pawn shop blues

Already 10x better than the entirety of Coachella.

i feel like 90% certain I'm hallucinating this entire thread.

Taylor is so fucking petty, but I also kind of love it. She knows how to apply that to something.

The way that a lot of this era seems to be a kind of flip from the Born to Die era (Born to Die/Lust for Life, Lana being very mysterious and cryptic in BTD interviews/Lana being honest and open, sounding fairly sad in a lot of interviews/in a good place, always going to be writing about "the same goddamn guy"/talking about feeling like she's grown up and doesn't want to be in toxic love relationships anymore), and, since all of the lyrics reference the past tense, it makes me wonder if WM will be some sort of farewell to the man behind a lot of the BTD songs and/or the events that the album is based on and framing that around a guy and a relationship. Like some sort of "I'll always have love for you but I don't want to look for you in other people anymore" type thing?

Queen of teasing through Instagram. I just hope she actually releases the studio versions of these snippets and doesn't scratch them for G-Eazy collabs.

This is why I'm on LanaBoards, tbh.

"so lucky we got Chuck to create the Yosemite cover for us."

This reminds me of a Madonna photo shoot from a few years ago.

He's clearly not studying writing or critical thinking.

I would die if there were snippets of studio footage from BTD/Paradise or Ultraviolence sessions. Or any BTS footage from any video shoots.

The piano chords and melody have such a smoky piano bar after midnight vibe to it. Like when it's super slow and quiet and the person at the piano is just playing chords and reminiscing on where life has taken them and where they are now.

Lana is way too early in her career to start pulling current-day Madonna antics on social media. Like Lana girl, we love you just as you are, you don't need to be "down with the kids."

I think it helps that a lot of her work has been songs about love going wrong, not working out, being hurt by those you love, often with some melodramatic flourishes. Also, especially in the BTD era, she was definitely an outsider. She didn't look like anyone else, or talk like anyone else, or dress like anyone else, or sound like anyone else (much of this still being true). To see her being so independent from everyone else, but also succeeding, was inspiring. I think a lot of the LGBT community can relate, at some point or another, to feeling like an outsider, like you don't belong or are a little too much this/not enough that for general taste. So it's always cool to see someone who clearly doesn't give a shit about trying to fit in the restrictive lines of what's "acceptable" or "normal" and is able to merge their own path.

I know it's probably fake, but at the same time, I can see Lana making some beautiful song about escaping the glare of the paparazzi, something that's clearly meant to be a solo effort, and then just injecting G-Eazy's random ad libs into it. Like: Lana: I went to the beach-- G-Eazy: (uh huh yeah ya did) Lana: down by the shore. G-Eazy: (right by that shore girl!) Lana: I had to go to 13- G-Eazy: (uh huh) Lana: 13- G-Eazy: (yup) Lana: 13 beaches G-Eazy: (damn girl that's a lot of beaches!) I'm pumped.

The only person who ruined Iggy was Iggy (same with Azealia).

Holy hell. So happy to stan her and so proud of her, to have gone from open mics and songwriting competitions to creating an album that's still charting 5+ years after its release and is now in the top 25 all-time list for charting longevity. Truly queen.

The drama that goes on in this thread is like equal to 3 high schools at once.

Out of curiosity, what are the 5 Taylor Swifts?

I think for me, thinking about her live shows, a problem I have with her back up dancers are not so much the actual dancers themselves (they seem cool irl), but what they represent. They were clearly brought in, as well as the choreography, to "spice up" her live shows and inject it more with energy (as well as to maybe try something new for the shows). I get that a lot of Lana's material is slower and that sometimes can be difficult to translate to the stage, especially for festivals. But, if we're being honest, shows don't need things like choreography or back up dancers in order to be interesting. Slower music doesn't have to equal a boring show. At the end of the day, it's up to the musicians and the performer to engage with their material, to tell the story of the song and translate the emotions, and that seems to be something Lana hasn't been totally willing to do for a while now. Sometimes she does, yes, but a lot of times it kind of feels like she's just going through the motions. And that's disappointing because she's already shown us that she's more than capable of putting on a show that feels alive and immediate and engaged (the iTunes Festival 2012 and her performances of Heart-Shaped Box being particular standouts, though there are many others). I can understand one problem might be that most of her material is pretty dark/personal, and she probably doesn't want to go on night after night rehashing painful memories. And that could be another reason why she wants to put out Lust for Life--to sing songs at her shows that are a little more uplifting. I don't know, this is a total rant/ramble, I just wish there was a way she could bring back some of that bite that's been missing for a while now at her shows. Because, when she was really engaged, it was so magical.

Love this idea.

I would honestly be nervous if I saw that Lana was covering Amy. Amy is one of those artists who has a really specific sound, combined with lyrics that are so personal they even name street corners and names of friends. It's like her music is kind of a peak inside her own world (Amy's), and so to have someone else try and sing that would just be strange. I see the crossover appeal (both Lana and Amy have dark elements of heartbreak with a retro sound), but Lana would really have to do something else with the material to make it her own. And this isn't any insult to Lana as an artist. In a lot of ways, Lana is a similiar type of artist---there are a lot of elements that make up her sound, and removing any of these elements just does something to the song to make it sound "off" or at least not as powerful as Lana's versions. I'm a rambling mess right now sorry.

This has been one hell of an emotional week to be a Lana fan (even for Lana fan standards). The lows, the meltdowns, the highs, the reminder that we should never doubt Lana because she's always going to come through, even if it's not in the exact way or timeline we want. I need a nap. P.S. I can't even fathom that there are still 7-8 tracks we don't even know about. I don't even care what they sound like, I just like knowing new info like that is coming.

So unrelated to everything happening, but Declan McKenna has such wonderful hair.

The total irony of this being Lana's peace and love era....

I have a feeling this new Witness album is going to be similiar to Macklemore's last LP in that it's going to be an incredibly awkward mix of "serious" political/word issues songs mixed with "fun" songs about nothing, both of which will fall flat. But Swish Swish is way better than I thought it was going to be, so now I'm kind of interested in at least checking out this album when it comes out.