In Something with Lana Del Rey

I'm listening to Roy Orbison right now in a coffee shop and am reminded of listening to him in college when I was desperately in love with someone that didn't love me back, and would sit in the dark listening to 'Running Scared,' or other great pop symphonic classics, that sort of defined an era, and a sound. Lana Del Rey is our new Roy Orbison, except that she's much prettier, and a Gen Y'er, but one that has scourged the past, inhabiting a twilight place, where lots of great art sits, acknowledging the past, looking to the future, and intimating the present. I first became aware of Lana Del Rey in 2013 when I heard "Summertime Sadness" on the radio over and over, and just sort of fell in love with it, in spite of myself, like I did a lot of pop music, but there was something special about it, not the least of which was her name, that sounded completely unreal, and yet encompassed a panoramic landscape of the past and present, that sounded eternal. Sure, 'Lana Del Rey' was kitschy but I had no idea what to make of the singer, or where she came from, but 'Lorde' had the same feeling for me, just someone out of the blue, with a name that evoked an image far greater than any person could handle, or live up to. I probably listened to 'Summertime Sadness' at least a hundred times before I thought to check her album 'Born to Die' out of the library (along with Taylor Swift's "Red," Miley Cyrus's "Bangerz," and Lorde's "Pure Heroine,"). I was incredulous at how good Lana Del Rey really was, or what a lightning rod she had become, lacking the pure talent of, say, Lorde, that is just kind of classic right off the bat, but I'd heard more of Lorde's songs on the radio, and came to my conclusions about her pretty quickly, but Lana was a rougher ride. I was ready to think 'Summertime Sadness' was a one-off, but it's anything but, and this was an incredible revelation to me, and one I've been playing out all summer, but now summer is over, and I can offer my criticism.

Art is an endlessly fathomless conversation but I've come to the conclusion that those songs (or movies, or books) that resonate with me the most are the ones that stay in my head, and just don't leave, whether I want them to or not, and this is hard to tell on a first impression. It's also the reason why I like listening to 'Movin' 92.5' when they have a good mix, because you hear the same songs over and over, and can really lose yourself in them, deciding which ones you really like, and which are just kind of shit. 'Summertime Sadness' was in the latter category, but more than that it was just sort of inescapably sad in a way that very few songs on 'Movin' are, and yet it was as popular as any, and this just kind of blew me away, not to mention the truth of the song, that seemed somehow lambent, and hard to define, unlike, say, Adele's 'Someone Like You,' a great sad song, but somehow more predictable, or a sentiment you've heard before. 'Summertime Sadness' redefined nature, not an easy thing to do.

What sparked me to get the record was that Lana said that 'she wished she was dead,' or something like that, and I was just kind of stunned that a pop star of her caliber, had the balls to say this, and appreciated her for it, being kind of down myself, and knew the feeling. I started google searching her and realized her real name was 'Lizzy Grant,' and then learned she studied metaphysics, had a father that worked at Grey advertising (I did too!), and was a drunk in high school, all things that intrigued me. I learned they pulled the plug on her on Saturday Night Live, because she gave the shakiest performance in the history of the show, a notable achievement, considering how many forgettable performances they've had, and she won me over. Part of the criticism against Lana was that she was a fake, just a talentless counterfeit Indie wax figure, that had 'Daddy' pull all the strings, and whether this was true or not, I quickly realized that she was anything but 'talentless,' but rather a voice of her generation, much like Lena Dunham, but without any of the humor. Then I read that 'feminists' hated her, and Lana endeared herself to me even more, because there was nothing in her music that seemed counter feminist to me at all, except that she alluded to a time in the not too distant past, when Noirs and Fifties melodramas were all the rage, before feminism had really surfaced, and was just bubbling under the surface. Lana Del Rey was an artist not a politician and I started to think that the arguments against her had more to do with Grad School students trying to gain points by writing a controversial essay.

I'd guess that Lizzy Grant will spend the rest of her life conforming to the image of 'Lana Del Rey' and that's no easy task because she's taken on thirty years of film history in her look, and style. She's the new 'torch singer femme fatale' of a generation, and that's no easy thing to be, but her talent will carry her, if she doesn't destroy herself. Today, I read that Lana considered quitting the music business after 'Born To Die,' because she had said everything that she wanted to say, and my heart kind of sank when she said this, because I've felt the same thing, and it's a terrible feeling for an artist, or a person, but especially an artist, since a person can turn to family, or friends, but an artist only had art to save them, and once they were saved, there was nowhere to go but to God. Maybe that's why so many great writers turned to God, booze, or both, because in lieu of artistic inspiration there wasn't a whole lot of reason to live; to write a song like 'Video Games,' or 'Blue Jeans,' it's easy to see why Lana had just sort of felt she did what she was supposed to do, but thankfully she has persevered and made 'Ultraviolence,' a memorably haunting album, that sort of defies criticism, like all art. It's impressionistically huge, and I'm sure will sit in my mind forever, like paintings and poetry, that stand the test of time.