Lana del Rey
Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass - poems 2020
Tracks: 1. LA Who Am I to Love You / 2. The Land of the 1,000 Fires / 3. Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass / 4. Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving / 5. Salamander / 6. Never to Heaven / 7. Sportcruiser / 8. Tessa Dipietro / 9. Quiet Waiter Blue Forever / 10. What Happened when I Left You / 11. Happy / 12. My Bedroom is a Sacred Place Now - There Are Children at the Foot of My Bed / 13. Paradise is Very Fragile / 14. Bare Feet on Linoleum
Comments:
I have been a big fan of Lana del Rey since “Born to Die”, and have since pre-ordered all her CDs without having heard the music first.
Apart from "Honeymoon", which disappointed me a bit, I was very excited about the others. I was therefore very surprised to discover that there was a CD entitled "Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass". How could I not have noticed this? I hurried to order a copy, without checking up on the contents. Had I done this, I do not think I would have chosen to order, because it turned out that it was a collection of poems recited by Lana del Rey, with a bit of spacey instrumental backing - primarily electric piano and strings - mostly soundstage and not actual composed music. I have to say that poems have never really told me much - a good lyrics is of course important to make a really good song, but for me it has always been the interplay between song and lyrics that mattered.
After the first disappointment had subsided, however, I set out to give the poems a fair and open chance - in fact, I think I have listened to the CD 5-6 times and although I must state that the CD will hardly return much to my CD player in the future, there are fragments of individual tracks / poems I have particularly attached myself to. As a whole, the poems seem very personal and perhaps autobiographical, and the first "LA Who Am I to Love You" appears as an unconditional declaration of love for L.A. shipped from San Francisco.
Several poems deal with being a poet, as opposed to not being one; One is, "Salamander", but it is especially the long, almost allegorical story "Sportcruiser" that stands out strongly. Here, being a poet is held up against playing a sport and believing in oneself - I think that's my favorite track.
"Tessa Dipietro" mentions a 1968 concert with Jim Morrison (The Doors) and has an interesting point about "People Are Strange" - "The lyrics make no sense" - she may be a bit right about that.
On "My Bedroom is a Sacred Place Now - There Are Children at the Foot of My Bed" the theme is to have become a parent and how this changes the approach to many things e.g. "my bed". Here I found the line "I'm funny when I'm drunk - I haven't been drunk for 14 years" very funny.
I'm looking forward to a new "real" with Lana del Rey; which is announced to be right on the stairs.
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