In just
about every way, Lana Del Rey is the perfect artist to spearhead the soundtrack
for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. The
movie is a modern-day adaptation of the classic story, and Lana Del Rey, a
modern-day mess with a voice that matches the elegance of the Roaring Twenties,
seems to have been born to sing “Young and Beautiful.” Does she look like a
hood version of Daisy Buchanan on purpose? Probably. Her glamorous hair and
flowing dress are cleverly accessorized with extremely large hoop earrings and
fake teardrop tattoos; this is no accident.
“Will you
still love me, when I am no longer young and beautiful/Will you still love me
when I got nothing but my aching soul?” Del Rey asks throughout the chorus. If Gatsby
is the person to whom she (as Daisy Buchanan) is posing this question to, the
answer is most certainly yes. But Del Rey (Buchanan) doesn’t wait around for
the answer, and the following lines, “I know you will/I know you will” are the
same kinds of assumptions that got us into the Great Depression in the first
place.
The video
itself is stimulating, to say the least. Lots of dark, shadowy orchestra shots
give the already-haunting song an even more ominous feel, and Del Rey manages
to be sultry, slutty, and classy all at once; you know, the way she always is.
It’s the best song and video to emerge from an over-hyped soundtrack, and my
advice is to enjoy Lana Del Rey while you can because when she is no longer
young and beautiful it’s unclear what kind of person she’ll become, especially
if she’s dealing with an aching soul.
With my nostalgia thriving tendencies, this Best of 2012 post was both a blessing and a curse. As I began to think back in time and sortthrough my memory bank of music ventures and obsessions, I compiled a list. Personally, this has been a year of radical changes, making moves, and a vehement determination during a years amount of unsolicited heartbreak. These songs, albums and performances were impacting during such pivotal moments of this past year.
The Albums of 2012 that I have listened to constantly and have not gotten sick of...
Born To Die - Lana Del Rey
release date: 1.27.2012
I fell in love with Lana Del Rey the moment I heard this album. Each lyrical wrenching song with her sex kitten vocals are a perfect fit into each other, composing a beautiful piece. Her album tells a story of vicious love, loss and dark desperation. A female crooner and a unique beauty, Lana is a force to be reckoned with. The soul striking album is perfect emotional inspiration during times of struggling fate.
Shrines - Purity Ring
release date: 7.24.2012
After hearing Purity Ring's few singles, my anticipation was unbearable as I counted down the days for the release of their debut album. An album so noteworthy that I wrote and circled the date in my calender. I have a special place in my heart for each track on the album. "Amenamy" has a beat that drives me wild and I often find a lyric from "Grandloves" on mental repeat. "I'm in love with truth and sick and tired of this youth." A lyric that also portrays the thematic prowess of Shrines.
An Awesome Wave - alt-J (∆)
release date: 9.18.2012
As of recently I've become fascinated with alt-J, so much that I felt inspired enough to write an artist spotlight.If you haven't heard of them until this point, keep your ears perked because with this full debut album of theirs they are on a quick rise. This is one of those albums that should be listened to beginning to end in one sitting. The individual songs are incredible pieces themselves but there is an experience to be had when listening to it in full.
The very best Buffalo shows of 2012...
Santigold - Town Ballroom
Wednesday May 16, 2012
This was my first time ever seeing Santigold and it was incredible. Town Ballroom was a perfect venue for the dancing crowd and the energy was ecstatic. It was a blur of sparkles, costumes, a white horse costume at one point, and her signature backup dancers whose bad ass attitude complimented Ms. Santigold's style.I have been a fan of Santigold for years so it was phenomenal to finally be seeing "Lights Out" in front of my eyes rather than just through my headphones.
