Review Summary: Here goes back to that beautiful heartbreak summer of 2019.
Hey everyone, thought I'd share my thoughts on my favourite Lana album, Norman F******g Rockwell!
Here goes back to that beautiful heartbreak summer of 2019.
#14
The Next Best American Record: perhaps a little out of place on the album thematically and musically, although it totally slaps and I love it like its a cool Lust for Life b-side. I love how playfully ironic the song title is. I think she knew how good this album would be.
Favourite line:
"And we were so obsessed with writing the next best American record
That we give all we had 'til the time we got to bed
'Cause we knew we could"
#13
Doin' Time: Fun summer banger, and a faithful take on the Sublime song while putting her own Lana stamp on it, especially with that wild music video, so iconic! Also unusual pop song stylistically for Lana, but it really fits and is super cool.
Favourite line:
"Oh, take this veil from off my eyes
My burning sun will, some day, rise
So, what am I gonna be doin' for a while?
Said, I'm gonna play with myself
Show them, now, we've come off the shelf"
#12
Venice bitch: beautiful sundrenched baroque-pop, with shoegazey guitars, distorted horns and fuzzy synths in the glorious midsection. Lana's vocal tenderness in the quieter finger-picked guitar sections are really special, and love her chilled cadence here. The refrains are also so fun. Such a great song to light up a joint to and is such a treat to the ears.
Favourite line:
"Oh God, miss you on my lips
It's me, your little Venice bitch
On the stoop with the neighborhood kids
Callin' out, bang bang, kiss kiss*"*
#11
Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but I have it: an unusual stylistic turn for Lana in this solitary and diaristic lament. Lyrically the song takes cues from stream of conciousness, while Lana's commanding and vulnerable delivery makes for a moving portrait of a woman searching for hope and strength in a dark and confusing world of fame and fortune she has found herself in.
Favourite line:
"I had 15-year dances
Church basement romances, yeah, I've cried
Spilling my guts with the Bowery Bums
Is the only love I've ever known
Except for the stage, which I also call home, when I'm not
Servin' up God in a burnt coffee pot for the triad*"*
#10
Bartender: beautifully playful and straightforward ballad, with a stripped back, twinkling piano arrangement. Lana's vocals and stream of conciousness-like lyrics are front-and-centre and her poetic delivery makes for a truly captivating song. Bar-t-t-tender, ha! ha! ha! ha!
Favourite line:
"With my bartender, hold me all night
Bartender, our love's alive
Baby, remember, I'm not drinkin' wine
But that Cherry Coke you serve is fine
And our love's sweet enough on the vine"
#9
Cinnamon Girl: a testament of devotion and commitment in spite of darkness creeping into the relationship through what seems like substance abuse. the sound of waves and wind behind the soaring outro is incredible. a real throwback to Born to Die thematically and instrumentally with one of her most memorable and intense choruses.
Favourite line:
"There's things I wanna say to you, but I'll just let you live
Like if you hold me without hurting me
You'll be the first who ever did*"*
#8
Happiness is a butterfly: almost darkly comedic, Lana at one moment cries "don't be a jerk!", in the other rationalising her boyfriend's dark nature sprung from desperation "if he's a serial killer then what's the worst that can happen to a girl who's already hurt?", while in the next breath singing "baby, I just wanna dance with you". the beautiful piano-led instrumental carries Lana throughout the song. most of all, Lana understands the fragility and turbulence of love, like a butterfly in flight.
Favourite line:
"Left the canyon, drove to the club
I was one thing, now I'm being another
Go down to Sunset in the truck
I'll pick you up if you're in town on the corner"
#7
Norman F*****g Rockwell! : Lana crafts a stunning pop song to introduce her album with an almost iconic line, you know the one. I remember she was so cute in that interview at the time when she sang it. Her approach to the genre is daring and brimming with personality here.
Favourite line:
"Self-loathing poet, resident Laurel Canyon know-it-all
You talk to the walls when the party gets bored of you
But I don't get bored, I just see it through
*Why wait for the best when I could have you?*"
#6
How to disappear: the reversed and stuttering marimba opening to some sinister sounding horns set the scene for an almost Lynchian song. Lana's vocals are close, contemplative, while twanging guitars and bells crescendo towards the end of the song like a California sunset. The glitchy marimbas throughout and the sudden track changes with Lana's diaristic portraits of the men in her life who came and disappeared, "Joe" with the cuts on his face while "John" cracks another beer. Haunting, beautiful and hopeful.
Favourite line:
"Now it's been years since I left New York
I've got a kid and two cats in the yard
The California sun and the movie stars
I watch the skies getting light as I write
As I think about those years
As I whisper in your ear"
#5
Love song: one of the most tender songs Lana has ever written. song slowly became one of my favourites with its positive serenity appealing much more to me these days. I love the horn-like synth that builds at parts of the song, sooo dramatic and grandiose.
Favourite line:
"Now I'm here with you, and I
Would like to think that you would stick around
You know that I'd just die to make you proud"
#4
The greatest: anthemic, angelic, apocalyptic. the lyrics show Lana as a woman caught out-of-time in a post-modern America, with scornful and romantic allusions to the American dream. Lana is torn between joyfully rebellious and despondently resigned.
Favourite line:
*"*I miss New York and I miss the music
Me and my friends‚ we miss rock 'n' roll
I want *** to feel just like it used to
When‚ baby, I was doing nothin' the most of all"
#3
F**k it I love you: opens with lush reverbed guitar, bass and Lana's subtle vocals. Darkly twanging guitars accompany Lana's wistful and sometimes tragic delivery. The song feels like a comedown from blissful summer euphoria.
Favourite line:
*"*I used to shoot up my veins in neon
And ***'s even brighter; you're gone
So many things I would say to you
I want you"
#2
Mariners Apartment Complex: love seeing Lana explore a new piano-folk direction on this song. the vibes are pure green-blue ocean waves. its playfully sexual and full of hope. Another instant classic Lana song.
Favourite line:
"'Cause even in the dark, I feel your resistance
You can see my heart burning in the distance
Baby, baby, baby, I'm your man (Yeah)**"
#1
California: a masterful retelling of Joni Mitchell's song of the same name from the perspective of the other. her mature songcraft and earnest performance is on full display here. a classic Lana song. The piano and the horns are gorgeous and triumphant here.
Favourite line:
"You're scared to win, scared to lose
I've heard the war was over if you really choose
The one in and around you*"*
Overall, I adore this album and consider it the height of her career (so far) in many ways. I believe it will be remembered as one of the great American classics and thanks Lana and Jack for their work on this, it has been a great source of joy for me ever since its release.
What's everyone else's thoughts? Please let me know and lets share our experiences with the album!
Sounding off (bang bang kiss kiss) xxoo
