Wednesday, January 18, 2012

What are your thoughts on Lana del Rey?

Gorilla Vs. Bear listed Lana Del Rey's song "Videogames" #3 in their top songs of 2011



I gotta admit, I like this song.  I like her voice and the whole Brigitte Bardot thing she has going on.

Am I supposed to dislike her?  I'm out of the loop. Is she just overbuzzed because she's pretty, and therefore people dislike her for being overrated?  I heard she 'tanked' on SNL but I listened to it and thought she sounded fine.  She looked awkward, but then, don't most musicians look awkward on SNL?  I remember cringing through a Radiohead performance a few years ago.  I mean, I LOVE Radiohead and think they always sound great (nor am I saying Lana is anywhere near the same level of Radiohead) ...but even Thom Yorke is awkward.  Thom Yorke is the definition of awkward.  Am I crazy?

---added 1/26/12---

Here's Stereogum's review of her first full album.  I love that they compare her to early Fiona Apple! Remember what a nutter everyone made Fiona out to be, but then it turned out she was really great?  Their review of Lana's album is bad, aside from her first few singles, but not utterly hopeless.  I'm interested to see and hear what comes of her in the next few years.

1 comment:

Adam said...

I didn't really like the first two songs, but did kind of get into "Born to Die". I'm still not sure quite what all the buzz is about, but I think the "controversy" is that she's so manufactured. I can definitely see why people would complain about her getting on SNL with literally only three songs available, no album, and no tour under her belt. If I was a smaller artist who'd maybe been struggling for a while, I'd get pissed off about some pretty girl with a svengali manager jumping the line; there's certainly an appearance of some sort of backroom deal going on. It feels like the media is forcing her on us, just as they tried to do with Jessie J last year.

But for the most part, I try not to care about that sort of thing and just focus on the music. So I like 1/3 of her songs, and thought her performance was lackluster -- she just didn't have too much stage presence on the SNL show. And I guess ultimately I would've like to see another indie band with some more chops on the show; a Rosebuds or Wild Flag, for instance, who while not a household name does have some more experience with performing and touring.