Friday! Thank goodness. Here’s some exposition about Woodkid: His real name is Yoann Lemoine, he’s a french music video director and artist. He’s directed videos for Katy Perry (Teenage Dream), LDR (Born To Die) and Drake (Take Care.) I kinda want to be him. He’s released an album called Iron, which currently resides in my Amazon basket. He performed Videogames with LDR, live:
Freakin’ cute (how adorable is LDR’s giggle after the wolf-whistle?) Here’s his rendition of Teenage Dream.
Welcome to my rota-organised life, one and all. I’m continuing with reviewing singles off of Born To Die. Great news if you like glamorously cool YouTube stars. Bad news if you don’t like glamorously cool YouTube stars. After apologising last week for my failure at keeping up a weekly column, I didn’t actually talk about the album as a whole. I like it. A lot. But it feels a bit misleading to say, I like the Lana Del Rey album. I like Lana Del Rey (specifically her voice) and I like that she has an album out but I don’t know how I feel about the album as a coherent, studio-produced record. It feels undeniably rushed, probably as a result over the rocketing success of Videogames, but I don’t think that should count against it. It’s a useful comparison when considering 19 and 21. I much prefer 19 (another female popstar’s first album that critics didn’t exactly fawn over) precisely because it feels a little more raw. 21 is awesome but it’s also really polished. The bits that shine off Born To Die (and Videogames) are the neat little flourishes that feel mercurial and organic. Sometimes, they’re a stretch like the bizarro-Gwen Stefani-esque ‘D-A-R-K, do it my way,’ but most of the time, LDR pulls it off. So anyway: Amateur is good, professionalism sometimes boring. Same goes for my writing. Actual music after the jump:
Strike A Posie: Del Rey's flowery exterior masks a darker side in her music.
The exciting thing about growing up with the internet as your older, more advanced sibling is that you can experience an artist’s journey from YouTube hit to success. But for every Katy Perry, there’s a Sandi Thom. Fortunately for us, Lana del Rey has the promise of the former. She amazed us with her debut, Videogames. Of course, as with any promising artist there has to be a backlash. And backlash there was. If, as a music blog, we have to take a stance, we’re on the side of love. Videogames is an ethereally beautiful track with the sound of Fiona Apple, Julia Stone and toned-down Florence Welch. It felt like the organic beginning of something very exiciting, here’s the track (the video’s rather lovely):
Videogames has been on the circuit for a while now and on October 17th, Lana is releasing her first EP which will also contain Blue Jeans. It’s slightly different to Videogames and while it still has her self-penned ‘Gangster Nancy Sinatra’ feel, it feels more like a radio-friendly hit. Also, by now you should know how much I enjoy popular culture references in songs, and del Rey delivers with aplomb. Thus:
Blue jeans, White shirt Walked into the room you know you made my eyes burn It was like, James Dean, for sure
James Dean was awesome! So are jeans! Buy this record!
Here’s the video for Blue Jeans, enjoy the endearingly amateur camera work while it lasts:
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Michael Crewe
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Can You Hear This 