This quote made me laugh out loud:

Del Rey has managed, like a slow car in the left lane, to make everyone around her angry and over-invested, despite doing relatively little.

miw:

A great piece featuring this fantastic sentence:

Del Rey has managed, like a slow car in the left lane, to make everyone around her angry and over-invested, despite doing relatively little.

newyorker:

Screen Shot; Lana Del Rey’s fixed image

In the fifteen songs on “Born to Die,” Del Rey is both theatrical and noncommittal. But the new album does not make “Lana Del Rey aka Lizzy Grant” seem like an error that needed redacting. The earlier work had a variety of tempos, styles, and moods, which may be exactly why Del Rey ditched it; its song titles hinted at a notion of going retro (“Put Me in a Movie,” “Mermaid Motel”), but the ungainly album title revealed ambivalence about Grant’s identity. “Born to Die,” by contrast, is a model of consistent branding. The string section thrums in permanent lassitude, the number of beats per minute hovers in the eighties, and Del Rey’s pliable, smoky voice suggests that nothing is a problem, including the narrative contradictions that she plants throughout the album.

Several demos were leaked before the album’s release, and they played with faster tempos and guitars and more aggressive sounds. All of that is gone. The lack of active rhythms was a wise correction by somebody: Del Rey is often at a loss when mobile—she won’t be challenging Beyoncé to a dance-off anytime soon—but she’s fairly compelling when simply looking into a camera and declaiming. Anyone crouching on the Internet, ready to tag Del Rey’s mistakes, will be frustrated by “Born to Die,” which is too expert to register as a failure.

- In next week’s issue, Sasha Frere-Jones writes about (online now) Lana Del Rey and her new album, “Born to Die”: http://nyr.kr/wVJBFW

The Kitten Covers: Great Tumblr or the Greatest Tumblr?

thekittencovers:

Run-C.A.T.

(via shloobykitten)

I remember when you could watch MTV and find out about new music.

It was pretty great.

How to Say “I Do” to Shared Bookshelves Without Ruining Your Relationship

Honestly, this is the thing I worry about most when I think about moving in with my girlfriend. Bookshelf management.

Well, that and merging our iTunes libraries.

(photo via Flickr user G Travels)

(via ohheyprettykitty)

The Bon Iver: One Bottle Red Wine

nostreetcred:

THE BLACK KEYS - LONELY BOY

They’re baaacckkkk… and thank God for it.  Yes, Akron’s favorite sons have a new Danger Mouse produced album set to hit the street the first week in December, and the first single and video have been leaked to whet your appetite.

Enjoy!

Mr. Man

sneak:

Radiohead, All I Need — Live in the basement. This is one of a whole series of them playing songs from In Rainbows live, which are well worth the watch.

Me too.

ihopethisstuffwillmakeyoulikeme:

Addicted

I’m an unabashed radiohead fan boy, so I’m psyched to stream this, download the MP3s, buy the vinyl, frame the album art, etc. etc.

The Four Tet remix of Separator is particularly good, me thinks.

nostreetcred:

SPIN.COM’s GOT IT …

click on any head, radio or otherwise, to jump to the full article and free preview

Spin.com has a piece about the new Radiohead double album collection of remixes coming out, and a link to listen to the full set streamed for free.

Since July, Radiohead have…