Fuck It I Poll You - Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!

Two years ago I did a month of Shoegazer band polls and then last year I did another month. This year I was thinking about doing a month of Goth polls, not sure how a Fields of the Nephilim poll will actually do but willing to give it a shot. The timing for a Goth poll is not now so I decided that I can do other like polls and why not start with a bang and do a month of Pop. I will comb ILX's database to poll things that have yet to be done and there is a treasure trove of stuff to do, especially from this decade.

I really wanted to start with the debut but I felt that would just be a race for second place. This album is so loaded that it will be much harder to pick.

"venice bitch" towers over the rest and the album really falls off after that, i still don't quite get the level of acclaim this got

I was in charge of installing a Norman Rockwell exhibit a few years ago in Houston. It made me happy to play this in the galleries while hanging the work.

"venice bitch" towers over the rest and the album really falls off after that, i still don't quite get the level of acclaim this got

― ufo, Wednesday, February 26, 2025 7:00 PM (four minutes ago)

i feel almost the exact opposite of this -- i didn't like lana at all until this album and i don't even really love it until "fuck it i love you" starts but from then on i find it pretty unimpeachable

voting for "the greatest" has to count as pretty corny here but man to me that is the apotheosis of what 'lana del rey' as an artist project could possibly aspire to. she might be able to claim GOAT status just off the final 4 lines of that song alone

my other votes would be "doin time" or "how to disappear" or "next best american record" ....

prescient album cover

I feel the same way about this album, I think this is what brought me on board with her, up to this point the only tracks I liked were I think several of the first tracks on ultraviolence, but this one I liked completely. It’s weird though because since then I haven’t really heavily listened to any of her work. So I guess I can’t really say it brought me on board with her as much as I boarded the train for this album and then exited at the next stop. I should probably remedy that based upon what everyone says about her albums since then.

man, this pre-COVID album sounds like it was released 10,000 years ago

This was the last album of hers I listened to all the way through. Need to revisit before voting.

The wife was not on board with Lana until she heard this album and begrudgingly admitted it was good.

It’s my favorite of hers but I haven’t heard anything afterwards.

"venice bitch" is quite simply the most lana del rey song title possible. excellent song too

Is it heresy if I think Venice Bitch should not be a 10 minute song and I like the “Taco Truck x VB” version way better?

Initial reaction is The Greatest but I will have to revisit.

This is a perfect album, I didn’t like "Doin' Time" originally but has grown on me. It's the emotions of this album that resonates with me.

Perfect album to listen to while being stoned.

This was the flowering of what she started to do on Honeymoon and it seems to me it's the template for all of her subsequent records. I never listened to the advance singles until the whole album came out so I swallowed it whole; "How to Disappear" and "The Next Best American Record" are the only boilerplate tracks and they're not even bad. The record would be so different without the long interlude on "Venice Bitch" I have to give it a nod as the key to the gate of the album.
Am I the only one who thinks of Odessa-era Robin Gibb while listening to "The Greatest"?

this pre-COVID album sounds like it was released 10,000 years ago

Never received such a feeling of prophetic disaster than I did listening to this on a Thanksgiving drive in 2019: "something terrible's going to happen to everyone".

This is a perfect album

agreed, the thing is top-to-bottom amazing. I could vote for almost anything here. Right now I think I'll vote for "Happiness is a Butterfly".

actuall I'll say "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing".

i mean, these lyrics:

I was reading Slim Aarons and I got to thinking that I thought
Maybe I'd get less stressed if I was tested less like
All of these debutantes
Smiling for miles in pink dresses and high heels on white yachts
But I'm not
Baby, I'm not
No, I'm not
That, I'm not
I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown
24/7 Sylvia Plath
Writing in blood on the walls
'Cause the ink in my pen don't work in my notepad
Don't ask if I'm happy, you know that I'm not
But, at best, I can say I'm not sad
'Cause hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have
Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have
I had fifteen-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
Hello, it's the most famous woman you know on the iPad
Calling from beyond the grave, I just wanna say, "Hi, Dad"
I've been tearing up town in my fucking white gown
Like a goddamn near sociopath
Shaking my ass is the only thing that's
Got this black narcissist off my back
She couldn't care less, and I never cared more
So there's no more to say about that
Except hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have
Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman with my past
There's a new revolution, a loud evolution that I saw
Born of confusion and quiet collusion of which mostly I've known
A modern day woman with a weak constitution, 'cause I've got
Monsters still under my bed that I could never fight off
A gatekeeper carelessly dropping the keys on my nights off
I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown
24/7 Sylvia Plath
Writing in blood on your walls
'Cause the ink in my pen don't look good in my pad
They write that I'm happy, they know that I'm not
But, at best, you can see I'm not sad
But hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have
Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have
Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have
But I have it
Yeah, I have it
Yeah, I have it
I have

Love Song.

