CatchTheBreeze

Don't even get me started on how lyrically lana is superior. Lana chose the path shes in. Believe me if she wanted to be a pop star try hard like lorde she most definitely can. I mean look at all her 2010 bops ICONIQUE. Lorde could never. Lana didn't want to be a superstar she wanted to be a singer, raw real and with emotion. Unedited and not caring what the general public wants. And thats something lorde could never be, miss me with that mess. 

Paradise is a stand alone album for me too.

This is the casual "no shade" shaming that causes half of 12-30 year old women to pick up disordered eating habits, but ok! No hate.

um excuse me, apologize to the gem that is honeymoon

So in love with this new photoshoot by Neil
 

I started to write an essay on this, but remembered that nobody needs to read that, so here's the short version.
 
Lana has a lot of songs about different types of self delusion (or, if we're being kinder, extreme overconfidence). Whether it's Carmen thinking she's made it ("Lying to herself 'cause the liquor's top shelf"); the narrator of National Anthem suddenly discovering her mojo ("I said to get real, don't you know who you're dealing with"); or the unfortunate object of Is This Happiness ("You think you're Hunter S Thompson, I think you're fucking crazy as they day's long"), the only way to succeed in the world of fame is to start by believing you've already succeeded. But, in LA, if you take this delusion too far, you end up like the central character in Mulholland Drive, living in a fantasy world. Whoever she's singing to in BAR has fallen victim to this.
 
The title of the song echoes the idea of the Great American Novel, which a long time ago was something that authors would try to write, but now is generally used ironically as a put down about somebody who is writing a book that will never see the light of day, but who, in their own mind, is going to write "the greatest American book on American culture which could ever be written". The "You did it all for fame" is the icing on the put down cake - not only are you wasting your life, "you're not even doing it in the name of art, but just to get from all of those girls in the audience, what you could be getting from me at home". In that way, it's an extension of her put down for the guys in Video Games/Blue Jeans - she's asking them "why are you getting lost in fantasy when I'm right here?" 

Not sure whether we should be doing this here or in Lanalysis instead, but whatever...

Sorry guys, I'm with @@longtimeman on this. I think this is primarily a song about Barrie (and kind of a harsh one, maybe even unfair). Let's break it down:

"My baby used to dance underneath my architecture"
Barrie was not only living in the shadow of her metaphoric architecture, her career and fame as @Lona Delery noted, but he was living with her under her roof, probably on her dime, in her fancy houses. Literally under her architecture. (@bummersummer made a similar point above.) And he's the only significant musician other she had during her post-fame period where she was rich enough to live in fancy houses.

"Houses of the Holy"
See @@longtimeman's post about that.

"He was cool as heck"
Potentially a callback to "Yeah, my boyfriend's pretty cool/But he's not as cool as me" in "Brooklyn Baby", a Barrie song, and perhaps "Shades of Cool". The repetition of the line almost seems to emphasize this.

"But you were so obsessed with writing the next best American record
But there was nothing left by the time we got to bed"
This is consistent with the picture she painted of Barrie in interviews and "Is This Happiness" (@SissyReed alluded to this) as someone focused on their art, more than she, perhaps to the detriment of everything else. (Ha, I'm amused just thinking about how blasphemous the idea of neglecting Lana in the boudoir probably seems to most of her fanbase.)

"How does that taste cumming out"
As @Sjp1988 suggested, perhaps a sly reference to Barrie being the origin of her saying "My pussy tastes like Pepsi-cola"?

"You did it all for fame
Baby, how's life treating you now
It's over"
Alleging that he did it all for fame seems harsh, perhaps a little unfair (and projecting to some degree), but Barrie did quit Kassidy to move to LA and pursue a solo career and live with his famous significant other. No part of that worked out.

"He was '70s in spirit, '90s in his frame of mind"
Definitely describes Barrie well, as he's heavily influenced by classic rock and Nirvana.

"Baby, how you feeling now
That I told you
We're through"
Lana was the one that broke things off. (Although it's questionable if she actually did tell him or just ghosted.)

"All the roads lead to you
Like the 405 I drive through
Everynight and everyday"
Not dispositive, but suggestive of her time living in California post-fame which points towards Barrie. Also, if taken semi-literally Barrie continued to live in LA for a time after they broke up.

