slang

Extremely bored with the melt-down aesthetic of this thread, so I appreciate your post about what makes it on an album. With regards to lyrical complexity, here's some pseudo-criticism. There are lyricists and there are anti-lyricists and they differ in their approach to what makes a lyric a great lyric. An anti-lyricist might depend more on how the lyrics are sung along with a crude and/or intentionally minimal approach to what the lyrics are. A lyricist writes poetry, which is something I would define as always looking/sounding/meaning great things on paper (i.e., when viewed typed out); whereas an anti-lyricist writes emotive expressions that tend to look/sound/mean cringeworthy things when viewed (on paper) and out of context. Lyrics also prefer to show up in verses and anti-lyrics mostly in the choruses. Pinup Galore has great lyrics and anti-lyrics. In fact, a lot of her songs, especially the unreleased ones, mix them (Scarface says hello). So if Katy Perry's Bon Apetit song is a bit too lyrical (and it does have a lot of words when viewed on paper), it's main message appears to be something like sex is food. LDR's Delicious is extremely anti-lyrical, but which song of the two do you think has the most acting, irony, humor, and social commentary? LFL, I would say, is anti-lyrical in the choruses and lyrical in the verses. Maybe it is simple and interludish in form (so predicting it will be in the middle as many others have), but it's respectable (unique and pleasing) for being something she hasn't done before, namely a feature with a major artist. Also title tracks can be pretty insignificant in the scope of the album, witness John Mayer's latest release, whose title track (sort of) is like the least significant track of the album.

I don't think the negative PR hurt her very much. I think the Iggy Pop reference is there (especially in the album art), but just not that important to the meaning of the song. There are two references to suicide in it (Peg has been discussed much, the Vincent Van Gogh reference, see Lust for Life by Irving Stone, has not been discussed). And on top of that there is this reference to the end of this poem. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/51642 It seems closer to rap given the spoken, beat-poetry part of the song, although the singing in the song is undeniable. People at Lanaboards alerted to me to all these cultural references (an important reason I hang around here). The poem reference is, I think, the most important magpie-esque reference in the song. I'd categorize it as heroic pessimism, which is a rather bleak view of no higher powers taking an interest in us (e.g., no life after death), and yet the human spirit is unconquerable (invictus). So if there are people doing stuff like LFL in pop right now, I don't know who they are, although Imagine Dragons has also apparently paraphrased Invictus recently (see the cultural references for the poem). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus

I want her to do as well as you do, but I think (hope) she's making her stand on the basis of the music she will drop being strong, so that all will be forgiven (though I haven't actually been as discomfited as many of you, so I don't need to forgive her). She's not interested in single sales because she is more interested in streams and album sales, and she expects the album, itself, to be the main promo engine for that. Maybe she thinks playing "hard to get" will make the final reveal sweeter and more effective at generating sales. On the other hand, she is at least dropping substantial info and generating hype from her collabo choices and album artwork. As for her avoiding radio (or interscope being incapable of getting her there), maybe she hates radio, in principle (because you have to pay for exposure?), and prefers user-directed streaming, idk. As for her going out of her way to get a Max Martin input (probably something the label paid for), the anecdote in the Courtney Love conversation, suggests that it was just a minor tweak that had a big impact on the form of the song, and so she unsurprisingly gave him a writing credit. That was probably the only payment he received for it, and I'm sure he was motivated to give his opinion, because she is an interesting artist. This last is just my speculative opinion of course. Maybe she'll suffer scandalously low sales from avoiding the conventional course of CD release promo, but hopefully maybe not.

Princess Superstar? I thought their songs together were pretty significant.

I'm still digesting your provocative discussion of the fall (@@litewave). But for now, the robot/logician in me seems to want to believe that all she is doing is denying having discussed it in the studio, not that she doesn't know (or has never heard of) Peg. Did somebody try to nail her on the issue of having *ever* known of her. Even if the song is about Peg though, to jump to the idea that she is darkly fixated on her suicide (as I'm sure the media critics would like to conclude) makes about as much sense as saying all those horrific don't-start-smoking commercials shown in the U.S. are by people who are darkly fixated on smoking.

