Lemmy? Lemmy? Is that you?
There’s a whole kerfuffle in certain corners of the internet about Lana Del Rey.
Inauthentic, mumble, grumble, fake, lips, grumble, manufactured, bitch, whine.
Much like the whole trve/kvlt metal nonsense, the whole debate is bollocks.
The mental process for appreciating all music is as follows:
1: Is music good? If yes, proceed. If not, move the fuck on.
That’s it, my one-step program for music appreciation. The rest is just bullshit.
Anyway, I hesitate to post the video as, while I like it, it has rather a Pitchfork vibe.
More importantly, it is quite specific in its 1950s Hollywood imagery whereas the song itself evokes more universal and abstract emotions.
Also, the whole gangsta Nancy Sinatra thing is a distraction from a quality cracked pop song.
Nevertheless, here it is. Sup on its honeyed beauty.
Lana Del Rey is damaged goods. Self esteem on the floor. Living purely for her emotionally unavailable boyfriend. She loves him, does whatever he wants but is forced to survive on the scraps he tosses her.
I completely go within myself every time I hear the lines “I heard you like the bad girls honey, is that true?”
It’s not the lyrics themselves per se, it’s the way Del Rey’s voice just aches as she sings them.
It reminds me of Amy Winehouse, who before the death circus, was the doyenne of emotionally raw, cracked and broken soul.
It takes me to that melancholy internal space that I’m always chasing. It’s like metal in many way: pure escapism.
The backing is perfect: reverb-drenched piano that builds to a sequence of really lovely, subtle subterranean bass drops.
I just can’t get enough of this song. I don’t care if the hipsters love it too.
Monkey Defies Gravity 
I agree; well said. I bought this single and really enjoy her stuff. Sometimes the ache is hard to listen to.
Really glad you like it too man, I was a little hesitant about posting about my Lana Del Rey obsession. Her other songs are good but Video Games just slays me.
I have never heard of this before. My efforts to quarantine myself from pop music have been almost entirely successful. I wasn’t aware that there was still pop music with personality out there. Still, pretty much uninteresting to me. I keep getting more and more into the whole dark folk/country thing though (I am loving Wovenhand), so I’m not completely confined to metal.
Anyway, who cares what the hipsters think?
To each their own FMA. I do like the dark folk/country sound too and liked the americana links you posted recently. Its good to step out of metal once in a while, if only to appreciate it all the more.
of course, I care little what hipsters think. But I would hate for any reader to dismiss my blog as hipster twaddle just cos I like this song.
One would hope that people would be intelligent enough to tell the difference between a hipster and someone with eclectic taste based on the way they talk about it. Hipsters don’t appear to have any genuine enthusiasm for anything, while you clearly do. I respect your eclecticism because it’s both (1) genuine and (2) not based on the mere fact that the media giants are shoving it down your throat. The first would make you a hipster. The second would make you a sheep.
Enthusiasm is how you tell the difference between a hipster and a non-hipster. For the latter, there is also a simple test. People who really have eclectic taste will say something like, “I have eclectic taste.” People who will swallow whatever the record companies want will say, “I listen to a little bit of everything.” That’s your telltale sign.
Yeah, I have probably spent too much time on metal blogs where the deadly “hipster” insult is invoked every second comment! I was being preemptively defensive, I guess.
I am glad that you see that I only write about stuff that genuinely interests me (of course in the hope that it will interest other people).
has a bit too strong of pop for me but i can understand exactly where you’re coming from through all of this and felt the same from early broadcast: vintage time period worship, melancholy internal space, romance with a lost and damaged voice whispering some secrets and riddles.
thanks for this and your comments on that pitchfork/edan post, keep it “eclectic” here 😉
Hey, nice of you to swing by! Never got round to listening to Broadcast – despite them being from my old home town – so will have to check them out.
She can pull it off live too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOP2Yd_jpYQ
Too bad she looks so manufactured…
Thanks for the comment MaxR, I have seen that video and was pretty impressed even though I prefer the recorded version. As I say in my post I really don’t care about external factors such as her appearance, it’s all about the song for me. And it’s a cracker of a song. I’m hooked on it.