Prompt: "The title track to an album"
Selected by Brianna
"Norman Fucking Rockwell"
Lana Del Rey
Norman Fucking Rockwell!, 2019
"Goddamn manchild. You fucked me so good that I almost said I love you."
Now that is how you open an album.
Honestly though, I'd expect nothing less from Lana Del Rey, the somewhat problematic queen of modern romance. I'd been an on-and-off fan of hers since her debut album Born to Die was released the year I started college, and by the time NFR! came out in 2019, I was pretty disenchanted with the ultra-melodramatic and boring version of herself she kept putting out in the time between the two. Maybe it was the moment I heard my dad singing "High by the Beach" that I had begun to question things.
Nevertheless, I gave Norman Fucking Rockwell! a shot, and my loyalty paid off. This album is right up there with her first for me. In fact, the maturity and actual realness that embodies these songs might even send it to the top spot on its own.
The opening track, featured here, is classic Lana: a late 2000s ballad that turns love on its head. Instead of swooning over a Prince Charming of sorts, she paints vivid pictures of his flaws and follows with her willingness to stick it out despite it all. "Why wait for the best when I can have you?"
Some may turn away Lana Del Rey for her style. I've heard complaints about her version of feminism, that it seems to goad women to accept less than what they deserve for comfort's sake in a very 1950s housewife kind of way. Me, on the other hand? I welcome a version of love that is imperfect because that's exactly what it is. Just like Lana herself.
Now that is how you open an album.
Honestly though, I'd expect nothing less from Lana Del Rey, the somewhat problematic queen of modern romance. I'd been an on-and-off fan of hers since her debut album Born to Die was released the year I started college, and by the time NFR! came out in 2019, I was pretty disenchanted with the ultra-melodramatic and boring version of herself she kept putting out in the time between the two. Maybe it was the moment I heard my dad singing "High by the Beach" that I had begun to question things.
Nevertheless, I gave Norman Fucking Rockwell! a shot, and my loyalty paid off. This album is right up there with her first for me. In fact, the maturity and actual realness that embodies these songs might even send it to the top spot on its own.
The opening track, featured here, is classic Lana: a late 2000s ballad that turns love on its head. Instead of swooning over a Prince Charming of sorts, she paints vivid pictures of his flaws and follows with her willingness to stick it out despite it all. "Why wait for the best when I can have you?"
Some may turn away Lana Del Rey for her style. I've heard complaints about her version of feminism, that it seems to goad women to accept less than what they deserve for comfort's sake in a very 1950s housewife kind of way. Me, on the other hand? I welcome a version of love that is imperfect because that's exactly what it is. Just like Lana herself.
1 comment:
Is it bad I daydream that she will come to Philly, see me and we have a whirlwind summer romance and she serenades me often…
I man can dream right
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