I have to wait for the whole album to see how the title track fits as a title track. It may be incidental to the meaning of the other songs, or it may be central. The song itself is pretty good, if a little interludish given the Weeknd's prominent role. It is (a little) symmetrical to LDR's prominent role in Stargirl, because as a feature song, it is a very good one from the POV of the feature artist. She got the sweetest part of his vocal range and the contrast with her sultry beat-poetry voice is really striking. Yet it's still an egalitarian song; I think both sing all the parts at different times. I don't think it's generic in the sense of any pop songs I'm currently hearing (certainly it's a non-generic feature song); however, it is derivative intentionally of earlier pop times. I like the ambiguity in the song, or people thinking that taking off clothes or climbing the H is metaphorical. Not saying they're right, but a large part of the charm of LDR (for me) is in not knowing they're wrong. The lyrics and the melody seem characteristic of her, and the production is wonderful. I'm hoping the album credits will show her as lead producer as they did with HM songs.

The extraordinary thing about HBTB is that it followed the HM song and everybody got a kind of aesthetic whiplash from that. Maybe it was the record execs getting upset about HM's (weird) dynamics (aka not being a pop song at all), and LDR pulling a fast one to both appease and rebel against them, idk. I eventually found HBTB to have decent parts (at least more parts than people give it credit for) and to be a memorable and coherent contribution to the album (the video too). Anyway, I like artists with large contrasts and unpredictability. So long as they are referred to as gladiator-style sandals (as one pub did once), I have no problems with them. Sandals are a feminist symbol, imo.

It could be better sure, but I got to see the whole show (sort of), so I can't complain too much. Below might be best in terms of sound recording, although the recording process apparently is bad at synching auditory with visual (so it looks like she lip synchs sometimes). Very definite Plato "shadows on the cave wall" vibe, which I think she appreciates as a compromise towards disclosure to all her fans, while giving her paying customers some exclusivity in terms of the quality of the experience. Hope this stays up (as evidence to what I just said). The Love performance was somewhat mutilated in this recording, but as many have noted it's not her best live song anyway. In terms of general music criticism, I'd like it more if she went full-blown acoustic (as in MTV unplugged) and just lose all the stems or pre-recorded effects. My favorite performance was SOC (and Cruel World) for that reason. The guitar bridge was so soft I actually heard the lyrics there! Anyway, not going to criticize her too much: This is what makes us stans We all look for perfection and we put our love first Won't find anything to criticize, it's our curse Don't cry about it, don't cry about it.

It's an interesting milieu of albums coming out right now for LDR to be dropping an album to, if she does so in the near future. Depeche Mode just dropped "Spirit", which like Father John Misty's imminent album "Pure Comedy", is titled with something like ultra-sarcasm. If you think LDR is sad topically, you should check out Spirit to get your emotions re-calibrated. Spirit starts out with a song called Going Backwards and ends with a song called Fail, which is probably my favorite track. Here are some lyrics from Fail at around 2:10: "People what are we thinking, Our standards are sinking, We're barely hanging on, Our spirit has gone, And once where it shone, I hear a lonesome song." I don't know what Martin Gore is thinking of specifically when he sings that last line, but I do know what I thought of. Goldfrapp is also scheduled to drop at the end of the month, and of course, Ed Sheeran has already dropped, and Lorde is posturing. Finally, Blondie has an album called Pollinator in May (rock and roll hall of famers, whose last release did not get a metacritic review).

I stan quality and range in an artist. On the issue of songs flopping: Tbh, I don't understand chart fixation for singles. If you look at spotify rankings for various artists now (which change frequently, I would guess on the basis of release activity), LDR is 83, Lorde is 70, Lady Gaga is 76 (and the monthly listener counts, which I'm taking to be the basis of the ranking, range from 12.2 meg - 13.4 meg). Katy Perry is 12 and Ed Sheeran is 1st in the world. LDR is substantially better ranked than Grimes and Marina (who aren't even ranked), but also ranked better than Florence and the Machine, Melanie Martinez, and Halsey (who are ranked). And while it's true Lorde is doing better than LDR, she's also working harder to do so. My point is that while a single song's charting performance may be "flopping" relative to some existence on a chart, they still cause charting in public consciousness in a very important sense (i.e., streams = money, and not necessarily from the newest single). What would LDR's ranking would be if her leaks/unreleased were out there (in well-produced form) as well as her suppressed AKA album, along with all released albums (i.e., the leaks out there with "all other things equal")? I don't know, but I bemoan the fact that she has great songs that are unreleased, which are not redundant with her released work. It's as if the full range of the artist is submerged or invisible to the GP, and that's depressing to me. That is also why I'm very much hoping BAR/Architecture (which I've been avoiding) won't be consigned to limbo and is the next formal release.

