London Lee posted this earlier in the week at Crying All The Way To The Chip Shop and you may not have heard it yet- and if you haven't you should. This is the new one from Lana del Rey, a ten minute, fairly freeform meditation called Venice Bitch which opens with Lana cooing breathily about being 'fresh out of fucks, forever'. From there the acoustic guitar riff circles around, Lana's vocal becomes more upfront, and a 60s style pop song briefly appears. The song drifts on for a while, half awake, half in focus, atmospherics and melodies intertwined before changing gear with a gnarly guitar part and synth solo. A beautiful trip.
Lana said in an interview that she wanted it as a single and her manager asked her why couldn't she just make a 'normal three minute pop song'? She replied 'I was like, 'well, the end of summer, some people just wanna drive around for 10 minutes, get lost in some electric guitar' ''.
A commenter at Youtube posted 'this song evokes a longing in me I can't quite understand... a yearning for a place I've never been, a man I've never met and a life I've yet to live' which seems to nail something of its appeal.
The album is going to be called Norman Fucking Rockwell.
While I don't follow Lana del Rey's work all that intently, I clicked on Venice Bitch last week and was struck by how dreamy, yet isolated the song was. I realized that if fit into a musical mood I have been in for a few months now...one that's disconnected to my reality. I've been fascinated by what I can only call a West Coast sound. Not a sound in the genre sense, but one that seems to me to be based more in dreams and moods. It's going to show up in a big way on my year end song list for sure...as will this just lovely, ethereal piece of pop.
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