"I see you for who you really are
Why the thousands of girls
Love the way Bill plays guitar"
Barrie is an accomplished guitarist. And "thousands of girls" instead of millions is fitting for Barrie/Kassidy.
 
OK, now to deal with some of the Barrie counter-arguments:
 
As @Vonn pointed out, she never says the person actually achieved fame.
 
I really don't think I could buy a producer theory for this song unless the line was "You were so obsessed with making the next best American record", but the line is "writing".

I think Mertens is too much of an artistic polymath to fit this. I don't see him having a single-minded focus on music, let alone "writing the next best American record".
 
Absent a specific candidate-- like Jimmy Gnecco, Lady Gaga, Chuck-- I'm inclined to believe that names she likes to reuse like Ray, Bill, Salvatore are just that: names she likes to reuse. Just because she likes the names. (I'm not even sure all her Jim mentions refer to Jimmy Gnecco, though perhaps Jim Morrison.) That said, like K, they could be invented pet names that do refer to a specific person. (I think there's a good possibility Ray at least began as a name for Arthur Lynn.)

I do think there is a case here for this being about Arthur. I'm sure he's into Led Zeppelin. The "American" part fits better. Based on his website and old Instagram posts I'm sure he's a studio rat. But this really seems like it's about a more recent relationship, post-fame, and overall screams Barrie to me.
 
And wouldn't it be a little too on the nose to put Barrie's name in the song? (Or Arthur's?) I'm not sure Lana would be as quick to namedrop in song these days as she was when she tossed off "Jimmy Gnecco" and "So Legit". This might be a deliberate way to obscure.
 
I don't think some of the lyrics really fit the theory that it's about herself. But I am sympathetic to this theory in the sense that there's some amount of projection going on here.
 
Mmm... I think people are making too much of this. Barrie moved to the US and (I think?) recorded his album in the US, has a lot of American musical influences, and stayed in LA for awhile after they broke up trying to get his solo career going. Plus consider Lana's comments at the Brits suggesting she really didn't think of herself as an "international" artist because she lived in the UK while recording BTD there. Never underestimate Lana logic.
 
Really? I'm not necessarily convinced all those songs are exclusively about one guy or about a specific guy, let alone the same guy. You know, back in 2011, 2012 when she was saying stuff to that effect in interviews she wasn't consistent. One interview she'd say they were mostly about one guy, the next she'd say two guys. Taken with other interview comments she's made about songs written about past lovers becoming about the person you're with now, I think Lanalysis is inherently a fool's game (that I nonetheless enjoy playing).
 
           

Out of context but am i the only one that prefers this cover over the Starline one? 

I love how raw and stripped back Ultraviolence was like how she recorded PWYC in one take.

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? 

BAR is closer to UV than Btd

Can we all just agree no ones ever happy with Lana?
 
*releases album*
Bottom: Ew it's so over produced I want something natural
*releases guitar driven album*
Bottom: who tf asked for this shit I need a bussy bopper
*releases beat driven album*
Bottom: Lana will never top BTD

In english: Lick my ass full of shit - Lispector, Tulla

A Joy Division song cover would be the death of me (just imagine her singing New Dawn Fades, Atmosphere, Love Will Tear Us Apart or Decades, just imagine). Would love to see her covering Janis Joplin's Little Girl Blue or Oasis's Don't Look Back In Anger, Champagne Supernova or Wonderwall (the live cover has terrible sound quality).

The song doesn't feel 6 mins long at all. A the blackest day tea(poor Cruel World). I'm afraid the final version is gonna be an overproduced lifeless Emile'd mess ughh

I really hope this is the final version of BAR, I don't want it to be shorter. 
Beautiful song, one of her best IMO, and that bridge is simply great.