My Bad: a 90s party - Duke's on Allen
TOATS ORIG and QCC
Saturday March 24, 2012
Collectives Toats Orig and Queen City Cartel made a great decision to come together to throw this party. To this day, I still rank this among my favorite parties since I moved to Buffalo and lately when I hear certain 90s tunes I flashback to the night and either start reminiscing with friends or telling them about how much they missed out. I was handed a Pokemon card as I walked in and drank SunnyD Screwdrivers until bar close, with Fresh Prince shot interludes (berry Mondo and vodka). It was a throwback night to relish in 90s music and fashion. Duke's was packed and the music was fantastic, a notable set by Kream whom played every song I wanted to hear only ever interrupted by the occasional dolphin drop. It's not often that you get a chance to belt the words to "Spiderwebs" fueled by decennary indulgence.
Above & Beyond - Town Ballroom Factory Nightlife
Friday, May 11, 2012
This was the most life-altering performance I attended this year. I thrived only on the energy of the room and the emotionally potent productions from DJs Above & Beyond; it was a show I was looking forward to for weeks. If you care to explore the experience and read about the mind bomb I had that night, you can read my full review here.
Cheers to a great year in music. After the holidays and a little bit of "Auld Lang Syne," let's ring in the new year with hopes of progression and talent.
I really didn't want to write about this particular cover. The two artists involved are not exactly the most popular of people these days. Lana Del Ray has been accused to being a fake, surgically enhanced, "struggling" indie starlet, whose Saturday Night Live performance made her sound like a drunk, Russian karaoke singer. And as for John Mayer, well, he is kind of a douche bag, and for those Buffaloians who actually like the guy, he just canceled his show at Shea's not long back! When I first saw that Mayer had covered Del Ray's breakthrough single "Video Games", I was curious to see how bad it could be. But you know what? It's kind of good. Mayer doesn't sing as his strained vocals were the reason for scrapping not only his Buffalo show, but his whole tour, so he goes instrumental. And if there is one thing you have to give him is he is a damn good guitar player. Mayer saves his bluesy riffs for his own tunes and turns in a sparse, dreamy cover. For just over three and a half mins, I can actually enjoy the guy. Enjoy.
Confession - this is definitely a post Super Bowl Sunday Monday post: hungover, a little discombobulated, short on long thoughts, and all over the place. In other words folks, it's odds and sods time:
Thoughts on the Super Bowl? The game came down to the last play, the less bad guys won, the really bad guys lost (especially the wanker Tom Brady and The Great Satan Bill Belichick), the commercials were generally lame and uncreative, and the Madonna half-time show was not altogether horrific.
Yes, MIA really did give us the finger during said half-time show, and I for one think it was great, one of the highlights of the whole broadcast.
No, I did not object to the use of the Goo Goo Dolls for that Channel 2 ad boosting the old hometown. I know some folks have been bagging on it because of the Goos, but let's face it folks- Buffalo is cool, but it ain't that cool (call me after that M83 show at the Town Ballroom sells out). I think we've got a little more work to do before we can turn put on airs over the Goo Goo Dolls. Hell, the commercial prominently featured footage of The Old Pink. I respected the respect.
Yes, the music NBC used for their bumper music going into and coming out of commercials during the Super Bowl was godawful, but the music used in this Samsung Mobile ad is not.
Regrets... I have a few, and one of them is saying in last Monday's post about Lana Del Rey that I was "still intrigued" by her debut album. Why? Because that meant I had to listen to it, and I did, and that's time I'll never get back. If you like under-cooked hokum that wants to walk on the dark side but really doesn't, Lana Del Rey's Born To Die is your album. "Videogames" is literally all she's got. Kudos however to the recording industry for getting succesfully subverting the indie/buzz blogosphere and getting one by that firewall. Well done. And that's all I'm going to say on the subject because I value my time and yours.