Blake supports other artists too. https://twitter.com/blizzyyblake/status/776196919165005824

One needs to make the distinction between fans wanting her to do something and not wanting to pressure her to do something she doesn't like. I think all fans want her to do more and better quality promo, and as many have pointed out, the era is still quite young. And while writer first and singer second (as @cashcomesquick posted, and she might have also said "performer last", not sure), something has got to come just to keep her band engaged with her; I mean I always wonder about how she keeps them engaged. I'm uncertain about the "major label" argument that says being on a major label means she has to act a certain way. It goes back to that picture of her with Kanye West and that top label exec and whether or not the meaning of that picture has changed, or what the original meaning of that picture actually was. I'd always interpreted the picture as saying something like "the label supports diversity and artistic autonomy". Of course, it could be as simple as she was the most photogenic female around, idk. However, LDR has always spoken highly of the label, saying they basically let her do what she wants, which, imo, means they treat her as a kind of experiment that doesn't cost them much (because LDR is responsible for her own promo and development). If that's true, I'm hoping it's symmetrical on her end and that she negotiates each record she puts out (doesn't have and wouldn't accept a multi-record contract). As for her wasting anything of her potential, I'd rather whine more about her not giving her pre-BTD work and her post-BTD discards proper archival studio releases, but that's just me and my priorities for how artistry should be promoted.

The xanax thing is getting old, and with the exception of bad withdrawal symptoms doesn't seem very accurate. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=xanax

I have high hopes for Lorde, and there are some characteristics in this song that are typical of her. What worries me a little is the dryness of the singing (relative to songs like Team). Maybe it's just that she's singing fast and low register (especially in some verses) and if she sings more slowly and highly on other songs on Melodrama, the vocal juiciness will be stronger. As for the video, there's this tendency for MVs to just show the singer singing in dramatic (or exotic, but not here) locales and to think that's enough for a memorable video. However, since so many do that kind of thing, it just makes for a nondescript video. And speaking of nondescript, after Pure Heroine's cover art concept, I 'm wondering if Melodrama's cover art will be up to the task of that title.

You're right that this or that particular artist may not be applicable to her, but my larger point is that the reference group you compare her to can also be according to the kind of music she puts out (and maybe that's how LDR guages how well she thinks she's doing, idk). On a more absolute scale just under a quarter of a billion streams on spotify for HM (with her minimal promo approach) is not negligible, and Florence does seem to be comparable to her on spotify right now with her most recent release (and I think Florence has a more vigorous approach to both music and promo, although her label may not be as big as interscope). It ought to be interesting to see how LDR5 will fare, given people are thinking it's going to be more popular sounding.

Why denigrate HM's accomplishment all the time with these funny names? That's a general comment, not specifically at you. I mean it sold poorly relative to BTD and more popular artists one can name, but it's still doing well relative to other artists one can cite in a more similar category, at least in terms of being female, offbeat, ambitious, but not necessarily less poppy (e.g., Corrine Bailey Rae, Kimbra, Chelsea Wolfe, Esperanza Spalding, P.J. Harvey, Marina and the Diamonds, St. Vincent, Grimes, Regina Spektor, Janelle Monae, Imogen Heap). It's also interesting to me that the spotify streams for HM are about the same for Florence's How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (deluxe) -- 245 vs. 246 million, respectively. Not to shade Florence but she does promo and beats, right?

