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.

On the shelf today

Lana Del Rey - Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass

LP / Spoken Word / Comedy / 2020

EUR35.95 / Available now

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