Honestly, I never liked them that much until Fortitude. That album really grabbed me and even their backlog has grown on me.
Edit: My mom’s family is French so I’m always inclined to give French metal a try but their earlier albums just didn’t resonate with me.
I loved Justice’s self titled album when it came out in 2007 but that was half-my-life ago. I’m a different person now and I haven’t given Justice substantial attention since then. But this single with Tame Impala (top-tier alternative pop artist (the Slow Rush is good but his weakest album. Lonerism is a 9 and Currents is a 10)) caught my eye and then my ear and then I listened to all of Justice’s Hyperdrama and it is an enormous pulsating beast. I had it on while making my kids some plain cheese quesadillas (their choice, not mine) and thought “Woah, this is epic”
I’m a bit ambivalent. I think there are some solid tunes, but I think the collab songs are the weakest part of the album. They remind me heavily of the Pharrell collab with Daft Punk on Random Access Memories: catchy, radio friendly but ultimately they don’t emotionally resonate with me. The solo songs on Hyperdrama are mostly superb bangers.
Oddly enough I’m the exact opposite. I find so much of her previous stuff to be absolutely vapid and empty (not bad, just…it’s pretty shiny pop music and that’s essentially it, except for maybe Midnights which I think is an actually decent album cause it straddles the line between her pop persona and this more insightful low key stuff she’s doing now) but this album, along with Evermore & Folklore, are so goddamned good to me. This is the kind of stuff I want from her. Don’t get me wrong, Blank Space is one of my all time favorite songs from her, but “You’re on your own kid” and “Anti-hero” from Midnights and “I hate it here” and “so high school” from Tortured Poets straight up make me cry and feel heard, even though they’re so specifically about her own past. They’re just that relateable. I’m also just a big fan of Jack’s production style and have been ever since he started Bleachers.
This album is fantastic and I’ve had it on repeat for days.
Then again, maybe I’d feel differently if I felt like Lana Del Rey had anything of substance to say and wasn’t an incredibly shitty person.
I´d like to take your fear, everything is not as bad as it seems
Simply say that these lines have some kind of meaning
But my texts could never work as paroles on the walls
No consolation in sad times
The opposite, almost all of my lines
talk about negative sides and being against things
I don’t have a sick flow and I also don’t produce hits
But give me one line and the good mood shifts
I´d like to be full of confidence
Someone, hopefully looking out into the future
Who can handle to endure all of this
I wish I could tell you
Everything will be fine
Humans are bad and the world ist fucked
But everything will be fine
The system is broke, and the society fails
But everything will be fine
Your life is in pieces and the house is on fire
But everything will be fine
Doesn´t feel like it, but everything will be fine
And if my grandfather wasn´t dead for 15 year
He´d say “how time flies”
If you think that somehow everything will go on in life
Cancer takes you straight back to reality
Nice themes for songs these times
But I just can’t manage to write “Believe in yourself, just go your way”
Sorry, no consoling phrases at the end
The last track will also drag you down to the dirt
I´d like to be full of confidence
Someone, hopefully looking out into the future
Who can handle to endure all of this
Looking at you I wish I could tell you
Everything will be fine
Humans are bad and the world ist fucked
But everything will be fine
The system is broke, and the society fails
But everything will be fine
Your life is in pieces and the house is on fire
But everything will be fine
Doesn´t feel like it, but everything will be fine
I do totally love Folklore and Evermore! Glad the album resonates with you, and for what it’s worth, those two songs you mentioned from Midnights are my favorites from that album too. I don’t necessarily want her to make more poppy music, much the opposite actually.
As for Lana, I don’t have any particular opinion of her as a person, but I bring her up because Jack had a huge hand in her sound and I find the similarity between their instrumentals a little off-putting at this point. When it comes to lyrics, something about Taylor just doesn’t vibe with me when she’s writing about a hyper-specific breakup like this, I much prefer her when she’s more vague and impressionistic with her lyrics like in Folklore.
Shoutout to the newest St. Vincent album. I didn’t really pay much attention to the rollout this time around, but I love the how dark the singles are and I’ve been listening to them a lot now. I really wish she had committed more to the sound of songs like “Broken Man,” and “Flea,” as the album unfortunately loses its edge after the first half. Not my favorite of her records, but it’s a good one.
The latter half is her diving into her inner David Byrne. I dig it all, but I’m more inclined to the Summer-BBQ, happier-at-least-in-terms-of-composition second half of the album around this time of year.
It’s a strong album that I’ll be playing with regularity over the remainder of the year.
Different strokes I suppose. I’m in the mood for some doomy music.
I wanted to listen to some Lady Gaga but I forgot the name Lady Gaga so instead I googled Madonna 2
They be like “Ooh, let them eat cake”
But we eat wings and throw them bones on the ground
Give Em What They Love through Electric Lady is one of the strongest three track runs I’m aware of. Hall of fame pump up party tunes.
This, Meet the Grahams, and 6:16 in LA are (hopefully) finishing what Pusha started all those years ago- ending Drake
Check out the first nine tracks off her ArchAndroid, then (well don’t count neon gumbo because it’s just a sample reversed from her first album, as like an interlude). Absolutely masterful.
God, I love that album. It’s incredible.
It’s so good and I’m a little bummed that her career trajectory didn’t really allow for another similarly experimental record. Electric Lady was decent, but since then (and including that album) her stuff’s becoming more and more generic.
Gonna pile on and say ArchAndroid was one of my favorite records of the 2010s. I also do like Electric Lady quite a bit, but AA was on another level.
Steve Albini passed away today. Certainly a figure with a lot of baggage, but he had a production hand in some of my favorite albums. Nirvana’s In Utero, Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, Low’s Things We Lost In the Fire, GYBE’s Yanqui U.X.O., Cloud Nothings’ Attack on Memory… Been revisiting some of these since I read the news.