Speaking of regrets, yeah, I probably could've put that post up about St. Vincent on last Friday's "Portlandia" a little sooner than last Friday night. I'll try to do a better job in that department in the future. For those that missed Annie's.... uh... understated yet wonderful performance on "Portlandia," here it is:
After a dry January for new music releases of note (to me at least), February's got some mighty choice nuggets, including the new of Montreal album Paralytic Stalks, due out tomorrow. Word on the street has it that it's got a Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? vibe, an interesting turn after the adventures that were Skeletal Lamping and False Priest, and that has me very stoked. Here is a taste, and hopefully if we're good boys and girls maybe we'll get a Buffalo of Montreal show this fall...
I will try to be kind to Lana Del Rey. I really will. I'm in one of my "generous of spirit" zones; my soccer team won over the weekend, the Sabres are off, it's a winter wonderland out there in Buffalo and I have contented joy in my heart. It's kind of weird actually. So, from that happy space I will endeavor to not bag on Lana Del Rey too badly even though she kind of deserves it. Why? Because even though it's frankly become a little too fashionable to let her have it, she is most definitely fiction, no question.
I'm also loathe to bag on Lana Del Rey because it's in many respects exactly what she wants, because I strongly suspect that the debate over her realness is a calculated ploy. I distinctly remember the first time I beheld her. I was watching a dvr'd "120 Minutes" with my finger on the fast forward button (I check out a song and fast forward if I don't like it) and well, there was no way I was watching "Videogames" on fast forward. Naturally, I was spellbound by the perfection of the whole thing: her French film goddess looks and presentation, the impeccably tasteful video, the song itself... it all fit together perfectly. A little too perfectly. Because then I went to YouTube to watch more Lana Del Rey, including "Videogames" again, a video that I learned was directed by Del Rey herself, and my spider sense went crazy:
When I watched it on MTV, I didn't know exactly when the video that preceded it ended and when Del Rey's assembled footage video began, so I didn't notice that her video begins with what looks like a clip from a Gorillaz video... the ultimate manufactured music act. How droll. And then I read about the raging debate about whether she was a record industry creation, and how she was a one Lizzy Grant before transforming (or she was transformed) into "Lana Del Rey," singer songwriter and music video director. Indeed, the whole thing was ludicrously suspicious. But then I started to think that maybe that clue came with too big a wink from the artist. Maybe she was playing a game with the blogosphere and the indie music fans who turned "Videogames" into an Internet sensation. Or perhaps her record company was just stirring the pot and generating buzz. I even pondered the notion that Lana Del Rey's "realness" was inconsequential other than as a philosophical concept separate from art and commerce. It was starting to get a little Hitchcockian and high minded until it was announced that her first North American tv appearance was going to be on Saturday Night Live and then I knew there were shenanigans going on.
Damn it I wanted Lana Del Rey to be real; I'm not sexist (I don't think), and I didn't want to be sexist and convey the notion that female artists can't present themselves fully formed as artists as if out of nowhere. Also, it would've been great if she was real. But SNL for her first tv appearance? With no album in stores? Come on now. How could the record industry's hand not be at work? In any case, all Lana Del Rey had to do was nail it and she'd be on her way. But she didn't. Sure her performance of "Videogames" was serviceable and not objectionable, but that's Lana's song, the tune that put her and that YouTube video on the map. It was her tuneless and strained performance of "Blue Jeans" that made her fodder for a mighty Internet backlash. I didn't know who I felt bad for more: her for being caught up in a machine that presented her as a fully formed artist and put her on SNL before her she was actually fully formed, or myself because she was woeful, so woeful that even NBC's Brian Williams felt compelled to comment.
That said, for some reason I'm still intrigued by Lana Del Rey's debut album Born To Die out this week. While by no means will I be running out to buy it (that money will be saved for the new of Montreal album out next week), I am still fascinated by this fabricated ingenue and her increasingly tangled yet compelling narrative- for now. Indeed, maybe she was born to die metaphorically ... for a struggling record industry and it's numerous sins. In many ways, I'm also still dying to find out if I'm right about her. This inquiring mind still wants to know.
Damn. Apparently Lana Del Rey gets what she wants, whether I like it or not.
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