No one has mentioned Cherry, and I'm fucking raged about it :P
Have loved that song ever since she dropped it live at KROQ Weenie Roast in California. Obsessively watched the bootlegs of that performance and bonded big time with my lover at the time over that new song Cherry energy. Got me fucking hyyyyped for Lust For Life. Was into the dance moves, the absolute dripping sweetness and devastating love. It took awhile for me to get into the final album version, but boy, it sure does things to me still today. Even made a professional headshot and photograph series based on Cherry and Honeymoon tunes for my portfolio lol
Definitely spewing that the music clip never got made, but did love the promo vid made for V magazine <3
The past couple of albums I'm more tepid on her work. I don't know if some of the controversies surrounding her killed the love, that said, my own attitudes and values in life have matured a shit tonne, so that's prolly it too. The music though, I'm glad she's grown and feels more free to explore as an artist - more than we get with a lot of charting radio-play artists. I could take it or leave most of it, with a few songs here and there still speaking to me.
She really nailed Norman Fucking Rockwell. As an artistic piece, it was so virtuous. Gorgeous, devastating, and downright fun all at once, along with some of the best songwriting the last decade. It was so refreshing after Lust For Life.
You have the pantheon of greats in other albums. Honeymoon is just delicious. Ultraviolence used to be a guilty pleasure, but I can't go back to it. There were too many unhealthy behaviours and attitudes I was living out in my life when I was most attached to it, though it was fire, and the production was fucking stunning. She really knows how to come up with a theme and run with it. Young & Beautiful is timeless. Born To Die as an album is too. I remember the first time I listened to it right through and loving the fuck out of it as I walked the side of a road figuring out how to get home after a night out. Off To The Races, Blue Jeans, National Anthem, Summertime Sadness, and This Is What Makes Us Girls stood out. The Cedric Gervais remix of SS is the one that gets all the play, but it's the SxAde Synthwave Version that brought me new life in the clubs:
She delivered with stunning music videos from the get go, and though a lot didn't get her at the time, I think she also really owned some awesome live performance choices of that era. Call it nasty, but the angle she took to pull it off was genius. Million Dollar Man live at Concert Privé and Born To Die live at Poolside at Chateau Marmont bloody collected my heart.[/MEDIA]