January 12, 2021

"I’m not the one storming the capital, I’m literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven. Respect it."

Said Lana Del Rey, quoted in "Lana Del Rey Reveals, Immediately Defends New Album Chemtrails Over the Country Club Cover" (New York Magazine). I've seen controversial album covers before, and I really don't know what micro-infraction she thinks people are detecting...

... I'm just here to quote the comment, "For Christ’s sake folks (not just Lana)—it’s spelled 'Capitol'—I feel like no one knows this?"

Here's the title track, in case you might enjoy the music (and the visuals):

Here are the lyrics, in case you, like me, don't want to strain through the mumbling to get to the words but somehow still care what she might be saying. 

There's nothing wrong contemplating God/Under the chemtrails over the country club/We're in our jewels in the swimming pool/... It's beautiful, LSD, normality settles down over me/I'm not bored or unhappy, I'm still so strange and wild/... Washing my hair, doing the laundry/Late night TV, I want you on me.... 

55 comments:

BUMBLE BEE said...

Artsy, wierd and mumbly. Set my decoder ring as required. came up with this...

https://genius.com/Lana-del-rey-chemtrails-over-the-country-club-lyrics

Ann Althouse said...

The post links to the lyrics.

The Crack Emcee said...

"There's nothing wrong contemplating God"

There's your first mistake.

The Crack Emcee said...

I made it through 19 seconds of the video before I lost interest.

stlcdr said...

I was curious about the supposed controversy over the cover - assuming chemtrails is now an ‘un-word’. Turns out (from the Vulture link) there are ‘black people on the cover (!)’. I mean, wtf is wrong with people? However, I’m now assuming that the whole controversy/critique thing is made up - as it describes in the article.

Regarding the song; modern, no tune, throw-away, nothing, blandness.

Ann Althouse said...

It's probably a fake controversy to promote the album. It worked on me... and I even realized it and promoted the album anyway! And I don't even like her.

Clyde said...

Not a fan of the video. The sound is muddy and the deliberately jumpy, crappy video quality is annoying. I made it to 1:24 and stopped it.

I liked this one one better. Crack Emcee will probably hate it (very culty).

Hazel English - Shaking

Clyde said...

You'll never see Jell-O the same way again...

rhhardin said...

Finally I know what a chemtrail is. Water condensation from airplane passage.

David Begley said...

She’s beautiful!

RMc said...

"For Christ’s sake folks (not just Lana)—it’s spelled 'Capitol'—I feel like no one knows this?"

Capital = City where the seat of government is housed (e.g. Washington, DC).

Capitol = Actual building where legislators meet (e.g. The Capitol).

Also, the hockey team is called the Capitals.

David Begley said...

Elizabeth is her real name. She was raised Catholic and earned a degree in philosophy from Fordham, a Jesuit school.

Fritz said...

rhhardin said...
Finally I know what a chemtrail is. Water condensation from airplane passage.


Well, yeah. Technically, water is a chemical, and there's certainly extra CO2 and probably some unburned jet fuel.

David Begley said...

The controversy is that there are no POC on the cover!

I kid you not!

We now need quotas for album covers. The “My Sharona” album cover would not be allowed today.

David Begley said...

Correction. Not enough POC on the cover.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"For Christ’s sake folks (not just Lana)—it’s spelled 'Capitol'—I feel like no one knows this?"

Our Progressive Education system results from decades of not teaching actual subjects and focusing on brainwashing the kiddies to become good little cogs in the machine of our new Socialist Utopia.

Hardly anyone knows much about anything anymore. Just the way it has been planned. All the easier to control the sheep.

rehajm said...

Kit car.

Rob said...

Nope, still don't care what she might be saying. In fact, still don't know who she is. And don't care.

David Begley said...

She’s this generation’s Dylan.

Both changed their names. Both she began her singing career in NYC.

Kai Akker said...

Thank you, RMc. The generic word is capital. The specific building is the Capitol.

Just repeating for certain clarity. So the "correcter" was incorrect about his or her correction. Much less the snark that went with it.

Kai Akker said...

