Popcorn Noises

Me On Lana Del Rey

I wrote this for the Village Voice Pazz & Jop issue - very cool to be asked to do an essay, and doubly fun because after a couple of years writing more and more trend pieces it was great to do something digging into a particular song and what’s happening in it.

I don’t necessarily want to keep talking / thinking too much about Lana Del Rey because it’s exhausting and her album’s about to come out anyway so I have to steel my brains for Round 6,742 of LDR Debating, but the very end of this essay caught my eye. “It’s uncanny valley pop about an uncanny valley love affair—almost convincing, but just wrong enough to chill and fascinate.” Cool! Is this maybe something we’ll see happening a lot more as digital culture continues to further shape and contextualize art? Is Lana Del Rey the @horse_ebooks of pop music? These are the things I will be trying not to think about as I wade slowly through the tide of Pazz & Jop content today.

Source: tomewing