slang

Definitely one of my biggest cases of "songus interruptus" is LDR's small sample of "Big Spender" (Coleman and Fields, 1966) in Smiler's (2016) Big Spender. Big Spender is also similar to Thunder by having a driving percussion beat. I definitely sympathize, as it seems a more productive way of flipping the bird at her critics than her usual flipping. However, my choice would be Pawn Shop Blues, or possibly even Fine China.

Just adding to your points: If you consider all LDR's current and past actions throughout the (thankfully defunct) Trump era as ultra-convoluted and super-subtle Trumpian parody ... IT ALL MAKES SENSE! Also, have we learned nothing from "Kanye is blonde and gone"?

I generally agree that there is something offputting about L+F that begs to be analyzed. I mean 8 metacritic reviews down from 19 on FROOT seems pretty weird (or stupid as in "she changed her band name so let's consider her a new artist" BS). The songs (e.g., BIL, EOTE, HH) are not that bad, even when compared with FROOT, so overall, L+F is like a B to Froot's A (imo). However, the singing does seem different, though I still love her voice. To me L+F singing seems emotionally flattened around lyrics where you might have expected higher emotional response. As it was a surprise to me that she dealt with (or came out about) depression between FROOT and L+F, maybe this was her "mood-flattenning-drugs" concept album. One thing you can do, if you are tired of the album as presented (e.g. think most of it is filler) is to interleave tracks (i.e., make the "love" tracks, starting with HH, odd and the "fear" tracks even). For me, this spreads out the quality of the songs (I liked "fear" more), and the transitions seem to make more sense, and not in a manic/depressive roller-coaster way, but in some of the production choices (orange trees, you) and "philosophical" stances seeming to pair up (Baby, Karma; Enjoy Your Life, Emotional Machine).

More overthinking it: I'm not as annoyed as some others by the interview, but found it entertaining, perhaps even satirical, not sure. I would say there is a fair amount of trolling going on. In particular, the knowing about mundane crap and more important stuff (is it the "underbelly" as Antonoff puts it?). It's as if they are posturing having some sort of esoteric (perhaps conspirational) knowledge that only they are hip to. Very chemtrails-esque? Maybe this is a good sign with respect to how they feel about the album (aka, confident, given they know they are acting unconventionally, aka wack, right now). The interview also seems pretty improvisational in places, such as here: <<< Del Rey: When I was in college at Fordham, I would pass newsstands and see headlines on my way back to campus, and I somehow always also knew, without even wanting to, what was going on, and who everyone was. Sometimes I’ll go into a gas station on Route 66, mask on, glasses on, yada, yada, and the teller will be like, “Oh my gosh, you’re that singer!” And I’m like, “What the hell? How did you even recognize me?” >>> How she felt in the past --knowing about everything/everyone-- now is grotesquely reversed in the present --everybody knows about her-- like The Truman Show. Oooh, horrific irony maybe? There are also these substantial dollops of cosmic pessimism (though some optimism also, specifically from LDR; i.e., the #meToo and Black Lives Matters references): <<<< Del Rey: I think there’s been existential panic for a long time, but people haven’t been paying attention to it because they’ve been too busy buying shoes. Del Rey: You realize maybe you’ve only every allowed yourself to scratch the surface of yourself because if you went any deeper, you might have a mild meltdown for no reason, just out of the blue, and no amount of talking could explain why. It’s just a part of your genetic makeup. You could just be prone to panic. I think a lot of people are that way. I got a lot of shit for not only talking about it, but talking about lots of other things for a super long time. I don’t feel justified in it, because I’m not the kind of artists who’s ever going to get justified. I will die an underdog and that’s cool with me. But I was right to ask, “Why are we here? Where did we come from? What are we doing? What happens if this insane, crazy, sci-fi crisis happens, and then you’re stuck with yourself, and you’re stuck with your partner who doesn’t pay attention to you?” Del Rey: I’m not trying to say I’m a holy roller because I’m not, but I think people are looking up to the sky a bit more and being like, “Why? What’s the reason?” >>>> Maybe it's my particular "wack-job Mon-Fri" persona speaking, which, btw, I don't have, but a large part of their enlightened posturing could be explained by both being closet Schopenhauer stans. Come out of the closet Lana!

Well, you are protected by the "sanctuary" of the Unpopular Opinions cathedral, as am I, of course, but I got to wonder if your post really means the majority of LBers actually loves IMF! My own thoughts about this song are rather complex. I generally like it a lot as a kind of terrain exploration in her released work that sort of goes into something like RnB. I mean, wouldn't Mary J. Blige have killed for a song like this (wow, that's possibly unpopular)? I also view the song (and here comes a really unpopular part) as the spiritual-Siamese-twin song to Adele's Rolling in the Deep. I mean it sounds like LDR was shooting for that kind of a song, but it came out with a really heavy Lana distortion/perversion to it. Finally (and perhaps most unpopularly), given her recent interview in Interview Magazine, this may be the most important song in her released discography.

