Why We Are All Lana Del Rey(s)

Come and take a walk on the wild side
Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain
You like your girls insane
Choose your last words
This is the last time
Cause you and I, we were born to die

I know, everybody is talking about her, writing about her, analysing so much as her every sneeze. But I felt left out, okay?!

So this is what this little blog is adding to the cacophony of Lana discussion (the Tower Of Rey-bel, if you will): we are all Lana Del Rey. Lana Del Rey is all of us.

Why? Because it doesn't matter who, what, when and why Lizzy Grant transformed into Lana Del Rey. She's a 25 year old girl/woman - I can feel a Britney lyric coming on there - who has found who she wants to be. I think I can state with some degree of authority, as someone who is also 25, that it is a weird age. You finally feel as though you are becoming the person you are meant to be, but you still have a lot to learn and mess things up on a regular basis. Very regular.

Discussions with a friend earlier tonight involved anecdote swapping about our late teens and early twenties. Otherwise known as 'The Dark Times'. Forgetting even the personal, academic and car-related screw-ups from that time, I can look back (read: squint through shaded eyes) at my outfit choices from just four years ago and want to DIE. Preferably QUICKLY, and where no-one will ever see my embarassed face again. I'll be honest, in 2005, I had shit hair. I'm not saying it's fantasticarama now, but back then, it was really shit. I went to three different universities and at each one, attempted to peel off the shabby layers of teenage chrysalis to unveal the sparkling, dazzling personality I hoped might lay beneath my dodgy jeans and heavy handed eyeliner applications - all to no avail. This stuff takes time.

*By the by, for anyone over the age of 25, I know this isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff. Bear with me, I have a point and will make it eventually. I promise.*

My point is (see, I told you) that sure, Lana/Lizzy looks pretty dreadful in those old YouTube videos, singing on stage in a godawful baggy green t-shirt and faded jeans, her hair peroxide yellow, her lips decidedly un-bee-stunged. Her songs are nice, her voice an even quieter version of its current babygirl whisper. But if you look n' listen closely, you can see the beginnings of Lana. The foundations of a star. 

And so, a few years later, she discovered hair dye and rollers and lipstick and/or a plastic surgeon. She got a good stylist. She worked with the best producers around right now. TA DA! She looks and sounds a whole lot better than she did before. Do you look exactly the same as you did three years ago (especially if you are 25 now)? If you do, then you might want to get a haircut. No offence. It's essentially all just about growing up.

The debate rages as to whether Lana's evolution is all just one big stage-managed piece of cynical marketing. Now, as much as I hate being sneakily sold anything, my answer to that is this: if she was completely void of talent, a hollow shell made beautiful by a money-hungry record label boss, then how would she get so many people to fall in love with her? There are twenty two million views and counting on Video Games. If that's not fans, then that's a lot of people who are morbidly curious.

Her live performances are shaky, nervous, awkward - and yet we are all fascinated by her. There is a difference between someone who is genuinely vomit-inducing awful on stage (anyone remember a pregnant Katie Price in a pink PVC catsuit, attempting to sing a Eurovision entry? Yeah, I had repressed that one too) and someone who is not conventionally perfect, who maybe makes mistakes, yet still has something special about them.   

I reckon Lana is special. I like everything about her. Maybe she is just a young woman, still discovering who she is. Or maybe she is a figment of a marketeer's imagination. If she is a made-up character, then I like that made-up character. Either way, she has hit on something genius, which has made her the fastest rising star on the planet.

That other bird who we all used to talk about, Gaga whatsherface, once said that we were all Born This Way. That's kind of true, but even she was Stefani Germanotta not so long ago.

GL

#nowplaying Lana Del Rey - Born To Die (obviously)

All images & video: Lana Del Rey, Interscope

2012: The Year Good Stuff Happens To Pretty Neat People

 
So this is what 2012 looks like...weird.

Many posts have appeared then vanished from my brain over the past few weeks but seriously, who needed yet another 2011 round up? We had enough 'best of' lists to last us 'til next Christmas and anyway, Charlie Brooker covered off anything you needed to know about 2011 in his Screenwipe. He's such a clever chap, that Brooker. Funny, too. Let's just not mention farm animals.

My current plan of attack for 2012 is childishly simple. No looking back. Je ne regrette rien, or whatever that Piaf bird sung about (incidentally, if you happen not to have seen La Vie En Rose, rectify that immediately.) 

Last year saw yet another surreal chain of events occur on a global scale, but also in the life of YT, so with the view that things will probably get a bit 'round the twist' again, I am focusing on the good stuff that will definitely happen.

First up, the Refused and At The Drive In reformation. Oh hi, two of my favourite bands who I never thought I'd see play live. Who gives a flying flip that they are being paid big $ to play again, as Daniel P Carter pointed out, at some point professional musicians do need to earn some actual cash.

New Noise by Refused changed this little girl's life; when I first heard that song it was like someone lit a touchpaper in my brain. There was a punk club night that went by the same name in a tiny bar in Kingston when I was a student - none of my friends liked rock music, so I'd get in my car and drive there alone, just to listen to the songs. This plan worked really well until someone recognised me from my Myspace profile picture. Now THOSE were the days of social media glory, friends. (Truth be told I was mortified and left pretty sharpish.)

Obviously, being a resident of Brighton and not Los Angeles, earning a crust as a young journalist, circumstances have yet again prevented me from obtaining a Coachella ticket, so as yet I will just have to imagine their live sets. And hope, pray, beg that they come to the grotty old UK and play Reading. What a dream... Because yet again, I know come bank holiday weekend in August I'll be wearing an anorak in a muddy field, drunk at 2pm in the afternoon, living the high life at Reading Festival. Oh, the glamour! There's also Sleigh Bells and Florence gigs to look forward to, plus many more in between. Who could forget two highly anticipated and threatening-sounding albums that are due for release in the imminent future? Born to Lose and Reign of Terror, welcome to my iTunes.

It's an exciting time for music, if you ignore most of the dross nominated at the Brits (sorry, Ed Sheeran? I still don't get it.) Away from major labels, in both suburban towns and big cities, there is the feeling of desperation in the air, which in turn leads to frustration, which eventually leads to anger and a whole lot of people making angry, noisy music.

Bring that on, thank you please. Dubstep just isn't going to cut it in the current social and economic climate. 

In other forms of culture, I'll be counting the minutes until This is England '90, the final part of Shane Meadows story about the kids in Nottingham. Vicky McClure and Joseph Gilgun are hands-down two of the most exciting young actors in the UK today and as far as I am concerned, they can do no wrong and lots of right.

When I'm not reading, watching or listening to something, I'll mostly be following the progress of all the incredible people I was lucky enough to meet last year. And old friends, still striving to achieve their dreams, or just to make life better. Mainly girls, each talented in different ways, working like mad to make things happen. Things will indeed happen this year, they have to.

#nowplaying Brand New, Sowing Season

GL

PS Talented people alert:

Pamflet

Le Blow

Ella Dror and friends

Katy Brown

Traams

Curxes

Miles Langford @ Elite

Hannah Clark

Melanie Hick

Hannah Dick

Sophie Determann

Jena Birch

Jill Adams

And many more who haven't got a somewhere I can link to just yet.