Norman Fucking Rockwell Analysis- "Norman Fucking Rockwell"

I can already tell that this album is so complex and full of fun, English-y things for us to discuss!

English Teacher KP

I'm excited!

English Teacher KP

Omg I'm obsessed 😭 this is my favorite Lana album, followed by her most recent Blue Banisters. I've been a fan of hers since the beginning, and i know people miss her debut days with her Born to Die album because it's full of bops (NFR and BB are not bops) however, this album is so rich and complex and deep and emotional. Lana is so underrated, she is such a true artist!

Lindsay Bennett

The next song is one of her most poetic ones. I think you’re gonna love it!

Pedro Medeiros

Of course! Both albums are masterpieces but everyone has different tastes! I love to listen to NFR to relax and escape for a bit but I love to listen to Born to Die and have a mini concert in my car!

Kathryn

Thanks! This is good to know!

English Teacher KP

yup, it's definitely the most upbeat one!

j

While all of Lana's albums are full of complexity, they also all have distinctive sounds based on your musical preferences I think you would enjoy her debut album the most!

Kathryn

Love that for you ❤️❤️❤️

English Teacher KP

I LOVE that you've sort of imagined an entire backstory to the subject here because it makes your interpretation so rich! For me, there definitely seems to be an aspect of satire; however, I do think there also seems to be more than that. Relationships are complicated. Emotions are complicated. Just because you know someone is a talentless, narcissistic "manchild", doesn't mean you hate that person necessarily. The speaker seems to genuinely want to stay with this person despite his flaws. Perhaps, as you've implied, this is because she lives in an era when she doesn't have much of a choice. However, many women (and men) stay with problematic partners today as well for a plethora of reasons. And I agree with you 100% that this guy seems to be under the very wrong impression that he's some sort of "Norman Rockwell" level artist. This characterization of the subject is, no doubt, significant. One thing we haven't really touched on, though, is the fact that Norman Rockwell, though a famous and talented artist for sure, has been highly criticized by art critics over the decades. Many consider his work a bit silly (not saying I agree, but it is an interesting point) which begs the question- what makes "good" art anyway, and who gets to decide? Regardless, Rockwell was incredibly successful and very influential....neither of which the subject seems to be. And regarding the painting her blue part, I definitely see your point about the man imposing himself onto the woman (that's kind of what I was getting at when I brought up blue being a traditionally masculine color), but again--I think there's more to it. You used the word "nuance", and I think that's the perfect word to describe all of the fine shades of meaning within this song! Here, multiple things seem to be true at once. Thanks so much for adding in your thoughts, Katelyn! I definitely feel like I gained some deeper meaning through this discussion!

English Teacher KP

That's definitely the impression I got as well! Norman Rockwell dealt so much with the sort of nostalgia of tradition and the average American life. Maybe she is satirizing that a bit? I also wonder think that perhaps the subject liked to think of himself as rather important and talented (like a famous artist)...but he wasn't.

English Teacher KP

In my opinion, part of Lana's brand is telling the stories of women who have a "traditional" submissive role in relation to men in ways that reveal in excruciatingly painful detail exactly how miserable these women's lives can be sometimes when their husbands or boyfriends don't live up to the pedestal the women put them on. I've seen people accuse Lana of being "anti-feminist" but i think she's the exact opposite: those people miss the nuances in her lyrics that show how she's condemning the patriarchy. In this song in particular i have the sense that she's singing from the POV of a housewife in the Norman Rockwell era, a smiling woman in a family scene, who isn't really fulfilled and thinks her husband is a man child even as she listens attentively to every word he says. My thoughts on the "head in your hands / as you color me blue" line is that the man is a painter sitting in front of a canvas resting his head on one of his hands as he paints Lana (his subject) literally in all blue. He's imposing onto her what he thinks she is through his choice of color. I think she's calling him "Norman fucking Rockwell" in a sarcastic way because this guy has the nerve to consider himself the artist of her life, like he thinks he's Norman Rockwell.

Okay, I'm in a very similar boat to you in that I appreciate Lana's artistry, but her sound isn't really my vibe, though I am really excited to hear this album for the first time and give it a fair shot! I do wonder if, and I could be so off, the song is called "Normal Fucking Rockwell" cause he painted very idealized versions of the nuclear family and the song sounds like a wife who settled. Only instead of acknowledging that with a sad tone, she sounds almost like she's shrugging "oh, look at my man-child husband. He just can't help it, he needs me *cue laughter*"

Camila Dejesus

Recalling the time I drove to this album on backroads, windows down, and cried all the way through. Dangerous but cathartic as fuck

exactly! it's like, this is very specific but it can be applied to many situations, when women ask their boyfriends if they look good in an outfit or something like that and they're like "yeah sure whatever" and the excuse is usually "well i just don't care about clothes what am i supposed to say" when the easier, kinder option would've been to just give a compliment. in the song it could almost be interpreted as her quoting him or just this general idea in society of "he's just a man"

j

Right?!? It's all I could think about 😭😂😭

English Teacher KP

Thank you!!

