September 8, 2019 – They say an artist’s best record is the first one … because they spend their career writing it. I think it’s true, but honestly I think it might apply to the first two, then after that, artists seem to change. Perhaps acquiring money means you can no longer write in the same way, probably because you can no longer feel in the same way. That’s true of everything. Give a person money, and that person becomes something different, and that different is almost always not a good-different. Funny, I read an article this past week where the writer, a woman, was sad to lose who she once was – a person who had style and personality, who bought clothes at thrift stores and was happy – to money, changing her into someone who now seeks the best at the expense of who she once was. The Princess Factor, not really a good thing because what makes cool in a woman is rarely money.

I make no secret that I like female artists now. Sure I love my classic rock. And in that genre I honestly do prefer the men, but I love the modern female singers I like, perhaps because I’m into my own music now, perhaps because they made me into my own music; I’m not sure which way that goes.  And these girls of mine are busy.

Taylor Swift released her new record Lover about two weeks ago. I wrote about it. Taylor Swift is on the cover of September Vogue magazine. I have it; yes, finally they have my subscription coming to my house, not to my mailing address where the magazine seemed to make it to someone else before ever making it to me. Taylor Swift has been all over the media. But no matter how much I like Taylor, and I do, her modern music, the pop stuff, just doesn’t reach me like her early music did. You would think her maturing would help, but the content of the music, of the lyrics, is sort of the same. Oh and she has herself the in-demand glitzy producer Jack Antonoff. I don’t know, perhaps it’s not true, but I’ve always blamed Jack for Taylor’s sound, for changing her songs, the songs she writes in an acoustic manner, into these very, very produced things. I say that because I like to hear a Taylor song when it’s just her and a guitar; the final Jack-productions, not so much. I blamed The Princess Factor, that getting rich thing where people change, get themselves a fancy … everything, and the fancy producer to go with it, and that fancy producer just has to be the blame for the change.

Then there’s Ellie Goulding. She released a couple of advance songs this year, saying she’s going to release a record this year. But I don’t know. This past week, the news on Ellie Goulding was her wedding, actually her wedding dresses to be exact. She married her art dealer fiancé, with no less than four wedding outfit changes, that’s five dresses! Five! And they were literally princess worthy, at a venue that was princess worthy, with literal princesses on the guest list. I don’t think Jack Antonoff is producing anything Ellie is doing, but honestly, I think she might be done, whoever the producer is. And if she’s not, how possibly is anything going to be anything more than a distraction for her, given her princess life. I still have a really cool show program of Ellie’s from 2014. The five couture wedding dresses look nothing like that Ellie. Mind you, I have to congratulate her; she looked happy, and certainly that’s one heck of a way to live.

Then along comes Lana Del Rey’s new record, released last week. It’s called NFR!, an acronym for Norman Fucking Rockwell, an image of something I doubt many current young people who are the audience for her music even know. I’ve listened to her interviews this past week; she says half of her audience knows the reference. Still, I doubt it. The critical reviews of Lana’s record are mostly positive, many raving about the record, except NPR. Lana went a bit off on the NPR person for a review that said generally positive things about the record too, but the hyper-feminists (the NPR writer is one) take issue with Lana for not being political. I saw something earlier this week where Lana called herself a moderate, liking things from each side. I’m not sure if that was before or after the NPR review, but whichever, the press has to make everything political. Lana’s record was supposed to be a protest record, it seems. It’s not a protest record; it’s just Lana-normal, and I disagree with NPR – that’s a good thing; I want Lana-normal.

The reviews aside, Lana’s record scared me because of the producer — Jack Antonoff. Taylor Swift’s Jack Antonoff. I feared what it would be, even though the earlier-released songs were nothing but a typical slow Lana-type thing. I’ve listened through the whole record only one time, but my impression was that Lana must have told Jack Antonoff what she wanted. Before the recording started, Lana was writing, or perhaps completed, a book of poetry. The record seems like that, poetry. On most the songs, the music is simple, often only a piano. I read Lana was approached by Jack, that she went to meet with him, that he played some series of chords for her; Lana asked for the chords, and somehow, instead of getting the chords, got Jack for the whole record. To his credit, Jack’s sound on Lana’s record is the polar opposite of the sound he uses for Taylor Swift. It has almost no drums, synthesized or otherwise. On some songs, there are guitar solos. Strange. The record is meant as an album; I think that’s Lana’s norm; there is no one song on there, other than perhaps the Sublime cover, that’s a single. Oh and the Sublime cover was done at the request of Interscope, Lana’s label. Truthfully, I can’t decide what I think. I think the music might be too simple on many songs, too long on others. Perhaps this is Lana’s Physical Graffiti, long songs for the sake of long songs. Heck, she mentions Houses of the Holy in one of her lyrics; perhaps she doesn’t know that the song Houses of the Holy is actually on the album Physical Graffiti. She has many classic rock references: a song named Cinnamon Girl, lyrics from other songs, a reference to rock being dead, something she doesn’t like. Lana’s classic rock influence seems to be getting stronger all the time. All that said, I do like the record.  

I’ve talked a lot before about crowns, and I even have one (a little tiara, they sell them at Mexican bridal stores), but I’ve never done anything other than think of them as a way to pick myself up when I feel really down. Honestly though, the crown has been in tucked away in my dresser drawer for years; now I’m not even brave enough to pretend to wear a crown. I’m no princess. My life is no fairy tale. It seems to get harder all the time. And I’m not sure I can relate to the princess factor in these girls I once loved. Ellie and Taylor are certified princesses now. Gone is much of anything I once loved about them. But Lana seems to have retained much of what makes her authentically Lana. Like I said, I’m not sure what I think about the Jack Antonoff sound; perhaps I’ll get used to it. It’s not the multi-layered sound of Lana’s first record Born to Die. In fact, it’s a bit like the Lana who was once Lizzy Grant, a variation of her real name. The Lizzy Grant stuff is on YouTube; in fact, there was a record released before Born to Die that was pulled, and that record was simple like this current one is.

Speaking of simplicity, in at least two of her current songs, Lana talks about getting a truck, just to be a normal person. In her recent Instagram livestream (her way of promoting the record), she talked about liking Rite-Aid. One of the commenters said “imagine running into Lana at Rite-Aid”. Honestly, I think I could imagine seeing Lana at Rite-Aid. Perhaps we could park our trucks right next to each other, and I really do hope she finds a way to release her poetry; I’d like to read it.

Sure Lana could be a total princess; the chart success of her first official record Born To Die, has now placed that record in the company of Carole King’s Tapestry and Adele’s 21, each of which have spent 300+ weeks on the chart, the highest of any females in history. Lana could make any record she wants, but the fact that this record has no real singles and sounds oddly like the Lizzy Grant version of her old self seems the polar opposite of the princess factor. I’m glad for that. Oh and I’m glad she still goes to Rite-Aid. And I wonder what kind of truck she has. Do you think it has a tow package?