I don't get so much of an "intellectually superior" vibe as much as a generalized depressive vibe. When she says stuff like: >>>'But I was right to ask, “Why are we here? Where did we come from? What are we doing? What happens if this insane, crazy, sci-fi crisis happens, and then you’re stuck with yourself, and you’re stuck with your partner who doesn’t pay attention to you?'<<< It's kind of interesting (and encouraging?) that her church-life isn't mentioned as something that is even relevant here. I think she uses church as a social situation (e.g. looking for a compatible partner). When she says her songs are about something, or have always been about something, I think she means this: >>>Del Rey: Yeah, I’ll say, “Today was a bad day and it’s because of you, and I don’t even know you anymore.” I don’t necessarily think there’s much value in doing that – it’s just what’s true. I don’t ever feel bad for saying to someone, “I’m having a panic attack because of what you’ve done.” That’s black-belt life, like 3.0. What’s insane is that the pandemic has brought up all of these mental health crises and domestic crises that were always there, that I always sang about, that people had so much to say about in terms of, “She’s just feigning emotional fragility.” And it’s like, “Well, not really. You’re feigning emotional togetherness despite the fact that you’re a wack-job Monday through Friday.”<<< >>>"I’m not saying it’s more relevant than ever, but my concern for myself, the country, the world – I knew we weren’t prepared for something like this, mentally."<<< I kind of agree with her for the U.S. I mean going from Obama to Trump kind of proves this. However, the idea (expressed before this) that the "macrocosm" is "a reflection of what’s going on in the individual home and inside bedrooms and what people intimately talk about", is not intellectually defended, regardless of her "subscribing" to it. So here's a thought: why not try to defend that, and if you fail, why not reject that. She views her panic as "genetic" so maybe this is a futile tactic. I like the fact that she's super-sensitive about the worth of a melody in her song-writing craft. I'm just a little weirded out that she did not elect to co-write the background music in Violets..., but preferred to have Jack go nuts to it (which I'm waiting on the CD to assess, but apparently he did good). This is just my personal bias of wanting her to act more like a "composer", but maybe in the case of her poems she just didn't want the music to get in the way of (her concentration of) the words.

By the pricking of my Thumbes, Something COCCy this way comes

If you linked to a post from a post in a *pre-update* post, the format of that link doesn't work post update. I induced something like a correct format that does work the way I want. Here's an example that demonstrates: http://lanaboards.com/topic/11057-lana-and-jack-to-performappear-at-the-grammy-museum-oct-13/?do=findComment&comment=863065 How to do it now?: When you copy and paste a post link from the share-post link (upper right corner) of a post, you have to be careful to select "show as link option" instead of "embed"; however, the choice seems to automatically embed if you don't select soon enough (or the selection choice isn't always shown, not sure).

I don't think there's a reason other than taste differences, but: TNBAR > Video Games (and even TNC > Video Games) On why she changed the song Architecture/BAR to TNBAR, I think she went through a process of realizing the original song, in it's negative connotation, was at least as much about her as he, so she didn't feel comfortable releasing it. As for Barrie, he left Kassidy, where he had a much better chance at commercial stardom, not (strictly) for LDR, but because the music he's currently putting out is in a direction Kassidy didn't want to go. His sense of "best" is more in the direction of the PJ Harvey/Elliott Smith constellation of stars, so his sense of "best" isn't even ever convincingly addressed (i.e., "all for fame"?) in the older version of the song. Both songs, as songs about artistic monomania, seem equally flawed to me, but the released version has less repetitive lyrics, and I still count it as one of the masterpieces of NFR.

OK, I'm not saying anybody's right or wrong, just showing how I prefer to process her stuff. Yes, she does address it in the song, but just enough for you to think: my gawd, she's talking about herself: L. D. Fucking R.! But what she didn't do was address how she came to the decision, and what if anything her boyfriend thought about it. I believe she struggles with some stuff, but I believe she basically likes her fame inasmuch as it allows her to advance in her profession. I mean artists struggle with a lot stuff, and sometimes it ends cataclysmically. I can't really understand that, but I do think she's a stable genius (no diss intended), and basically likes the opportunities life presents. She could opt to become less famous by doing harder-to-sell, less popular stuff, I guess.

Regardless of how her character feels in the present, something made her leave in the past. That other thing would have been interesting to sing about, imo, so maybe I think she's doing it in a sneaky way. Also, "Baby" is one of those things that made me think she might have been remembering words spoken to her by her (older?) BF in the past (and that boyfriend's happiness, other than might have been caused by being with her, is unclear to me). Anyway, I don't think she strives to have songs with super *clear* meanings, at least when it may refer to her personal life. So as you said: idk/lol.

