Lana Del Rey’s new album, Honeymoon comes out on September 18. This is exciting news for my daughter and me, both big fans of the mournful chanteuse.
It is less exciting for my wife, who finds Del Rey boring and annoying. As we remind her regularly… haters gonna hate.
While looking up Honeymoon‘s release date, I discovered that Del Rey released an 8-song EP titled Paradise in between her last two full-length albums. New music before the new music!
John Mellencamp released 1993’s Human Wheels 17 years into his successful career. It’s been 22 years since. I’m a casual Mellencamp fan at best, but from a distance I view this record as a turning point for him.
He had certainly released his share of hits before Human Wheels. In fact, the seven albums prior to this one went platinum, and five of them went 3x or 5x platinum. But the songwriting and production on this record was on a different level, or at least a level that more directly connected with me.
Here’s a track from the debut Traveling Wilbury’s album, a favorite album of mine.
‘Congratulations’ finds Bob Dylan in crooner mode, a combination that shouldn’t work but often does. According to the publishing credits on the album, Dylan wrote this song as well, which might explain why he got lead vocal duties over, say, Roy Orbison.
Rounding out my latest look at the Billboard charts is Fetty Wap, with his third appearance in the top 13.
Sadly, ‘679’ is just as bad as the other two.
I never feel as old as when I’m trying to make sense of the commercial success of songs like this. Do today’s kids really respond to this celebration of misogyny and the thug life?
Wiz Khalifa’s ‘See You Again,’ another track with a claim on the Song of the Summer title, sits at #11 on Billboard’s Hot 100. This song has had a hell of a run, especially considering Furious 7, in which it first appeared, was released in early April.
That said, I don’t know if a Song of the Summer should be a somber remembrance of a man who died too young. Songs of the Summer should be happy, IMHO, which is why my vote remains ‘Shut Up and Dance.’
Meet Me In Montauk 