Exactly. As I wrote two weeks ago I don't want a 2.0 version of any of her previous works. I'd rather see her taking risks with her music and with her style. But returning to Emile seems to be a step back to the (to my ears) overproduced BTD-era and the autotuned loon is fun on one song. Or two. Maybe three. But not on an entire album. I really like "Love" and "B.A.R." too, both are immediate ear pleasers, but tbh I still hope that the album has a few other sounds on it. For me Lana's best songs are those which I have to dive into to dig them and which, at first listen, I'm not enthusiastic about. There has to be something left to discover for me, even after 20 listens. I just hope that the label didn't push Lana into a safer sound (like Marina was pushed into working with all those "star producers" on "Electra heart") because the label was disappointed with the sales for "Honeymoon".
 
But ofc it doesn't matter what I (or we all) want, we can't change the album's direction, it will sound as it sounds regardless of our opinions in this forum or elsewhere – so bring on the best american record, Lana!

Actually there are a few albums where the title track didn't make the final cut – Marina's "Electra heart" f.ex. or "His'n'hers" by Pulp.

Can we please stop comparing Lana to Mariah? Mariah was a '90s hit machine with grand melisma vocals and whistle tones. Her speciality is dramatic pop ballads and light R&B jams. Lana will never be that and doesn't "wish" to be and I'm glad for that. Her art is much more subtle, more atmospheric, and less over-the-top. If you're looking for massive pop hits or bombastic sounds, look elsewhere.

Grammy = commercial bullshit.
Even JB have one. Cedric Gervais have one too- and his remix is pure shit

Yeah B.A.R definitely gives me AKA vibes which I love so much! I really adore it   This album is definitely shaping up to be amazing, even the bickering and drama on here can't dampen my excitement for this album!!  (I mean, what's a Lana era without drama tbh?? Lanaboards meltdowns are Iconic)

to me:
 
BTD/PA- Hip-hop inspiration, lots of samples drawing between, orchestral sounds. I'm Poppy. One word that can define this album for me is "overproduced", in a dichotomous manichaeism way
ULTRA- Surf rock from 60's, psychedelic, soft rock. No much fuzz from orchestra. Very stripped back, except some tracks like Old Money and Black Beauty
HONEY- Jazzy, trip-hop (Salvatore beat is obv trip-hop, very Massive Attack), jazz orchestra reminding me Chet Baker stuff. Some inspiration from trap music. A bit of both last albums are in this
 
So what do you think we can expect from this new record?

I loved this song. It's not messy and overproduced like some BTD songs. I hope that it's the final version

Exactly. As I wrote two weeks ago I don't want a 2.0 version of any of her previous works. I'd rather see her taking risks with her music and with her style. But returning to Emile seems to be a step back to the (to my ears) overproduced BTD-era and the autotuned loon is fun on one song. Or two. Maybe three. But not on an entire album. I really like "Love" and "B.A.R." too, both are immediate ear pleasers, but tbh I still hope that the album has a few other sounds on it. For me Lana's best songs are those which I have to dive into to dig them and which, at first listen, I'm not enthusiastic about. There has to be something left to discover for me, even after 20 listens. I just hope that the label didn't push Lana into a safer sound (like Marina was pushed into working with all those "star producers" on "Electra heart") because the label was disappointed with the sales for "Honeymoon".
 
But ofc it doesn't matter what I (or we all) want, we can't change the album's direction, it will sound as it sounds regardless of our opinions in this forum or elsewhere – so bring on the best american record, Lana!

Exactly. As I wrote two weeks ago I don't want a 2.0 version of any of her previous works. I'd rather see her taking risks with her music and with her style. But returning to Emile seems to be a step back to the (to my ears) overproduced BTD-era and the autotuned loon is fun on one song. Or two. Maybe three. But not on an entire album. I really like "Love" and "B.A.R." too, both are immediate ear pleasers, but tbh I still hope that the album has a few other sounds on it. For me Lana's best songs are those which I have to dive into to dig them and which, at first listen, I'm not enthusiastic about. There has to be something left to discover for me, even after 20 listens. I just hope that the label didn't push Lana into a safer sound (like Marina was pushed into working with all those "star producers" on "Electra heart") because the label was disappointed with the sales for "Honeymoon".
 
But ofc it doesn't matter what I (or we all) want, we can't change the album's direction, it will sound as it sounds regardless of our opinions in this forum or elsewhere – so bring on the best american record, Lana!

Do you think Lana will actually do a proper world tour this time round? Even if its a small one? 
 
Especially in the U.K and Europe