or might just be trying on an identity. Where you can feel world weary about shit that’s gone down (“My friend almost OD’d at a party, yo, right in front of my eyes! We had to leave him at the front of the ER so Bryan’s parents wouldn’t find out he was having a party”), while, you know, in other parts of the world people don’t have access to water.
These songs seem lonely. None of this “me and my girls” stuff; it’s all dark-eyed lonely girls wearing sundresses, trying to find love and meaning and connection with some jackass loser.
Sex. Getting high. Drinking. Playing video games. Filler things people in these songs do. No mention of apps or FB, though. Strange.
Overall, the best part of these songs is their lyrics, and the melodies are kind of nice and sinuous. However, her subject matter is somewhat slight (“Video Games” is about a girl who loves a boy who wants to drink beer and play video games)—at least to me, perhaps because I’m a decade older than her and I’ve seen real shit go down. Kidding. I think these songs speak to a certain generation—the post-post-suburbanites, the post-post-feminists. Is what she describes in her songs any different than what happens in, say, an episode of “Jersey Shore”? It’s just slanted for the indie crowd.
It seems like Lana Del Rey is a constructed identity of a woman/girl who wanted a certain look and musicality, and aggressively pursued both those things and fame. I don’t know why hipsters are getting mad for; except for the fame part, isn’t that they were doing when they bought $350 skinny jeans, Goodwill sweaters, and grew all that godawful facial hair? Nobody came from the womb citing Sartre while drinking organic coffee and toting a McSweeney’s—though that would make a nice skit on “Portlandia.”
Sadly, Lana Del Rey does not make the jump from Grooveshark sample to iTunes playlist.
Best tracks: Born to Die, Diet Mtn Dew, Hey Lolita Hey, This is What Makes Us Girls, Video Games (only because I was once this girl and I feel her pain. So bad.)
Final score: 2.5/5.
Ps. Additionally, I learned the word “sadcore.”

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