Originally Posted by DRAGON LANCE:
“There certainly is a whole world of Lana You-Tube vids, you'll have a lot of fun going through them!
That Spin article is a fair enough perspective on Lana I suppose. The person who has written it has actually done some research and not just come up with a load of B.S. like so many others do. As you've probably already gathered from that and what others say about her, she's had to take a ridiculous amount of hate, probably the most I have ever seen a credible artist take in the whole of music history.
Most of it hinges on the simple fact that she's lucky enough to have a rich dad. Off the back of this with no form of verification what-so-ever a load of US music press and internet blogs made up a load of codswallop that rich dad had somehow paid for his little princess to be the "manufactured Britney Spears" of Indie music and she's just a major label puppet. Internet trolls have parroted this ever since.
As you might have also gathered from Spin its all complete nonsense. There's a whole host of evidence that proves she slogged her guts out for years before being lucky enough to get a major label deal. She's really one of the most self-made artists on the planet and has a very distinct style she's created herself. I really do not know how you "fake" that!”
I hope the SPIN article is a sign that people will see things differently if they actually bother to look beyond superficial appearances and prejudices.
I'm glad I encountered Lana's music in the way I did, hearing her on 6 Music and Later, then exploring Youtube, rather than coming to it with negative ideas in my head from the press.
Quote:
“Just for your Info Veri if you want a loose playlist to You-Tube of what Lana's done over the years;
Her first (known) album is called Sirens and she recorded it under the name of May Jailer. People seem to think she did it when she was 19. It’s an acoustic record, just her singing and playing guitar. Some people might say it’s a Lo-Fi work but I think it’s beautiful.
There's MySpace page under the name of Sparkle Rope Jump Queen which is her again, and has demos of acoustic tracks Elvis and Axel Rose Husband. The last one is a very telling song title as gossip mags seem to think she's having some sort of fling with the old rocker! Its perhaps worth saying her actual confirmed boyfriend is a young chap called Barry James O’Neill from Scottish Folk Rock band Kassidy.
Indeed the track Bel Air from the Paradise Edition has all sorts of Axel Rose references in its lyrics, make of that what you will. She's obviously quite fond of him either way.
You then get the one we call the Lizzy Grant album, the infamous album that she pulled the plug on at the last minute and bought off the record company before it got fully released. It’s a great album though; some of her best work is on there.
And then we get Born to Die + The Paradise Edition which you should be aware of.
Oh and on top of that you've got a seemingly endless stream of leaked songs. There literally seems to be a new batch every other week. She claims that people hack her e-mail and steal them, which makes me a little sad if that's true. But (not that I'm knocking her one bit for doing it if this is the case) a lot of fans think she's got to be putting them out there herself. Again draw your own conclusion.
The point is the quality of these unreleased songs is stunning! Try You-Tubing the following tracks: On Our Way, Driving in Cars with Boys, You Can Be the Boss, Kinda Outta Luck, Never Let Me Go, Serial Killer, Ooo Baby, Summer of Sam, Children of the Bad Revolution, Paris and Damn You, as a taste of them.
It’s quite painful from a fans point of view to think that many of these probably will just remain on the Web only and never get put on albums. But that lot should keep you going for some time!”
Thanks!
I have found many of those things, but not all. I like "Damn You" a lot.
The May Jailer songs are interesting. I like the way she plays the guitar (finger picking(?)), and that the wistfulness of her voice contrasts with some of the lyrics; but i would like the hear the songs -- not more "produced", but -- with better sound quality (all too often a problem with Youtube clips).
It's too bad she's acquired a reputation for being unable to sing live. (It's very unfortunate that the SNL performance, which I haven't see and am not inclined to seek out, came before people had much else to go on.) I hope that reputation fades as she does more live performances and more people go to the events or listen to the clips.
I think I prefer some of the live versions of the Born to Die songs to the album ones. I like the band she plays with, and the strings. There may still be effects. In one of the interview clips, the interviewer says (though not to criticise) "why does she sound like she's in a tunnel" when she says something into her singing mic (it's just reverb). But it's still a plainer approach, and I think the natural subtleties of her voice come through better that way, live.
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