pawn shop blues

Lana for LDR6: With this album, I actually threw away all the material I had gathered and decided to start fresh. The other album was darker, more introspective, full of all these intense and amazing and fresh experiences I've had recently, with realizations I've never come to on any of my other albums. It almost made me feel something. With the current socio-political climate, I didn't think that was the right move for the world, so this album is just a lot of humming and some occasional monotone bird chirpings. Rick Nowels produced everything. *Stevie Nicks shows up on a white horse* Stevie: Lana, I love it. Lana: Thanks, Stevie. It's really the closest I think I've come to recreating Born to Die. The gays will be shook, if I do say so myself.

It would be strange. I feel like they are more brother and sister, not biologically obviously but just in their general energy. I think it may not work out too well right now since they are in different stages in their lives. Lana seems like she wants to be in a more peaceful, simpler phase, while Abel is more Hollywood and the fast-paced, chaotic lifestyle that requires. Obviously, though, it's up to them. If they felt it was right, go for it.

Very difficult to pick one, but probably going to have to go with BTD, since it was the start of it all (Sirens and AKA music-wise were maybe origin points, but hadn't been fully developed yet, especially Sirens). I mean God, especially for a debut, it just made such an impact. She brought everything: great music, mystery, beautiful photo shoots, iconic videos, an interesting backstory, her style (music and clothing), a little bit of controversy, not to mention she was just so different from anyone else in the mainstream. It felt like everyone had an opinion on her. It was so fresh. And what's really cool about it is that no one is ever going to be able to replicate that. (Yes, obviously there will be new artists that will come with their own voice and backstory and aesthetic and probably cause a stir, but no one is going to do it exactly like Lana did it and that's what is so great. She paved her own path.)

She worked with Terry in 2011/2012, I believe.

It still blows my mind that he made it in to president. I swear I have to check news articles about him to see if they came from The Onion, because I can't tell the difference sometimes.

That's a good point, but I don't have enough trust in the US media that they would report it like that. Most likely it would get spun to give her a bad angle. What makes a good headline still seems to win over what actually happened. But maybe I'm just paranoid, idk.

I hope you're joking my friend. In the current political/social US climate, admitting/saying she wrote a romantic song about a now well-known sexual abuser would be a really huge disaster and make all of her other controversies smaller in comparison. Not that that would be completely out of character for Lana, especially BTD/Paradise era Lana, but people would have a much harder time defending that as opposed to, say, the whole "I wish I was dead" thing, which could be understood through the lense of depression and such.

I'd honestly kind of want to know more about her days living in London/the UK when she was working on/writing BTD. I feel like that is a time period that she rarely discusses as much. Also how she managed to get so much studio time to record 200+ unreleased tracks, because I know from friends that it is not cheap to get into the studio. Also maybe just more about her early NYC days, like pre-AKA or around that time period. I know she's talked about that a lot, especially with relationships, but I would be more curious as to just stories around that time period, what it was like to be an aspiring artist in NYC, small stories about her earlier shows or whatever. Just whatever she wanted to share. But I have a feeling she might want to keep those to herself, which would be fine, so instead maybe I would just talk to her about metaphysics, her thoughts on time/space travel, philosophy, whatever. I feel like she would have a lot of interesting thoughts and observations.

So on Lykke Li's instagram, she posted a link for hard to liv and described it as a "farewell to liv." Does anyone know if that means this is the end of the supergroup? Or was she maybe just referencing/playing on the themes of the song (farewell to life)? I'd be kind of bummed out and surprised if this was it...

10.

Wow, I really liked that documentary. Like, I want to watch it again, and I rarely feel that way about a lot of things. I didn't really know what it was going to be about/what the vibe was going to be going in, but I was really pleasantly surprised that it didn't feel too angled the way Hollywood sometimes pushes for ("stars--they're just like us! Look how relatable and REAL they are!"). Idk. It felt like they weren't trying to label her as one solid thing (the fame-burdened and tortured artist, the compassionate artist, the lavish millionare, the down-to-earth girl next door, the inspirational icon, etc etc). They kind of just allowed all these events to just happen and then move on to the next part without a ton of voiceovers or anything and it just allowed the viewer to see a lot of different sides of her life in a cool way. I'm kind of sleep deprived right now, so I don't know if this is making any sense, but I liked it lol.

