I was about five songs into the new 77-minute Lana Del Rey album 'Did You Know There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd' on Friday when, with a sudden, angry urgency, I thought "Fuck this! Life's too short" and resolved never to listen to Lana Del Rey again.
I doubt the resolution will last more than a couple of days, as my better nature tends to allow every album at least one more chance, but, in any case, I acknowledge it's entirely unfair on LDR to be taking my anger out on her extremely long new album. She didn't ask me to listen to it.
Here's the thing - I'm not a Lana Del Rey fan (as you've probably already surmised). But I do usually listen to her albums, sometimes several times.
There are many problems, whatever the benefits, of the streaming age, but one I'd not really considered until now is that people like me, who like to stay up to date with new music, listen to some artists more than is fair to the artist.
In the olden days (let's say of physical media rather than downloads, which would be different again), I'd have heard Video Games, thought "that's quite good", maybe bought the single, but understood that this wasn't an ideal artist for me, so not bought the album, probably bought 'Young and Beautiful' a couple of years later, which I quite liked - (in actual fact, that is basically what happened, as i bought those tracks on iTunes), but not really bought any more Lana del Rey material, unless I really, really liked something I heard on the radio, which I probably wouldn't have, as it will have sounded good but not a big departure from the schtick.
But, what actually happened, is, either when Lust for life or Norman Fucking Rockwell was getting great reviews (i can't quite recall which), because it would cost me no time, I listened to it, and the subsequent LDR albums, a few times. And they're quite good. If you like that sort of thing, which I could easily, but don't, not like I like Jenny Lewis, Waxahatchee or Joanna Newsom, say.
77 minute Lana del Rey albums are, quite reasonably, for Lana Del Rey fans, not people keeping up with Lana Del Rey out of some peculiar sense of duty.
Well, no, I almost convinced myself I was a fan, of sorts. But the reality is, and this is particularly true of someone who is a solo artist with a "shtick", like LDR, Cave (ok, not a solo artist but kind of), or Newsom, if you don't like what you hear first up, you're unlikely to quite be able to change your mind.
Voices are voices, styles are styles.
Of course, Newsom is a bad example, because I was determined that I was not a fan of hers after The Milk-Eyed Mender, and I completely changed my mind with Ys, but, notably, Joanna Newsom had surgery on her vocal cords between those two albums, and also Ys is arguably the most perfectly realised work of art of this century.
These days, I definitely listen to too much of everything and not enough of something. It leaves me quite ambivalent and testy about quite a lot of acclaimed artists who I can see the appeal of, are vaguely in my wheel house, but don't unlock my particular details. Anyway, just off to listen to the most recent, extremely long, Big Thief album ... when will i learn?
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