Sophie lives in BK, works, writes, plays music, puts on shows and uses twitter.
A few blogs I run or help run:
flavorpill.tumblr.com
thepermanentwave.tumblr.com
sadjams.tumblr.com
spiralringnotebook.tumblr.com
pseudoprofoundelectronicartists.tumblr.com
silentdraperunners.tumblr.com
Quote reblogged from jeremy paul gordon with 118 notes
‘Bob Dylan’ is not his real name. The ‘Ramones’ were not related. ‘Sun Ra’ was from Alabama, not Saturn. The Strokes’ dads are not plumbers. ‘Rick Ross’… look, we don’t have time for this. Yes, Internet, and God bless you for devoting most of the past half-year exclusively to pointing this out, Lana Del Rey is a pose, a persona, a version 2.0, at least, the contrivance of a messy, wayward, unformed, aspiring pop star rummaging through closets and clutching at borrowed pearls. Desperate to be what she thinks you want her to be. Calculated, malleable, untrustworthy, fumbling indelicately for ‘her’ voice or a voice that’s ‘real.’ As the Bard wrote: ‘I can change / I can change / I can change / I can change / If it makes you fall in love.’
Source: airgordon
Quote reblogged from Blue Lines Revisited with 109 notes
the album equivalent of a faked orgasm
Lana Del Rey: Born to Die | Album Reviews | Pitchfork (via desnoise)
Today in weirdly personal album zings you’d never use for a man*. (And I mean “today in,” damn it; there’s one in every single review, and it’s starting to get uncomfortably telling. Yes, I’m still working on my piece….)
* Alright, I did my “research,” by which I mean I googled “site:pitchfork.com fake orgasm.” Google thinks I’m a perv now. I’d do more extensive research but I’m not going to be late to work because I spent too much time googling the word “orgasm.” Anyway, I came up with two results:
- The Rapture’s Luke, in which the comparison is a compliment at best and a neutral descriptor at worst.
- Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby,” which isn’t an insult because that’s actually what happened in the song.
(via katherinestasaph)
The music equivalent of a fake orgasm is a fake orgasm on a record which fails to spark rumours it’s a real one.
(via tomewing)
I mean, generally, guys don’t fake orgasms, and that itself is a statement on gender dynamics that is applicable to this review. I think it accurately describes what LDR is trying to do - giving the listener/viewer whatever they want.
Source: pitchfork.com
Post with 21 notes
It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you.
In the last 24 hours I got pretty angry about two things. First, the ongoing Lana Del Rey fiasco, which was probably my own fault for reading her lyrics for about an hour last night, but which was reinforced by walking to into my office and hearing her album on the speakers this morning. It sounded nice - I’m pretty sure it’s going to get some decent reviews. But the memory of what I’d read made me sad and angry all over again.
The other inciting incident from was the Chuck Klosterman essay in which he strangely and unsuccessful posits that tUnE-yArDs is a flavor-of-the-week indie artist who, along with her gender ambiguity, will fade into the buzzy ether soon enough. This bothered me on a pretty personal level. Merril is an inspiration and hero to me, as someone who is also a woman, musician, ukulele player, singer and believes in questioning gender norms, and her records and live performances have had a huge impact on me over the last few years.
Talking to a friend about our growing desperation in the face of the unending success of the LDR meme, I thought of a piece another friend wrote about her - one of the few that stuck out from the onslaught over the past few months:
What I didn’t understand was why [she] bothered me. But then I watched the videos and realized that for me, the problem was that I simply am not the intended audience.
…in Del Rey’s thus-far oeuvre, the intended audience is a lover who constantly needs to be re-engaged, re-compelled with forever fulfillment, reassured: “You can be the boss, daddy.” The lover/observer, not the artist, is creating the rules, but both are watching so very very closely. To love these songs, I think, requires an exhausting level of interest.
Though these observations were directed towards LDR, I think they can be applied to the Klosterman “controversy” as well. He simply isn’t tUnE-yArDs intended audience. Instead of recognizing that, coming to terms with it, or trying to understand what makes that so (hint: being a professionally grumpy white straight dude might have something to do with it), he assumes that because one minute piece of culture is not all for him, the artist in question must have a limited relevance, and the people who care about her must be suffering from some sort of temporary delusion.
We all make this mistake on occasion, assuming that because we don’t fit in an artists audience their music is bad or of little consequence (and sometimes it’s true, too). What bothers me is that in both of these cases, the parties involved (Chuck Klosterman and LDR’s audience) represent a demographic that is CONSTANTLY pandered to. For the concerns of those outside that group to be treated as silly or delusional (a stereotypical accusation), is all the more proof that sexism is alive and well, and even a distanced nostalgia for a time when it was socially acceptable (which LDR’s music displays) is worse than reversing what marginalized people have been working towards since the days of Ellen Willis, it’s spinning car around and flooring it in the opposite direction.
Post with 54 notes
Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die Tracklist
1. Faded Nostalgia
2. Dresses
3. That Misogynist Song
4. Let Me Be Your Girlfriend (Seriously I’ll Do Whatever You Want (But Really))
5. “Edgy” Sexual Song
6. “Edgy” Violent Song
7. Flowers
8. Wistful Nostalgic Misogyny
9. Feminism Isn’t Pretty
10. You Really Are The Bestest, Really (“Video Games”)
11. Another One That Gives Blogger Bros A Hard On
12. Just Some Shit We Threw Together + More Sepia Toned Misogyny
Photo reblogged from as opposed to stale heck
So I know I’m totally late to the party, but I present to you WhatIThinkAboutLanaDelRey.jpg
Source: whatfreshheckisthis
Quote with 4 notes
Backstreet Boys “We were coming back with a new album, and AJ was like “We’re back” and kevin was like “Who’s back?” and we knew we had ourselves a hit.
I give Lana Del Rey a chance.
Listening to Video Games:
- This basically sounds like a mainstream pop song sung in a slowed down “sultry” style. Not terrible.
- Did she really use the word “bestest”?!
- It’s better if you DON’T watch the cliched found-footage video
- This is ok when the drums kick in, definitely pretty and her voice is nice.
- Kind of repetitive though.
- Yeah ready for this to be over now.
- Also found sound clips add nothing.
Listening to Blue Jeans:
- So far I like this better.
- Still bothered by the found sound samples.
- I think this is a better song than Video Games.
- I like when she sings high.
- There is certainly more offensive/bad music than this. Like the Cults album.
- I kind of like this song.
- She’s better when I don’t have to look at her.
- When I look at her I feel uncomfortable.
- This song structure is weird.
Listening to Diet Mtn Dew:
- Wtf is this the same artist?
- This sounds like a bad version of Portishead.
- Mixed with Lily Allen?
- This is catchy enough.
- What kind of vocal effect is she using?
- “I could sparkle up your eye”??
- This is not as bad as Foster the People.
- This is Portishead for 15 years old Tumblr users.
- …it makes sense why so many music critics like it.
- Stop it with the random interludes at the end, it doesn’t make you artsy.
I was going to listen to “Kinda Outta Luck” by my labtop’s speakers mysteriously stopped working. It isn’t meant to be.
