Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (March 24, 2023) • Page 7

I love this, interludes and all.

 

This is my first Lana Del Ray record and... I'm sure this comparison has been made a million times but very much feels like Father John Misty hah, so should be up my alley but this is definitely more downbeat than I'd like.

 

Album starts and ends strong but the middle is a fucking slooooog

 

Fingertips was standing out to me for how beautiful the melodys were vocally, just did a deep dive into the lyrics and god damn.. so many brilliant lines on that song and all over this

 

My favorite song along with A&W.

 

Those two and Fishtail are my top 3 at the moment

 

I feel like Peppers sticks out like a sore thumb

 

This is so incredible. Just gorgeous, so much to unpack. The most Lanacore album Lana has done, I think she delivers on the promise of A&W which is that this is the style of songwriting she's adopted in the last 5 years or so, but found a way to make at least parts appeal to the BTD crowd or whatever. The interludes I get thinking they're a little long, but I think the Jon Batiste one is nice, and I kinda like what she does with the Judah Smith interlude - it feels really unsettling. My favorites right now are Candy Necklace, Paris Texas, and Let the Light In (and still A&W as well). Paris, Texas is probably the biggest highlight for me.

Idk how she does it, she is really cemented for me now as one of the best we have, or have ever had. There's really no one I could compare her to.

 

I don’t get the downtempo and plodding complaints on this record. That’s kind of been her thing for the last 3 records.

 

Well to be fair, people have been complaining about it for several records now, so they've at least been consistent. But I agree that I don't get the complaints. Slow does not = boring to me

 

People say when Adele puts out more of the same it’s what you should expect from her and she’s always consistent but when Lana puts out similar sounding stuff it’s boring and she needs to change it up lol

 

im listening to this album right now and holy shit it rules

 

"people" = me, and I am very consistent haha. I just personally do think that a LOT of her "slow" stuff does tend to be "boring," but of course "slow = boring" is a terrible way to distill it down.

Look, I just want Lana to get fucking weird. I want her to go way off the deep end and fuck things up. Obviously she doesn't need to please my musical tastes haha, but when she does do exciting things (to me) on a few tracks per album it really makes me want more

 

Lol you are a prominent example, but you're definitely not the only person I've seen who feels like this (and not just on this site either) - it wasn't meant as a subpost I promise! haha

And I don't think it's unfair to not be into it - it just doesn't work for some people and that's ok. For me, there is almost always something special about the slow songs that I latch on to, whether it's the lyrics, the melodies, or the instrumentation. Like "I say I live in Rosemead, really I'm at the Ramada" makes me feel euphoric. And when those elements come together it creates something so special (Examples: Paris Texas, Candy Necklace from this album; Beautiful, Thunder on BB; Yosemite, Not All Who Wander on Chemtrails)

Plus there are enough songs that do go to the weirder places that it satisfies that itch for me. An album full of songs like White Dress or Peppers would probably not really work for me (at least coming from Lana), but I think she found the perfect balance on this album. Which I can admit she's struggled with it a bit more on the last couple - the first 3 songs on BB is the one place I'd actually be in agreement that its kind of a slog to get through)

 

I don't think it helps that 13 songs and over an hour go by and then the last three songs are noticably more upbeat and honestly pretty different from the first 13. It almost felt like an album and then a shorter EP tacked on the end to me the first two times I listened to it.

I'm only a casual fan of hers, and I thought there were a lot of really great songs on here, but 16 tracks / 77 minutes felt like a lot. I don't care at all for the interlude with the cool preacher guy, but aside from that, the only song that I wasn't crazy about was "Peppers", and even then only because it really feels like it was dropped in from an entirely different album / project.

That said, I listened to it twice in the same day and I was happy to throw it on that second time and really looking forward to it, which I don't think I would say too often for such a long album from someone I'd say I was only a casual fan of. And I'm gonna listen to it again tomorrow morning on my commute in to work.

 

I totally hear ya, just different opinions for sure. At the very least she has plenty of music for everyone depending what they like, so it's hard to lose

 

my thing is lots of bands/artists are consistently slow/quiet and still manage to make well-paced and sequenced records that don't, for example, glop all the interludes into one section, guest spots in another, and finish it off with a whatever demo of a song from three albums ago, while taking up almost the entire capacity of a CD.

it would be nice if there was any sense of care or editing, or that any of her many collaborators offered any productive pushback at all

at this point she's actively leaving it up to listeners to do the quality control because it's clear she can't be arsed

 

How do you know there wasn’t any editing or “sense of care” on her part?

 

I listened to it

 

I felt like that on the first few listens but with more time it’s grown to make sense, the only way to fix that would be to have more upbeat songs or songs with drums but with what she has, I think the sequencing is fine, I also am in love with the majority of the lyrics and melody choices so that’s a big part of why I’m not bothered by some things I might normally be bored by

 

I like a lot of the songs, but I'm definitely in the camp that's not crazy about the interludes. I'll probably end up listening to those specific songs on a playlist and not necessarily spinning the whole album as much.

 

I think the Judah Smith interlude is meant to usher in the darkest part of the album (Candy Necklace -> Paris, Texas). And then the Jon Batiste interlude is really just a continuation of Candy Necklace. The features bring us out of the dark place we were in, and really only two of those actually prominently feature another vocalist. Fishtail ends with the line "I'm not that smart but I've got things to say" which is the end of the introspection for this album, and then we get to have some fun singing about Angelina Jolie, Taco Trucks, and Venice Bitches

 

Let the Light In is so so good, I'm honestly shocked Josh doesn't have a writing credit on it because the lyrics (especially "there's so much riding on this life and how we write a love song") sound like they could be lifted right off of an FJM album

 

Margaret is so friggin cute