"Norman F — Rockwell" by Lana Del Rey dazzles: reviews



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Anyone so obsessed with California as Lana Del Rey – obsessed with her beauty and glamor, as well as the potential danger that still hangs over the swollen promise of this place – was probably destined for a phase of Laurel Canyon. singer on her new emotional and emotionally risky album, "Norman F-Rockwell!"

She is perhaps the least likely pop star of the decade: a follower of slooow tempos that focus on albums at a time when tiny singles predominate. But where others may have trouble surviving a virus, she offers fans to enter a fully realized world. Which means she is free to evolve at her idiosyncratic pace.

The sequel to "Lust for Life" 2017, featuring the cameos of Weeknd and ASAP Rocky, Del Rey's fifth studio record, surrounds her breathtaking vocals with her majestic piano and delicately touched acoustic guitar. on your finger; it is a quieter effort, more played by hand than her previous work, which was intended to create a hip-hop atmosphere sung by the torch and made her a favorite of Kanye West, whose wedding she celebrated in 2014 .

In "Bartender", she describes a party during which the "ladies of the canyon" listen to Crosby, Stills & Nash, while "Venice Bitch" evokes "Our House", a group of veterans, while she sang : "You are in the yard / I light the fire. (Later, she borrows the title of "Cinnamon Girl" from Neil Young)

For Del Rey, who has put together his revolutionary "Video Games" video clip based on retrieved sequences, all these references are the latest product of his ongoing search in California history; Without a doubt, it will eventually plunge into the gold rush.

Still, she and her lead producer, Jack Antonoff, are also turning to Laurel Canyon's folk-folk fantasy as a way to deepen Del Rey's own songs on reaching and sometimes reaching out. the kind of romantic intimacy that escapes him. the past.

You would not call this album a merry one – consider this bomb in the middle of the title – but titles such as the "Love Song" and "F-It I Love You" offerings represent a drastic change from to dark fatalism. as Del Rey, so distinguished, when she appeared in the early 2010s as an alternative to gays like Kesha and Katy Perry

"You write, I turn, we make it work," she sings in a relationship between two creative "Venice Bitch". "You are beautiful and I am crazy."

Why turn to light? Del Rey is 34 years old, to be a – mature enough by today's slow growth standards that the old stories about Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash are probably starting to have some appeal. (She keeps her personal life very close, so we have to assume that these songs have something to do with reality.)

But Del Rey is also a well-known dissident and nearly 10 years after the release of her debut album "Born to Die", her influence is undeniable in the music of Ariana Grande, Lorde and Billie Eilish. His visual style cut and paste is no less influential, it is impossible not to think every time the opening credits of "Succession" of HBO appears on the screen.

What stands out now – in an era defined by stripped-down and depressed pop songs – is someone who yearns, as does Del Rey in "Venice Bitch," for "Hallmark – a dream, a life, a lover ". "Mariners Apartment Complex" which "you took my sadness out of context."

What is gratifying about this album – beyond its gorgeous melodies and the never-so-brilliant Del Rey song – is that even though it has softened its attack, its sense of humor became more acute. The title song is both sensitive and unforgiving in its description of a "child-man" who speaks to the walls when his friends are bored of him.

"Why wait for the best when I could have you?" She wonders about a beautiful lush setting with horns and strings.

And despite all his interest in the idea of ​​creating a house – "You must never be stronger than you really are when you're lying in my arms," ​​comforts a lover of "California" – Del Rey isn & # 39; t block the outside world. Towards the end of "The Greatest," in which she sings with envy a bar where the Beach Boys went, she connects a series of short lines that offer a scary portrait of life in 2019:

L.A. is on fire, it's hot

Kanye West is blonde and left

"Life on Mars" is not just a song

I hope the live broadcast is almost over

Antonoff continues to play a little piano after that, each repetition being slightly softer than the one before it. It's like a cushion Del Rey knew you would need it.

___________________

Lana del Rey

"Norman F-Rockwell!

(Interscope)

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