This was a very unusual tweet for her. Alienating Trump supporters (like AB) was not nearly as bad as alienating fundamental (as in hardcore) Christians in her fanbase, who can't help but relate any kind of witchcraft or paganism to satanism; for that type of Christian, the satanic stereotype trumps any qualifications one can make about paganism. For me her tweet is indeterminate. It could be a kind of a joke tweet, or an informational tweet (as in her tweets about random but important scientific breakthroughs), and until some interviewer asks her the question, "hey did you actually participate in that ceremony you alluded to on twitter?", we don't really know her real-world status regarding Wiccan practice. The fact that she doesn't try very hard to disambiguate the situation is kind of annoying, imo, but still overall entertaining for me (as I'm not hardcore Christian).

The way I interpret this stonerism (?) is: life imitates ( art imitates (life imitates art)). Maybe "life" is always going to get the last word (the first word syntactically), given art is a biological process. The philosopher nerd in me thinks the quote is supposed to go "Art imitates Life" (historically). However, google has brought to my attention that Oscar Wilde has articulated about the other order: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imitating_art

yeah ... I mean I'm a fan and all, and posted a thread about them, but I'm not a member of the band; I'm not even Canadian.

I'm not surprised there is no thread for this band here. So....SURPRISE!!!!? THE DARKEST OF THE HILLSIDE THICKETS are a Canadian punk/metal band inspired by the horror/fantasy of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) and other wonderful absurdities from the weird-tales/pulp-fiction era of literature still flourishing today. Lovecraft's fiction often views humankind as vulnerable and insignificant relative to malevolent and timeless elder beings. Ordinarily these beings ignore us; however, Lovecraft's characters, being obsessed by eerie nostalgias for archaic and dangerous pasts, causes them to breach the gap between modern times and ancient and eternal horrors. It's Alien-Horror Sadcore, really. And while Nabokov (probably) wouldn't have considered Lovecraft a great writer, his definition of a good reader does seem to apply to reading him: "...the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense". Lovecraft is famous for sentences laden with obscure adjectives and for talking around the horror experienced. Given his indirect style, you really had to paint the situations in your head while you read. Nevertheless, his weirdness influenced generations of horror writers, and he made it into the "Library of America" catalog, along side Poe, Whitman, Nabokov, Dashiel Hammett, PK Dick, and many others, though you'd probably want to get his fiction on a cheaper venue (e.g., the kindle). "The Dukes of Alhazred" is the Thickets recent release. It is "crowdsourced", and as their last release was in 2007, I'd say these guys probably have day jobs and do the amazing thing they do as a labor of love. FYI, Abdul Alhazred, "the mad Arab", is a fictional character from HPL's "Cthulhu Mythos" stories. He is credited with writing the dreaded Necronomicon. While there's no song with the album's title, the cover art refers does refer to it. Tracks from the album (as of this writing, 9 out of 13!) are at the Thickets youtube channel. *WARNING*. these are *EXPLICIT* commercial videos. If you cannot stand seeing the words *BUY THE ALBUM*, or seeing a *BANDCAMP LINK*, proceed no further. The first track [You Fool, Warren is Dead], is an HPL story reduction (lyrics in the description). It's representative of (but does not exhaust) the Thickets style. However, wikipedia also labels them "powerpop", and there is something queerily poppish about their songs, if you let them sink in. An historical tragedy of careless industrialism is the topic of this song. "Sugar, there is something you don’t see every day" [The Great Molasses Disaster]. Lyrics in the description. Here's a track I bet LDR would appreciate, and I'm pretty sure mad scientists are currently working on this [Arachnotopia]. And since I just name-bombed LDR, consider this Black-Beauty style *anthem* expressing love for an evolutionary depressive [Coelacanthem]. And it just keeps coming. Nothing can keep this band down, except maybe the topic of this song [A little late]. Thickets songs can have a strange kind of déjà vu, or maybe they have songs like this in their past discog, idk; anyway still a great song for me [Welcome to the Island]. And a demo version would have been nice as a bonus track. Just when you think you have them pigeonholed, they do an instrumental [Erich Zann]. "The Music of Erich Zann" (another HPL story) has generated story readings and video-play adaptations, and has inspired a modern classical piece for solo violin and a metal album by Mekong Delta (all on youtube). So the Thickets fascination with this material is hardly unique. The story involves unearthly music that can both beckon and ward off things we're better not knowing about. So it's good to have this band, and maybe another heavy hitter or two, to keep the abominations at bay. And what about all those who wish they were dead already? Check out this short inspirational song about wanting to live [i want to live]. It's element-ary, my dear Watson [it must be the wind]. On youtube you can find fanmade Thickets videos using found footage from horror movies. Some of these are quite disturbing, so tread carefully. But if you're just hoary and have an eldritch itch to bop out with (pulp) literary pretensions, check out the rest of the album, and/or their earlier work, which has more narrative sequence. The two prior albums I'm thinking of are "Spaceship Zero: original motion picture soundtrack", and "The Shadow out of Tim", both classics, imo, and on spotify. Bandcamp also allows you to play the entire Dukes album (and their earlier ones) and individual tracks therefrom, at least in the dimension I come from. Happy abyss gazing!

