Rock and … Moody

April 14, 2019 – I’m getting there with this painting. I pushed through two solid days this weekend, plus about a half-day on Friday. What I know of music is from the commercials on the radio, not much time to play on the computer when one is doing this much painting, but from I can tell, it’s festival time. Coachella is now, next weekend too. The country festival called Stagecoach is coming up soon too. I heard ticket giveaways for the country festival on the rock radio station. I guess I’m not the only rock fan who listens to country these days. Well, country and … Lana del Rey?

Lana supposedly has a record coming out this year. She keeps teasing songs, but so far, no record. But that’s not stopping Lana-esque things from being front and center.

Coachella. The acts are nothing I would want to see. That makes it hard for me to care about the news of these people; one of the headliners is Ariana Grande, and at least I know who she is.  But there is a new act, who before the past couple of weeks I hadn’t heard of. Her name is Billie Eilish. Apparently, she’s 17, and article after article compare her to my girl Lana. Moody pop, that’s the label the media seems to be giving an entire genre they credit to Lana del Rey.

Personally, I think the new Lana, Billie Eilish, is not like Lana. I think these media types are missing the point of the poetic nature of Lana’s songs, or maybe this new girl is a song-poet too. I don’t actually hear it, although, to be fair, I’ve only listened to two songs of Billie’s. Certainly, she’s trying to be “moody” or whatever the mainstream media thinks of Lana’s sound. For whatever description there is in the media, the Coachella kids were lined up for Billie Eilish — one of the most anticipated acts of this past weekend’s acts.

Billie Eilish — compilation from Coachella

I don’t mind her; personally, she reminds me more of early Halsey, but maybe that’s because she’s so young, but she’s not Lana. For me, anyways, in Lana’s music, I hear the rock vibe that influenced Lana. In my mind, I can hear almost any Lana song played like a guitar rock song, or at least a guitar solo.

I don’t know if any actual rock musicians would agree with me on the Lana thing, but I have to think it’s possible that it can appeal to the same part of one’s brain if only based on another Lana-esque thing I ran into – a cover of the Motley Crue song, done in a Lana way. The cover is by yet another of these moody singers (the description from the Ultimate Classic Rock article where I saw this), this one named Meghan Kabir, covering Live Wire.

Cover of Motley Crue’s Live Wire by Mehan Kabir, from The Dirt


Motley Crue — Live Wire

Honestly, it really does show how important the singing was to ‘80s rock, that and how melodic the songs were, guitar-driven or not. I don’t know when Lana’s record is coming out, but I have to say, I think it would be so funny if Lana’s new record is rock, not moody. Lana rockin’ out in her spandex? Throw them off, you know? Or who knows, get a whole bunch of guitar players to copy her like all these singers are now. Rock and moody, indeed!