The people "storming" [sic] the Capitol were also storming the capital, in the larger sense.

rehajm said...

Lana Del Rey says Trump is “a reflection of our world’s greatest problem – sociopathy and narcissism”

So if Trump is the reflection, the origination of the wavefront is...

rehajm said...

Let's just cut with the pretense and go with kapital.

Kai Akker said...

Watched her video on silent, no speakers set up yet, but she really has the Grace Kelly x Lana Turner fantasies going. She looks more like Deanna Durbin to me, though. Love that name, pure vanilla ice cream cone, del Rey, chemtrails, country club -- what an awesome combination of throwbacks! Luv u Lana!

Roy Lofquist said...

As to her mumbling - these are two renditions of the same song, first by her then by Angelina Jorden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bag1gUxuU0g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNU-HcLuO_I

Compare and contrast.

D.D. Driver said...

So if Trump is the reflection, the origination of the wavefront is...

You guessed it: Frank Stallone.

Howard said...

Chemtrails form on the particulates from burned jet fuel that provides condensation nuclei.

Howard said...

Lana is as hot as a woman can get. She avoids the hollywood propensity for borderline anorexia by retaining just the right amount of fat in all the right places.

Kai Akker said...

Nice beard there, Howard.

Michael said...

She’s a great artist. Great chronicler of young 30s in Los Angeles. Highly recommend her work.

Static Ping said...

I bought the "Born to Die" album years ago. It is quite good both as music and storytelling. You do get the feeling that she grew up in an upper class country club culture where every woman was either in the middle of a nervous breakdown or drinking heavily to keep it at bay. It says something that she manages to make that tedious subject interesting.

The Crack Emcee said...

Clyde said...

"Crack Emcee will probably hate it (very culty)."

I had to turn it off when the group sporting "the look" showed up.

CREEPY.

PerthJim said...

This "controversy" was created by Lana. A great PR move, getting people to talk about the record.

That said, the video is interesting and the song is OK. It reminds me of the great videos of the 80's. The visuals are great but I have no idea what's going on.

Joe Smith said...

"Lana is as hot as a woman can get."

She's cute in an odd way. Looks best as a redhead. Got some junk in the trunk if that's your thing.

LYNNDH said...

Nice Automobile. Whose the Dame?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I think Lana Del Ray's real name is Hilaria.

She's from New York.

CJ said...

Lana Del Rey, b. Elizabeth Goodridge. I thought of here when we were discussing "Hilaria" Baldwin, b. Hillary Hayward-Thomas. Two scandalous cultural appropriators. At least "Lana" is now singing about appropriate subjects when she sings about country clubs.

Although she could sing better. It's really not very inspired music.

Amexpat said...

I'm not into Lana's recordings or videos, but some of her live performances in small clubs move me. I put links below for live performances of Blue Jean and Born to Die that show her range.

I agree with a sentiment that I came across in Camille Paglia's book, Provocations: A little bit of Lana goes a long way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX_ptHopamc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5QsmDCZBwI

Kai Akker said...

Before I read her statements, I had nearly half the women photographed at the table as Lana herself. So OK, apparently not. Look at the playthings, the white dresses, the little purselets, all the pearls, bracelets, other costume jewelry and deco. They are modern young adults who wish they were the real adults of the '50s. Do they need the right kind of men to show them how? Do they simply yearn for when America was indisputably great? Do they want to play at '50s American stereotypes, but with 21st century American personnel? Those gloves in the video say yes, when women were women. Hence "Let Me Love You Like a Woman"?

Haven't heard any of her music, but Lana looked very lonely in that video. These women need some masculine help. I see Lana was playing it coy IRL over being engaged to a man identified as a guitarist, after breaking up with her last boyfriend who was a cop. Good luck with either of those, I'm afraid.

Hey Skipper said...

@Howard: Chemtrails form on the particulates from burned jet fuel that provides condensation nuclei.

No. I know that's what Scientific American says, but there isn't nearly enough particulates in jet engine exhaust to form much of anything — modern jet engines are extremely efficient.

Besides, it doesn't explain the cons coming off wingtips.