It's Jonathan Wilson on the drums, so if that were his drum set (including the one with the picture), it would be his reference. JW relates to Father Yod geographically (Laurel Canyon is part of Hollywood Hills where the Source Family lived) and perhaps they share certain aesthetics musically (not sure as I don't know FY's music, though JW's Fanfare album is pretty good). Anyway, I'm still hoping UV was about Morrison and Courson.

There was a thread way way back about making up fake news about LDR (it was during a "drought"). There I posted about a tribute album of unreleased tracks being covered by others to cheer her up on the occasion of Lorde's meteoric rise, so some of my favorite picks from that fictional album may be relevant. Paradise -- Katy Perry Jealous Girl or Hit and Run -- Lady Gaga Go Go Dancer -- Kesha Making Out -- Sheryl Crow Damn You -- Mariah Carey Backfire -- Adele Noir -- Kate Bush I'll add some new ones: Pretty Baby -- Jewel (I'd actually like to know how LDR would deal with that song now). Resistance -- Ariana Grande (flawless singer but stiff, this song might loosen her up a bit). 1949 -- Taylor Swift

at around 2:43 of the live streams, she talks about having friends in the video.

I agree there is a gay diversity issue for the video, if you consider the video as a missed opportunity for some kind of activism for that. Maybe she thought she covered it elsewhere (MTWBT and SS?), or more weirdly, maybe she is targeting a middle America archetype for subversion (the type that elected Trump?), and not something intentionally representative of the LDR fanbase (i.e. not preaching to the choir?). Or maybe using actual friends in the video (which I learned from her live stream) put constraints on her. But while there are definitely hetero couples out in the open, some female/female couples might have been referred to *covertly* (e.g., 3:16-3:18 and 4:09?). Finally, given some speculations on Chuck's sexual orientation and LDR's likely previewing it to her, under some assumptions, Chuck might have said something similar about diversity, so the absence of (very explicit) diversity does seem intentional in some sense, but not in a contra gay sense. It seems more like not wanting to appear preachy about something the video is not specifically about (and not wanting to put overally conservative--aka morbid--people on guard). The video's more into people being reflective and going "somewhere" and having a good time, perhaps with her usual ambivalence thrown in (that is walking in Venice Beach that's pleasant, but also driving into the sun? frolicking in a lake, but also watching meteors hit the earth?). However, I do think the overall message is reassurance. As for the song, l like that it goes back to pop Lana a bit (i.e., before Born to Die), but a gun sound effect (cocking a rifle?) is always going to seem a little strange given its context. I mean it sounds cool, but is that the only reason it's there? Maybe there will be dark stuff on the album too. There was also a Fine China remix that was briefly available on youtube that used an actual gunshot effect; it was taken down. While probably not a legitimate version of that song, I agree with others who have suggested that some version of Fine China would sound very fine on album that has this as a lead single. Eagerly waiting more news.

No guarantee YAIL was for LDR5 because she still has Hollywood connections and this could be for a movie (and the song leaking could have been from Hollywood). And she has had videos for songs for movies (YAB). So she may not care too much about release dates (because they are tied to movie coming out?). Just pointing out that there is a lot that is unknown about the meaning of the poster.