No need to cuss, Del Rey's album elevates

Supersized: Lana Del Rey appears as a giant in the video for Doin' Time.
The video is part homage to Attack of the 50ft Woman.

Don't go looking for wall-to-wall sweetness and light on Lana Del Rey's latest album, because you won't find it.

Yes, she is one of the most talented and significant singer-songwriters of her generation, and her star continues to rise with increasingly accomplished work. She's written and recorded achingly beautiful songs, some are on her latest release - one of the best albums of the year. And I will speak about these in a moment.

However, on first listening to Norman F***** Rockwell, which was released in September, I felt she'd overplayed the cussing. The title track is one of five from 14 that contain choice language. That's excessive in a world where the impact of f-bombs has been hugely diluted through overuse.

Is cussing a sign of the times? I was in an airport terminal bookstore recently and encountered multiple shelves of new releases featuring bold titles yelling things like "Get Your S*** Together" and "Stop F****** up in Life." As always, I studiously ignored them.

But back to Del Rey. On repeated listens I've come to enjoy all the tracks on NFR (as it was craftily titled in the store where I bought it). However, she would have been better served limiting the cuss-word impact. The track where the strong language works best is Hope is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have - but I Have It, which includes a nod to Sylvia Plath. The mood and content is enhanced by the fearless expression of the lyrics.

Now for the other standout songs to which I alluded. The bulk are in the second-half of the album, although earlier on is Doin' Time, a rare cover version. It suits Del Rey's treatment, and presents her in a switched-up tempo and vocalisation that breaks away from much of the surrounding songs. An imaginative accompanying video for the song pays homage to the cult 1950s movie Attack of the 50ft Woman, and features a giant Del Rey walking through the streets of Los Angeles.

California is a song of relationship and longing, and an example of Del Rey's ability to evoke a sense of place and time, while The Next Best American Record is dreamy and timeless, with sound motifs that harken to the delightfully elegant Love from 2017's Lust for Life.

Another interesting song is Happiness is a Butterfly. You try to catch happiness, but like a butterfly it can elude.

But the best track of the album, that would be The Greatest. It has a haunting, melancholy appeal. The subdued feel nails the sentiments of lyrics such as: the culture is lit ... if this is it, I'm signing off ... the greatest loss of them all. The video for this track is also remarkable.

Norman F***** Rockwell is a new high point for Del Rey, with plenty to elevate the spirit. That said, I sense her best is yet to come.

Video of The Greatest:

Lake Street Dive make a splash

Lake Street Dive: An unusual musical combination that delights

When I stumbled across Lake Street Dive, I did not expect them to become my favourite music discovery of the year. Indeed, I'd only clicked onto their video because I was intrigued at the prospect of such a hodge-podge of musicians attempting A-ha's Take On Me.

Before I go on, rewind to last summer when I heard the strains of Lana Del Rey floating from a beach bar music system. I'd never heard of her and had to ask someone at the bar who the mystery singer was (as I detailed in this post). That was my introduction to Del Rey's fresh "real" music. Of course, I was many years late to the party, but Del Ray was my big personal music discovery of 2017.

So back to Lake Street Dive. I came across them not by listening to music at a beach bar, but through a more traditional route - on YouTube, the world's omnipresent portal for discovering music. 

The website uses data algorithms to suggest videos based on your history of viewing choices. For some reason, it decided that I'd enjoy Lake Street Dive's cover version of A-ha's Take On Me. I was going to ignore the offer, but the thumbnail picture on the video showed an unlikely combo on a tiny stage that I guessed was in a small town bar hosting an open-mic night.
My curiosity was piqued; what would Take On Me sound like when tackled by a nutty combination of a trumpeter, double bassist, female vocalist, and a drummer wearing a rock band-style bandana?

The video started and in the opening moments a tempo change on the drums did nothing to alter my belief this was a plucky amateur night at some bar.
But then the song took shape and my early suspicion that they were making it up as they went along, vanished. 

It was much more than a passable rendition. The soaring lead vocals of Rachael Price delivering more depth than the original. And while the band had a quirky choice of musical instruments, they all played with consummate ease and professional finesse. In this instance, they were also augmented by a guest keyboardist. The vocal harmonies were the icing on the cake. I was impressed but still thought it was simply an unusual bar band.