Well I can't say you're wrong. But in the interpretation you prefer/accept, she sings about a dissatisfied present, which leaves me unsatisfied as a faux critic -- because I'd rather she'd sing about sadness in the present. Instead she sings about how bad it is in Alabama (and the first stanza is a tad ambiguous--What the fuck happened here? Which here? Which life?). Everything has changed for the worse in Alabama. The male is still probably dead, and still (probably) the only zealous Christian in the song, though, perhaps he is shallow--i.e., pretends to be married and cherry-picks from the bible. Maybe if "Jesus is my boyfriend" leaks, we'll get more of a clue of which way she's going.

Overthinking it again: I like the song; it's a grower for me, but a hard song to interpret, as in confusing. Why would she ask Jesus to take her out of her life (there) when she, in fact, left (there). So I distribute the lyrics over the two characters to make a typical Lana-emo epic out of it. The verses are the LDR-character while the chorus and bridge are the male. Is this a common interpretation? The male character is probably dead, which would make the chorus ironic and prophetic. The bridge, with its clear references to hurting (e.g. "black and blue"), could make a different kind of sense, as in an abuse theme, and an additional (undisclosed) reason for leaving him. It would have been great if this song were at the end of UV (after TOW) to make the ITTJ guy seem the same as the Cruel World guy. Sure it's fucked up that she refers to it as "true love" in the song, but I think part of the point of UV (album and song) was a comparison of abusive relationships to addictive (and ultimately destroying) drugs, so that line might have fit logically/aesthetically as a delusional perspective of the character.

The only song that ever made me think explicitly "oh yeah, Hawaiian glam guitars" (given I knew that phrase from her) was Body Electric (album version), maybe at the end of the first verse (but really far back in the background sonically), but also especially in the bridge. The beginning of the Freak demo may also be related to the style she refers to. I take it to be a type of guitar style like country but intending to seem way more exotic and possibly ambient. So Antonoff is the most probable producer for COCC? Whether you hate or like him, I'm surprised people don't talk more about his Bleachers stuff and FUN not sounding anything like NFR, although the poetry background music should be informative about something.

While we're into possibilities happening in (happier) parallel universes: Rufus Wainwright once said in an interview (not far from BTD era) he was interested in (or was doing?) a collabo with her. It never panned out obviously. Also Lana once tweeted to Tyler the Creator "Your number 1" or something like that and he took it as an invitation to collaborate (which he was open to). Either or both at the same time would be a fine challenge for her.

She's more about her feelings about problems than actual problem-solving analysis of problems, and that's ok as it's not her job to solve things. I think she explicitly says this in her song "Change", which I take to be her most political-like song: Lately I've been thinking it's just someone else's job to careWho am I to sympathize when no one gave a damn? I've been thinking it's just someone else's job to care 'Cause who am I to wanna try but... As for being forced in some way, I agree about that for songs like "Looking for America", but the point of that song is that she is literally being forced (at gunpoint) to write it. You can compare it to other clearer songs, e.g., Serj Tankian's "Goddamn Trigger". Just as forced, but a different approach (both approaches valid).

Doctors get sued for malpractice, and it's definitely got to be other doctors on the witness stand when that happens. This is like a grand-Mal-practice in policing; the fact that there were multiple cops on the scene -- that did nothing while something looking like a full-blown hate crime was happening -- is extremely disturbing. SL is a cop-commentator and a cop (I've never seen his show), but if he popularizes/explains the roles of cops in society and ends up saying nothing about this, his creditability goes to zero and so does his show ratings (at least in a rational US, but I may be in the wrong universe for that). So if Sean has said nothing I'd be really really suprised. Anybody following him? I'm generally in agreement with people that Lana should post something, but really really brief and not connected to her previous posts, or just re-tweet Taylor. If she doesn't do that, I'll still forgive her, though.

​So is Sean Larkin is silent about this? I mean he has more of a moral obligation to say something than LDR, given the nature of his two jobs (the 2nd one especially). On the upside, him not commenting (about how 4 cops were incapable of arresting one unarmed POC, suspected of a non-violent crime, without killing him), should make him much less appealing to her.

She's a bit of a pragmatist in the sense that the George Floyd imagery is on the news every night, so she might feel her saying she's traumatized too by it is a little extraneous, and she'd be rightly pissed off for anybody inferring she's anything other than traumatized, just because she doesn't comment. She's in a bit of a double bind about it, as people won't not be able to relate what she says to her chronologically previous posts (which are not related to the Floyd tragedy). It also makes me wonder if the chronology of events were reversed, and Floyd was a week before her first post, if we'd have ever seen her first post. If I were her, I'd tweet something like "I'm shocked and agree with Mayor Frey" and just leave it at that.