Am I the only one who thinks of Odessa-era Robin Gibb while listening to "The Greatest"?

probably, but now lines in MAC like "you're lost at sea, then i'll command your boat to me again" hit completely different. i'm not convinced that NFR is a tribute to Odessa

i'm NOW convinced*****

voted the greatest
venice bitch 2nd

voted the greatest
venice bitch 2nd

ahhh i forgot how cinnamon girl sounds like portishead! it's been so long.. this album rules

Love this album. Voted for Mariners Apt Complex.

I said debut earlier but meant Born to Die, as no one has really heard the first album.

Your poetry's bad and you blame the news

'Cause you're just a man
It's just what you do

You fucked me so good that I almost said, "I love you"

(And that is the first song)

Voting for The Next Best American Record. I mean "My baby used to dance underneath my architecture"--she was spitting.

Honorable mention to Cinnamon Girl and the unbelievable flex that is Doin' Time.

Looking forward to the rest of these polls. I love this album but it's also just another masterpiece in a streak of them that started with Ultraviolence and hasn't stopped.

i mean, these lyrics:

Love the triad/iPad/hi-dad

Mariners Apartment Complex, but I'm going to be sad if California doesn't get any votes.

Can’t vote Doin Time, obvs, but everything else is a contender. Leaning NFR. Truly a perfect album.

ive heard the greatest hundreds of times and it still p much floors me every time

Like others have said, perfect album. "How to Disappear."

Masterpiece. The things I didn’t like about it at first, like the title, made sense to me over time. There is no tension between pastiche and sincerity. Image is reality. And happiness is a butterfly.

Relistened to “The Greatest” to confirm it was my pick, and prophecy-wise the last four lines feel very of the moment.

L.A. is in flames, it's getting hot
Kanye West is blond and gone
"Life on Mars" ain't just a song
Oh, the live stream's almost on

This is a perfect album, I didn’t like "Doin' Time" originally but has grown on me.

Same, although I still think "Doin' Time" sticks out too much. The album would be more perfect without it.

The first three songs are unstoppable. I feel like "California" doesn't get mentioned enough.

ahhh i forgot how cinnamon girl sounds like portishead! it's been so long.. this album rules

― mick gagger (diamonddave85), Thursday, 27 February 2025 23:39 (three days ago) link

I get similar Portishead arrangement vibes with “fuck it I love you.”

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

not my fav lana, venice bitch towers over the rest

pls extend poll, haven’t had time to find this on external drive yet

yeah after spending more time with this the past two days this album is impeachable isn't it? it's like top to bottom excellent, absolutely her most consistent album with some incredible highs. Love Song is probably my least favorite track on the album and it's fine.

"We were so obsessed with writing the next best American record
'Cause we were just that good
It was just that good"

Chef's kiss.

I just feel this song is the heartbeat of this record and got my vote in the end. Almost seems ridiculous when "The Greatest" is the next song.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I was hoping that all songs would get a vote. "Norman Fucking Rockwell" not getting one is surprising.

Good job as always ILM!

Shit, I flaked and didnt vote. Would have voted NFR but VB is probably the right choice.

You fucked me so good that I almost said "I love you"

Don't understand how this song got no votes. This album is a 10 and one of my all-time favorites. Everytime I hear it again I just shake my head at its magnificent.

If this is it, I'm signing off
Miss doing nothing the most of all
Hawaii just missed a fireball
L.A. is in flames, it's getting hot
Kanye West is blond and gone
"Life on Mars" ain't just a song
Oh, the live stream's almost on

I couldn't stop listening, will stop now

her absolute pinnacle. one of my favorite albums of this century.