Tag: Elizabeth grant

5 reasons why Norman Fucking Rockwell! should win the Grammy for Album of the year

Lana Del Rey certainly isn’t Recording Academy’s sweetheart. Despite having released six albums and scoring some iconic career moments such as the success of Young and Beautiful from The Great Gatsby, she still hasn’t managed to earn music’s most important trophy.

Del Rey has always been neglected by the Grammys. She was, in fact, nominated for the above-mentioned movie theme, as well as her  2017 album Lust for life, her most optimistic work to date. However, it’s this year that Lana managed to make it to the main categories. Her latest body of work, critically acclaimed Norman Fucking Rockwell!, or Norman Effing Rockwell how Bebe Rexha announced it to the millions of viewers watching the ceremony, received nominations for both the Album and Song of the year. Better late than never.

Having lost three times in the past, I’m sure Lana isn’t expecting miracles. In the best song category, she’s competing against Taylor Swift’s Lover. Even if we forget that Swift already has 10 awards, we need to remember that her song has been praised by almost every single relevant music critic. Getting one of the Grammys won’t be easy, but there are definitely a few valid reasons why NFR! should be the first Lana album to receive one.

1. Jack Antonoff’s production on the album is fantastic

Norman Fucking Rockwell! was produced mostly by Lana and Jack Antonoff. It would seem like everything Antonoff takes part in turns into gold. He was a contributing producer of Taylor Swift’s (yes, I know!) three albums: 1989, Reputation and Lover. He also produced Lorde’s iconic second album Melodrama. The fact that Jack produced for two of Grammy Awards’ favourite artists gives us a reason to believe Lana has a chance to win this year. NFR! is great, because it’s not overly produced, with instrumentals complementing Lana’s beautiful vocals instead of distracting the listener. Let’s hope the members of the Academy loved album’s beautiful pianos and guitars as much as I did.

2. NFR! is Lana’s most mature album to date

Over the years, Del Rey received a lot of criticism for, so called, lyrical cliches. A few years ago Lorde, who shares a lot of mutual fans with Lana, criticised her work saying that “all that “don’t leave me stuff” is unsuitable for young people to listen to.  With Lana’s music often called overly dramatic a lot of music critics refused to give her credit she deserves.

Don’t get me wrong: themes of hopeless romanticism and mysterious relationships are present on Rockwell. The general vibe of the record, however, is much more empowering. Many critics including Anthony Fantano praised the slight change in Del Rey’s lyrical approach. The album opens with a verse: “Goddamn, man child… You fucked me so good that I almost said I love you.” 

3. Lana wasn’t scared to take risks on NFR!

Del Rey’s previous album Lust for life was a little bit more diverse than NFR! It featured two collaborations with A$AP Rocky and a few quite radio-friendly tracks, including the title song featuring The Weeknd. Grammys are mainstream awards, which means a lot of fans hoped Lust for life would win in the Best Pop Vocal category. That didn’t happen.

NFR! is a completely different type of record. The singer described it as a “chill record to drive to”. The main single, Venice Bitch is a 10-minute long psychedelic soft-rock ballad. That didn’t stop it from receiving two major nominations this year.

4. Just months after release, Pitchfork named it 19th best album of the decade

Lana’s relationship with Pitchfork hasn’t always been easy. The publication gave her first album Born to die a 5.5/10 rating, comparing it to “fake orgasm”. They aren’t the easiest publication to get a good rating from, that’s why it’s important industry professionals acknowledge how much Lana has developed as an artist over the years. On top of that, Del Rey’s single The Greatest was called best new music on their website.

5. Elton John is a huge fan

Lana and Elton recently appeared together on the cover of Rolling Stone. The legendary musician said he really enjoyed the record. “I don’t think you’ve ever made a record with such a flow to it. I don’t think I’ve heard a record like this for so long. They’re kind of timeless songs” said Sir Elton.