Skeptical Voter said...

Well she can't spell "Capitol" and she's confused about "contrails". A cynic might say she's aping a Brentwood Bimbo with a husband with a lot of capital. Unless she's talking about chemtrails in her mind leftover from last night's drug abuse. But that's just me.

One more singer I'm probably never going to listen to.

Clyde said...

The Crack Emcee said...

I had to turn it off when the group sporting "the look" showed up.

CREEPY.


It was. It was supposed to be creepy. She brings the short-haired young man that she has enticed back to her cult house, where he sees all of the long-haired young men, who have evidently been there for a while. He watches them all eat the Jell-O that she places before them. She then summons him, singing:

Get down on your hands and knees
Baby, beg for me
Tell me that I am your queen
Maybe I'll set you free

A reddish Jell-O colored glow comes from her abdomen as he kneels before her. Then we see him eating the Jell-O and all of the young men shaking spasmodically. The sexual nature of the Jell-O imagery is obvious.

Clyde said...

That said, I heard the song first before I saw the video. It was one of the ones Amazon recommended after I'd been listening to some other pop music. And it is a catchy song, but the video was creepy indeed.

PM said...

That covid mask is muy funny.

Kai Akker said...

She spelled capital correctly. Ann's "misspelling" tag is the error. Some commenter somewhere else complained about misspelling "Capitol" as capital. But they're two different though related words. Lana's usage was fine. The word was spelled correctly. End of story.

Openidname said...

I have no respect for people who order me to respect them (or what they're doing -- same thing).

Rabel said...

I listened to the song and I can see why it needed extra promotion.

The vampire/wolfwoman girls were not so bad.

robother said...

Maybe "capital" is the breathy way of pronouncing "Capitol." Her lips are so full of botox I couldn't even lip-read the lyrics.

KellyM said...

Blogger David Begley said...
"Elizabeth is her real name. She was raised Catholic and earned a degree in philosophy from Fordham, a Jesuit school."
And therein lies the problem....perfidious Jesuits.

Further to Kai Akker @ 10:21 AM: I think you're right. The perfectly coordinated clothing (with shoes, handbags, and gloves to match) is on two levels: both mocking what the perceived narrowness of 50s womanhood “must have been” and also secretly desirous of it.

Lana del Rey's tune "Summertime Sadness" also dips into that wistfulness for a past never experienced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdrL3QxjyVw

Howard said...

Thanks Skip, your correct. The FAA says that the sulfur compounds in jet exhaust are ccn's, but there are plenty of natural particulates for making contrails.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

No, you guys are getting "contrails" and "chemtrails" confused. The idea -- if it weren't mostly prevalent among lefties, it would certainly be a "conspiracy theory" -- is that the government is lacing the upper atmosphere with unknown chemicals, distinct from the mostly-vapor "contrails," but disguised beneath them. You could tell because the contrails diffused over time and the "chemtrails" did not. I heard all this in perfect sincerity from a co-worker at a small music shop maybe twenty years ago; she said it was common knowledge.

Can we maybe admit that lefties are as prone to conspiracy-theory-making as anyone else? Between "Truthers" and anti-vaxxers and the "chemtrail" people, to say nothing of the folks who see an honest-to-God Klansman everywhere except where there actually is one (I'm looking at you, all you lefty "Hey, it was just in fun!" blackfacers) and anti-Semites only where they aren't Black, that lot is competing very nicely with the Right.

320Busdriver said...

All I know is that her cover of Sublime’s Doin’ Time is, well, sublime.

https://youtu.be/qolmz4FlnZ0

Howard said...

Michelle, I'm joking calling contrails chemtrails. I'm pretty sure no one posting here believes in chemtrail conspiracy enough to admit it.

Chemtrail conspiracy theory is pushed mostly by right wingers like Alex Jones and George Nouri. I'm sure plenty of libtard environment wackos believe it too.

What you should be worried about is HAARP ;)

Howard said...

320busdriver: We agree on something. The LA River never looked so good.

320Busdriver said...

We do it all the time.


https://imgur.com/gallery/Yab77