There's a thread for him, and it's always great when you bump an artist's thread that you like, as it's shoots up in the queue. Maybe one of those mythical "mods" (sounds like gods, lol) can move this thread there. Here's a link to the 1st post. http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/3709-nightmare-boy-barrie-james-oneill/?p=134928 He's had a couple of band names and seems to go by just Barrie James now (I wish he would have stuck with Nightmare Boy as that's "iconic"?). Magic Me also appears in Scumbag, his big performance music video, I think, so it's an older song, along with Art of Horror (which is also on PS, and also on Scumbag?). PS is a very solid album, imo, but I wish (selfishly) he were more prolific.

If you just consider the rock/jazz/pop era as another "classical" era (like the baroque/classical/romantic/modern), then the proportion of male/female memorable composers/performers is (much) closer to 50/50 than it has ever been. So feminists should take note of that in terms of a progress indicator. The only criteria for something being classical music is being remembered 100+ years down the road (lets say, e.g., the last Star Trek movie has a joke about that, but yeah, that really is the only criterion you can have). There is also the sticky issue about whether people in the future will be able to / willing to perform popular music "on original instruments" and be able to recapture idiosyncratic vocal styles, or will they just rely on recordings, which is relatively new to music. But enough about that. I've always considered LDR to be more androgynous than people give her credit for. She also has that song, MAC, where she sings "I'm your man". I know it's a tribute to Leonard, but she's convincing to me.

I had a more thoughtful post about a parallel universe*, where she dropped different names in her initial "cultural question" post, but that post ultimately got scrapped and devolved to this one: Loving her is hard; keeping up with this thread is harder. Fuck it, I love her. *in the parallel universe (where my post was posted, not where she used the names), the names were: Alice Cooper, Chris Isaak, and Frank Sinatra

There is a reason they say "brevity is the soul of wit", and we've just witnessed it. 1) Yeah, names were (completely) unnecessary. I guess her post shows us that she has no confidants to filter her before she posts things (or that such confidants are not very "good"). As was brought up above, there have been plenty of song eras (including the current one) that deal with obsessive (a term I prefer to abusive/submissive) love affairs, etc. She only has to assert that her songwriting is well within the norms of such (as it really is, imo), and let people do the work of finding exemplars. I mean the critics are supposed to be able to do that easily, by definition of being knowledgable (although most may not be). And while it was true that she was ridiculed irrationally in the BTD era, she did in fact win that war (BTD sold the most of her records and is considered a classic of sorts). Why can't she just let go? 2) In the imaginary discussions I have had with her (with my imaginary friend James Franco recording), she say's after saying "I'm not a feminist": "I'm a humanist". Ah well....insert face-palm here. 3) Yes, it's ok to revisit older song modes. Give us that 25 song unreleased album! Call it "The Worst of Lana Del Rey" and take home that AOTY.

Eeeh gaaad, the rating thing again. Y'all know this is just my opinion (and that I'm not Fantano), right? top tier: NFR, VB, TNBAR, FIILY (masterpieces) mid tier: HTD, HIADT, BT, C, MAC (near masterpieces) lower tier: CG, HIAB, DT, LS, TG (just plain good) For those commenting on the lack of bridges, the TNBAR lack of enthusiasm is strange. It has a classic LDR bridge and I think the lyrics are generally superior to the demo. E.g., the "Topanga's hot ..." lyric especially gives me the feels. If she were going for a folk-album-like vibe, there could be fewer bridges for that reason, but when I went looking for evidence that folk music employs bridges less often than other genres, the only thing I could find is: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/eugene_chadbourne_307768 which at least supports the idea that there is a negative correlation.

So Barrie's back (going by the artist name "Barrie-James" these days?). Psychedelic Soup is on spotify (and on sale in the usual places). While I can't say he's better than ever, he's still (much) more interesting than most. I would call it lo-fi jazz/grunge/funk in his characteristic downbeat, funky, morbid, and still-hung-up-on-the-past style (I have no problem with that; it's understandable and topically common in singer-songwriter pop). My biggest complaint is not being able to make out a lot of the lyrics, and he has an excellent Frank Sinatra cover (with the Dan Fontaine Orchestra, also on spotify), so I know he can sing clearly. I hope he posts the lyrics at some point (as he did with Float on youtube). A secondary complaint is the chopped up (as in shorter songs) nature of the tracklist, which I realize is a commercial benefit in terms of stream revenue and "radiobility". However, the interludes might have been glommed onto their following songs to make for longer (more complex/unpredictable) tracks, and some sequences do seem part of a larger multi-movemented work (e.g. funky, float, and free like a bird, might have been a prog masterpiece if they were stitched together properly). I think Cold Coffee did this more rationally (i.e. glomming interludes/outros onto songs). I'd also like to see more prolonged instrumental work from Barrie in the future, as some of his interludes were interesting (e.g. Moonroom sounds kind of like U.K., the prog-Brit band, in the beginning).