Lana Del Rey appreciation post

If we met at least once then you know how much I love Lana Del Rey. She’s my number one artist and I can’t imagine my relationship with music without her. Ironically, New-York-born queen of disaster and hopeless romanticism was first introduced to me at the age of fifteen by a middle school friend, a boy so straight, drowning in his own masculinity so much he could easily play the character in one of her songs. That was, in fact, Video Games. Few days later, another straight friend posted the DIY video for Blue Jeans on my Facebook wall. (Straight guys had Lana before gays appropriated her [laugh])

Even since then I’ve been a massive fan. Everything about her just spoke to me straight away. The world made of horrible cheese(sorry Lana), hidden behind a facade of romantic symbolism was something I have always wanted to incorporate into my own life. Strings, roses, mascara, tattoos, guns, tears and white gowns – all the dramatic glamour of a real attention seeking, barely functioning bitch.

At Born to die stage we were all confused. Pop instrumentals blended with orchestral elements and monumental bridges were enough to make the album successful, despite bad reviews from critics. Some of Lana’s most basic work sonically(despite the monumental orchestral theme) includes some of her most iconic lyricism: “I will love you til the end of time”, “money is the anthem of success, so put on mascara and your party dress”,”let me put on a show for you daddy”,”heaven is a place on Earth with you”, “kiss me hard before you go” – just to name a few. Those became industry standards very quickly, inspiring other(younger) barely functioning bitches who later on released their own stuff, in one record label or another. With those simple, captivating lyrics Lana created her own genre, a brand new trend in pop music space. We’re all born to die and we’ve made fuckloads of bad decisions in life. That’s the tea. She then followed the success of the bittersweet whore-candybar with the EP Paradise, one of my personal favourites. I’m proud to say I’ve got that word tattooed on my chest. As Lana would say: I’m fucking crazy, but I’m free. Cliché much, huh.

Her second album Ultraviolence is the fan favourite. She kicked off her darkest, most sadcore work to date with words: I shared my body and my mind with you, that’s all over now. The black and white cover perfectly matched the contents of the record. On Ultraviolence, Lana abandons her hip-hop fuck me after school vibes and decides to switch into heavy, rock instrumentals, electric guitars and nostalgic melodies. Ultraviolence reminds me of leaving your boyfriend at night in bed, sneaking out in your pants, smoking fags on the bench outside the train station together with Courtney Love, shitfaced. Oh, and she also played Glastonbury that year, blessing massive audiences with her sadcore. Who cares if it was kind of a fail.

The motif of summer has always been extremely important in Lana’s work. In Lana’s universe, life is either summer or waiting for summer to start. That’s when we fall in love, make friends, push the boundaries. That’s when the world comes alive. We can hear the nature outside more, we can see more, the days last longer – there’s more to be missed, more mistakes to be made. There’s “summer love”, a term that wouldn’t apply to any other season. “He’s my winter love”, said no one, ever.

It seems like Lana’s third studio album Honeymoon is the perfect example of that. The strings make their come back on this one, but in a slightly different way. This time we can hear them together with slower melodies and bare pianos. On Honeymoon, most tracks sound like taken straight out of Italian mafia films. If Honeymoon was a place, it would be a Mediterranean country, where the temperature is always thirty five degrees and people eat only grapes, plums and oranges. And smoke cigarettes. Adele herself described Salvatore, one of the tracks, as heavenly, saying she feels like she’s flying when she listens to it. If that doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what the fuck would.

On her last record Lust for life, Lana started making some significant changes in her approach to creating and performing. Critically acclaimed(at last) album included Lana’s first ever officially released collaborations. Her friends from the hip-hop side of Lanaverse, The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky both appeared on the album. She also recorded tracks with Stevie Nicks and Sean Ono Lennon. She invited back up dancers to perform with her on stage. Not in a traditional, Britney Spears way, no. Sometimes they pretend they’re backup singers, sometimes they just jump around or act sexy. And let’s not forget the cover, which included Lana smiling(!).

Lana had been teasing Norman Fucking Rockwell for over a year before she released it. Now that’s it’s finally here, people can see how long and eventful Del Rey’s journey has been.

It always feels amazing to see your favourite artist doing well. Currently, the same music publications that used to make fun of her in the past praise her music giving it the highest of ratings. In 2012, music website Pitchfork called Born to Die a “fake orgasm”, giving it a 5/10. The same website gave NFR! a 9/10 rating, stating Lana is one of the most talented songwriters of our generation.

Lana’s new album features a summery, surfing vibe, which isn’t anything particularly surprising. But let’s make it clear, you need to have massive balls to start off your album by singing: “God damn, man child… you fucked me so good that I almost said I love you…”