Lana del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club

I really don't know Lana del Rey's music. She's vaguely SadPop in my mind, but everything i've read leads me to believe she's actually like roman-à-clef 50s/60s Noir type songstress. Apparently Chemtrails Over the Country Club is more Country than Baroque Pop, but again, no basis for comparison. 

Roman-à-clef is really just "autobiohraphical fiction," Dragnet style. The French authors who really developed it often made actual appendix-style documentations for the hardcore fans. If you've ever wondered if that's what i do in my writing, no it's not. I create a structural straw man of bits and pieces and banter with it, but you mostly only get my half of the conversation. If you happen to have said or done something similar i'm not singling you out, i'm saying i've already heard it a thousand times and i don't believe that you actually believe it. I get the sense that people know Lana del Rey is singing about them personally with only the facade of fiction in front of it. Like Anthony Kiedis, but not ironically funny. 

And then we got chemtrails. I use this one a lot as my shorthand for "you're inventing a ridiculously complicated conspiracy theory that doesn't work with any reality i've ever experienced." Conspiracies are a conspiracy, in my opinion; people just do whatever it is they are doing. So, the chemtrail one involves garbage armchair meteorology, secret government weather control and/or chemical warfare on the population, etc. False agency is what you're ascribing; Elf on the Mantlepiece for President 2024. But seriously, i'd phrase it as Madame Coincidence sure kicked me in the balls by making me do that week of Country then having 66.66% of the albums i randomly picked up be in some way Country (hhhhhhh), just to show how humorously ridiculous it is. If Big Brother is watching you, he's pretty useless when it comes to actually doing anything productive with all that nose picking and butt scratching he just watched. Rich people decide how the economy works by spending or not spending their money. No conspiracy needed. 

So what in the world does it mean to put those "chemtrails" over the rich peoples' clubhouse on a golf course with close up of sad white girl in dress out front? I dunno, it's not my metaphor. If i had to guess, it's just a new version of Dizzy Up the Girl. I don't actually win a prize for correctly guessing what it means for you, or anything. 

Here's the general consensus of what the album is (copy and pasted from wikipedia): 

"The album deals with themes of escapism, love, heartbreak and nostalgia, while encompassing her usual references to Americana, alongside emotions of disillusionment." 

Kay, that's basically what i said, but without all the funny stuff. Let's find out if it's true... 

Gatefold is pictures of rich white kids being bougie, and my goodness that's the sound of nostalgia if i've ever heard it. The overarching sentiment, however, is "i am who i am and i'd do it all over again." 

I can see why people say Country, but this is all just produced Sad Pop that isn't actually sad according to her. It might sound sad for us the spectators, but it's like she's saying she likes the way having been naive through all these experiences makes her feel now. She likes remembering feeling important/lost... 

Hold up, what was that lyric? 

[On a tour bus]

"'Cause every time i said no, It wasn't quite what i meaned, if you know what i mean [implied wink by dropping to a lower octave]" 

I have never heard anyone say "meaned" as past tense. Not even my soon to be 6 year old daughter who says "eated" and "boughted" and "gotted." Don't let that fool you, she's ferociously clever and stubborn. 

Then i got to the Tammy Wynette reference and i totally forgot she was married to George Jones, of riding his lawnmower to the bar fame. I think he wrote songs too or something, but he's just one of Tammy's ex-husbands in this story. What you have to keep in mind, though, is Lana is always talking about it as a luxury. "I need to go back to the family ranch to get away from the LA that everybody already hated on all their albums, but i don't want to end up like Tammy Wynette." It's a self-help vacation in her mind and in her rhetoric, and you're not wrong for interpreting it as insulting. 

And we end with the juxtaposition of her being a famous musician seeing and hearing a man playing clarinet on the street for free to no one because he isn't famous. That's a Joni Mitchell cover. 

I mean, as albums go you'd be real hard pressed to find a better one. The concept, the flow, trajectory, the duality indicated by registral shifts, the change from being young and not understanding how the world works to growing up and realizing that being rich and famous is really just a facade. Since she brought it up, there is a real phenomenon where the poor want to be rich and famous while the rich and famous try really hard to be poor again. The tricky part is that you can't stand atop Objectivity Mountain and preach how nonsense that is like i do, because neither side will actually listen. Well, you can because obviously that's what i do, but you have to have a realistic expectation that everyone at some point or another will unfollow you, and you're doing it because it's fun. 

Why is that? Ok, look, this is one of those times when i'm going to say it and you're going to want to feel dumb or embarrassed or whatever. Well, don't. It seems like it goes without saying, but if nobody says it how could anybody actually know? Having money solves the subset of problems that having money can solve. Conversely, all those things money couldn't buy for Paul McCartney? No, money can't buy them for you either. 

Still with me? Ok, inversely speaking, guess which subset of problems you'll be keenly aware of if you don't have money. Go ahead, i'll wait. Oh wow, look at all those light bulbs. Yeah, the problems money CAN solve. Wouldn't it be awesome if rich people and poor people could participate in a process where the rich people solve problems money can solve and we all help each other solve the problems money can't solve? Nope, rich people will call that Communism like they don't know the definition of the word, and absolutely nobody actually likes receiving charity. "Charity" is the through the looking glass synonym for "pity with a creamy guilt sauce to dip it in." So, i like to play everybody's least favorite game show "Who is Your Billionaire, and Are They Doing a Good Job of Adequately Circulating the Money Supply through Your Wallet?" It is not a catchy title, and i freely admit that. Chemtrails Over the Country Club is significantly better. 

All in all this is a fantastic listen. It's realistically self-centered and it stops exactly at the climax with absolutely no resolution because the traffic light changes and her limo driver keeps driving like she's paying him to do, because she's too rich and famous for anyone important to let her hang out with buskers on the sidewalk. How's money gonna solve the problem of having imposter syndrome, let alone having too much money to be anything but an avatar of yourself? 

Before you point out that i resemble those remarks, remember that i'm doing it the opposite direction. I'm demonstrably poor with an upper working class family, but i live like a billionaire because i've fully budgeted for my opulence that looks like an unpopular waste of time. I'm the most important least important person i've ever met. Believe me, it's way better than being the least important VIP in that pool all the more important peoples' kids pee in.

Interlude