Listened to the first 30 seconds of Roll Call and already hooked. Wasn't expecting them to release an EP, so this is great news.

I really hope this is not the "hey y'all I'm a rapper now" album because this is just not your lane, Taylor. (On the plus side, Lana can have a nice vegan Labor Day weekend knowing she can sing-rap better than Ms. Swift.)

Heroin is clearly the best track on LFL, with her careful and critical assessment of drugs, Manson, and of course global warming (IT'S FUCKING HOT!). Queen of serious issues.

Okay y'all, I'm going to sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist right now, but the more I have been thinking about this, the more I completely believe that this entire feud between Kim, Kanye, and Taylor is made-up, from the 2009 VMAS until now. I made an accidental essay no one is going to read, so I’ll just put it in spoiler, but here’s what I’m thinking:

So basically this video's concept is: -driving on open road -Halsey singing in the desert -oh, a gas station -group of girls in the corner -Halsey grabs wireless headphones out of nowhere and eats a snack while reading the newspaper because why not -more of Halsey singing in the desert -group of girls trying to decide on a drink -scary monster/figure on the toilet upsets Halsey -girls want to fight Halsey -nevermind, we're cool -police officers show up and do nothing as girls handcuff them to their cars -more singing in the desert -road trip -more singing -camp sight on the side of the road -cute small child and fishes make Halsey smile -time to drink giving the (small) benefit of the doubt that this is somehow connecting to a bigger/other video, otherwise i'm lost

I now have this image in my head of Lana literally sprinting out of the gas station like a superhero in action with her coffee and trucker hat, like "To the woods, Stella. And send the birds."

what the fuck lol

For like the first few hours after the release, I felt almost bad for her seeing how many people didn't seem to like her new song and I kind of wondered if she had just fucked up. But now, after seeing her name again and again and again, and the 27+ million views just for the audio, and outselling Shake It Off, I see exactly what she was doing. It doesn't really matter whether people like it or not. What matters is that everyone is talking about it, dissecting it--not just the song, but her career trajectory up until this point, her feuds, what/whom the song is directed towards, what the line about the old Taylor being dead means for her future in music/her persona, the rise and fall of celebrity, her upcoming album and video. And of course she has said almost nothing about any of this, which means all people can do is speculate. The song itself is a good bop, but there are some kind of campy elements (she's dead!!) that are intentional. She's giving people what they want, which is to root for her failure and to make fun of her latest offering. So as they keep making fun and posting on social media, all that's doing is giving her that much more publicity, and with that more views/streams/buys. More than likely, a lot of this era will be more silent than her normal ones. She won't be all over every TV in America and abroad on every show and magazine. I bet we will see more things like this--where she gives the public just enough to feed off of without ever having to go to an interview and confirm or deny or deflect anything. She knows exactly what she's doing.

So i guess her sixth album still isn't going to be the album where she admits she has flaws like everyone else and that not everything is 100% the other person's fault lol. whatever though. the song's a bop, so i'll be listening regardless.

I have to say, I'm pretty intrigued by where she could take this era. I would love for her to do something a little darker and bold.

When can we start the LDR6 thread?

The idea that people are being murdered by Nazis in 2017 America is surreal and scary. And the fact that nuclear war seems to be more imminent. And that Trump clearly doesn't seem to give a flying fuck about anyone or much of anything in the US except how he is being presented on the news and if he can make enough tweets/stir enough drama to distract from all the investigations the Trump clan is under. And the fact that the First Lady's tweet against this travesty is once again a copy and paste effort from something Michelle said a year ago and Trump himself had to be pressured to make any real remark about what happened over the weekend in virginia. obviously there has always been hatred and violence and chaos and those who have been aware of this for some time know that it's been happening, even if in a more underground/non-mainstream way, but damn if it doesn't feel like things are getting bleak.

The Cult of Adidas begins with the first follower. Lana is our holy leader, the rest of us will soon be converted.

All of these clips are beautiful. She looks beautiful, she sounds beautiful, and seems to be enjoying the show. It's really nice to see and hear.