Eamon Blog
Today's Shelf Pull: Lana Del Rey, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass
A sentence, rather than a chorus, sets the pace.
Lana Del Rey steps away from conventional song form on Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass. Read the full story from Kilmorna in Listowel.
Lana Del Rey's Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass asks for a small adjustment before the needle goes down. This is poetry read aloud with music, not a sung studio album. On vinyl, its fourteen readings have two sides in which to unfold.
The music is by Jack Antonoff, and its restrained setting leaves the spoken voice at the centre. Listen for the length of a phrase rather than the arrival of a hook. A sentence has its own way of keeping you waiting.
For today's shelf pull in Listowel, that difference is the attraction. The conversational delivery gives the writing room without turning it into casual background company. You can let the atmosphere settle, but the words still ask you to pay attention.
Released in 2020, this Polydor / Interscope LP is an audio release, not the printed poetry collection. That is worth establishing without making a ceremony of it. Reading a poem and hearing its author read it are neighbouring pleasures, but they do not quite use the same muscles.
LA Who Am I to Love You opens side A. Even before considering the reading, the title puts a place beside a personal question. It is a useful doorway into a programme concerned with reflection, place and memory, rather than conventional choruses.
The Land of 1,000 Fires follows, with the title piece third. There is something helpful about approaching these as successive readings rather than waiting for each to become a song. Cadence supplies movement; the shape of an image supplies another reason to stay.
Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving, Salamander and Never to Heaven complete the first side. Six readings make a manageable stretch of attention. The side break then offers a proper stopping point, not an instruction to hurry along to the next thing.
The close, conversational manner is central to the appeal. With a restrained accompaniment, a pause can register without being filled by a chorus. The practical listening advice is modest: leave enough attention free to notice how a phrase ends, not only what it names.
SportCruiser begins side B, followed by Tessa DiPietro. The change of side gives those two titles a fresh starting position. There are eight readings on this side, so the remaining journey contains more individual pieces than the six that came before it.
Quiet Waiter Blue Forever and What Happened When I Left You come next, followed by Happy. Just looking at those titles, the change in length is striking. That is not a verdict on their moods; a short title need not mean a simple reading.
Later comes Paradise Is Very Fragile, before Bare Feet on Linoleum closes the record. Those titles move from an abstract idea towards an ordinary surface. Without pretending they explain the poems, they offer a useful reminder to attend to the writing's concrete images.
Between Happy and Paradise Is Very Fragile sits My Bedroom Is a Sacred Place Now – There Are Children at the Foot of My Bed. The title alone stretches towards a full statement. On a record organised around spoken language, even the track list makes you aware of sentences occupying space.
There is no need to turn this into a test of literary seriousness. Its difference from a song-based album is practical: the listener follows delivery, pacing and images without the usual return of a chorus. An attentive evening is enough of an occasion. No special chair is required.
For someone who follows Del Rey's writing, this offers a different frame around it. The reader's voice takes precedence over conventional song structure, making the pace of the language part of the encounter.
It also makes sense for listeners drawn to recorded poetry, whether or not they usually reach for her albums. The musical setting accompanies the readings rather than changing the basic nature of the record.
The invitation is straightforward: give the words a little room and take the side break when it arrives. Fourteen readings, a conversational voice and restrained music make a clear proposition. The sentence leads; follow that.
On the shelf today:
Lana Del Rey - Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass
LP, 2020
Spoken Word / Comedy
EUR 35.95
Available from The Kilmorna Collection, Listowel
Buy or reserve: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl/lana-del-rey-violet-bent-backwards-over-the-grass
Buying vinyl records in Ireland: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl-records-ireland
On the shelf today
Lana Del Rey - Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass
LP / Spoken Word / Comedy / 2020
EUR35.95 / Available now
Order / Reserve