English Teacher KP

LOL that tiktok sound you mentioned really perfectly encapsulates this song!

j

I feel this! I love a good song I can rock out to in the car!

English Teacher KP

Really??? That's wild!!!

English Teacher KP

Also a heads up, I’m sure people will tell you about for Thursdays reaction- on hopeless fountain kingdom (HFK) “the prologue” is just an intro and not a real song so you might want to react to the prologue and then the first real song 🥰

Nikki S

I haven’t heard probably any of this album because I’m like you where I love really poppy songs the most but I also love good deep lyrics so I can rock to some chill music sometimes, like for anxiety and calming for bed so maybe I’ll pick up some new songs! I respect Lana a lot and I know she’s extremely talented but it’s just not what I would listen to in the car when I wanna scream sing some pop 😅

Nikki S

I like the All Too Well short film connection! I would never have thought of that, but it makes me think about how we tend to call men "oblivious" as a way to excuse their bad behavior. I've heard so many times that "men just don't notice stuff like that" or "men don't think about those things" as a way to excuse men for unknowingly hurting their partners.

English Teacher KP

As soon as I heard “god damn man child” I instantly remember Lana and Halsey share the same ex G Eazy LOL

Nikki S

I can see that, and I really like your interpretation! For me, though, there's definitely something else there, though. There's so many things seemingly happening at once throughout the language of the song. Here, even though the speaker spends the song actively describing the narcissistic (or at the very least, highly unsavory) tendencies of the subject...we then get this line about him being "just a man". On a way, it excuses the behavior. In the other hand, it seems to imply that he's not special or, as you point out, not particularly bright or cunning.

English Teacher KP

not to reference taylor again (lol) but it also reminds me of the scene in the all too well short film where they fight over him dropping her hand, and he's acting as if it's nothing, not even realising how hurtful it was for her, it's just something he did without even thinking about it

j

to me "you're just a man, it's just what you do, your head in your hands as you colour me blue" means that this man isn't some evil manipulator who's actively trying to hurt the speaker but rather, just a man lol. the speaker is saying it as if that's just how it goes, that's what men do. it reminds me of taylor swifts "all the wisest women had to do it this way, 'cause we were born to be the pawns in every lover's game." he's passively colouring her blue with his actions without even necessarily realising. to me "your head in your hands" indicates frustration, kind of a "what did i even do" - i think this also goes back to the speaker calling him a man-child, i.e. he's not an evil mastermind, just an idiot.

j

Yes to all of this! I also think the title has multiple layers and even meanings. All of the questions you asked are exactly what I was wondering...and I think maybe it's meant to be left ambiguous. I also like how you refer to Lana's music as cinematic because I can totally see that!

English Teacher KP

Yeah, I think the title itself also has multiple meanings to it. Like, why is Norman Rockwell being emphasized in this way? Is it because of this intense nostalgia and comfort she feels in this relationship, in spite of the pain it causes her? Is she, at the end of the day, just fond of the life she has built? Is Norman Fucking Rockwell satisfaction? Or is it more of an exhaustion with the life she's settling with, because she knows that she wants and deserves more, but is too conditioned with her current relationship and how she's being treated to find out what that would be? Perhaps it's an incredulity about this life, that feels so deeply average but is somehow fulfilling? This might connect to Norman Rockwell's depiction of everyday life, which seems so mundane, but we still talk about his art to this day, so there is also something magnificent about it? Maybe Lana is comparing that to the current status of her life and relationship. I'm not sure - it's probably some combination of the above! Either way, it's fascinating to me. This is my favorite Lana album and I'm not sure I can yet explain why. I always enjoyed how cinematic her music feels - it's almost like a movie of the mind. This one in particular feels like the most cohesive and complex. I like how you mentioned that it sounded like an old record player to you! That adds a sort of ambience and essence that is central to Lana's music. It's nostalgia and romanticism of eras past, that she somehow feels so connected to! I'm sure I'll have more to say when we dig deeper into the album!

I Am Not Chamari