Music moment: Lake Street Dive perform Annie Lennox's
Walking on Broken Glass - a rendition that confirmed to me their talent

I decided to check for any other cover versions they had done and found their rendition of Annie Lennox's Walking On Broken Glass. Bridget Kearney's double bass playing was sublime, reaching notes I've never seen attempted by others on the instrument. Price added a new dimension to the song with her vocals, while the rest of the band was immaculate with harmonies and a group a cappella finale.

After hearing their version of The Kinks' Lola, I started searching the internet to see if they had an album of covers for sale. They didn't. But they had albums of original songs. The Brooklyn-based band has been enjoying growing national success in the US, particularly during the past six years, including Billboard chart action.

YouTube threw up a near two-hour songwriting masterclass the band gave to cohorts at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music, where they had met back in 2004. I hadn't intended to sit through the full two hours, but I did - drawn in by the subject matter, the clarity and articulation of their thoughts, and the truly democratic make-up of the band (they gave each other an equal share of the discussion). They explained some of the methods they use to compose and arrange songs.

In that video and in other online interviews, Lake Street Dive came alive as personalities - bold, inventive, and with a clear sense of fun. They are talented instrument players with a genuine love and deep knowledge of music styles. I took the plunge and listened to more of their originals, quickly favouring almost everything I heard. Use Me Up, Call Off Your Dogs, and this year's Good Kisser and I Can Change are now on my repeat playlist.

If you're looking for a fresh sound check out Lake Street Dive.

Lana Del Rey's 'Lust for Life'

Memorising songs: Lana Del Rey singing in the video for Love,
the opening track of her album Lust for Life

It is almost a decade since I last bought an album by an artist I'd never heard of before.

Towards the end of last month I purchased Lust for Life, by a singer whose name I had to double check.

I was sitting under a beach shade, interviewing an empath, when one of my ears tuned into the background music being played at the beach bar. I was focused on the interview, and what the empath had to say was fascinating - it resulted in an interesting article. But try as I might, the unusual song quietly playing in the background was also incessantly vying for a corner of my attention.

The tune was reminiscent of Radiohead's Creep, so much so that I thought it might be a cover version, yet the words were unfamiliar. There was a quality in the singing that drew me in. The song ended and I made a mental note to find out who it had been. After concluding my interview I strolled to the beach bar and asked about the track. The singer was Lana Del Rey - a name that meant nothing to me.

New music: Lana Del Rey on the cover of Lust for Life.

Living on an island and not being tuned into TV, radio or keeping up with many other cultural portals, I had to go and Google this mysterious (to me) singer. That's when I found out she was one of the most successful singers of the past five or six years.
Who knew? Everyone else, apparently.

The album playing at the beach was new and had only been released two weeks earlier. I found a video for the opening track on YouTube. Love was mesmorising, as was the video which had evident shades of M83's We Own the Sky. With my curiosity now further heightened, I bought Del Rey's Lust for Life.

With no previous exposure to her music I could only evaluate the album on what I found. I had no preconceived ideas; to me she was a new artist emerging from a void. The album is a refreshing and intriguing collection of songs and styles. The first three tracks, Love, Lust for Life, and 13 Beaches are standouts. The quality hardly slips, but as I got into the second half of the record the seam of gold broadened with ever more beautifully crafted and delivered songs, such as God Bless America - And All the Beautiful Women in It, Heroin, Change and Get Free (the song I heard at the beach).

Five of the tracks feature collaborations with the likes of Weeknd, A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti, and Stevie Nicks. There is a mixture of styles and influences sprinkled in, particularly on the two tracks with A$AP Rocky. And then there is the timeless, poignant beauty of Tomorrow Never Came, a song co-written and performed with Sean Ono Lennon.

Del Rey's vocal delivery and lyricism is a refreshing break from usual. I'm thankful to have discovered Lust for Life. Someone remarked that empaths tune-in to the feelings and thoughts of the person they are speaking to. I'm not sure what the empath at the beach might have deduced as my attention was semi-diverted to the music drifting across the sand, but I suspect he might have wondered why he could sense so many musical notes dancing around my head.