IanadeIrey

Based on the subreddit agreeing with us, I’d like to think that there’s a silent majority of (normal) users over there, and it’s just the wild and unkempt ones who post...which still happen to be a lot.  

Peppers is still such a camp title, sorry, I can’t get over that one.  It’s up there with Fishtail.  Though I will say, Taco Truck x VB feels oddly fitting for Lana because I can hypothesize her vision for that one.  Perhaps the Taco Truck comes into play the way the Mariners Apartment Complex did! 

I don’t think the music has gotten better or worse. It’s all been brilliant, but obviously each record has had a distinct sonic landscape that may better amplify certain qualities and strengths of Lana’s musical output.
 
That said, I don’t think Jack Antonoff has done anything to actualize or legitimize Lana as an artist — if anything, Lana gave Jack the opportunity to reveal his true musicianship with a more classic approach to production, because prior to working with Lana, Jack was known almost exclusively for unique pop music with an 80s flair. To say that Jack helped Lana achieve a particular vision wouldn’t be an untrue statement, but let’s not overstate it. Her compositions dating back to as early as 2005 contain a sophistication that cannot be replicated and at the time, were completely unaffected by co-writers or producers.
 
An artist of Lana’s stature is allowed to enlist a variety of styles and embody a variety of lyrical moods in her writing, and still be considered a master of her craft completely on her own. 

I hate to use released songs as comparison for ones we haven't heard, but the description of Kintsugi sounds like it's giving Summer Bummer minus the beat – murmuring vocals over a menacing piano. Contemplatively seductive.  

I'm in my year of rage and retribution (not rest and relaxation) so I'm really excited for A&W and its place on the record as an angry anthem – but I love that there seems to be so much variety and intensity in terms of the sonic landscape, and it's definitely going to be a cathartic record. I also find it so interesting that the last few tracks on this record seem to pick up in pace, when Lana has almost exclusively winded her albums down in production. Perhaps a jumping off point for something more experimental and hard in the record(s) to come?

Venice Bitch is easily in the top 3 of her discography, alongside West Coast and Honeymoon.  

I found it interesting that 'LA Who Am I to Love You' and 'Mulholland Queen' by Jonathan Wilson (whom Lana allegedly dated in 2016) share similar lines –
 
LA Who Am I to Love You
With towering eucalyptus trees that sway in my dominion
Not you at your worst
Totally on fire, unlivable, unbreathable, I need you
 
Mulholland Queen
Under those big eucalyptus'
Where your grasses are green
Where you sway under the heavens
And your dominion is every...
Star
 
The poem is obviously more self-reflective than about a relationship, but I wonder what the significance of that mirrored imagery is – perhaps a personal reference that only she and Jonathan know about? 

To echo the talk about K, I’ve actually always thought he was a real, living person! 
 
There is the obvious reference to him in the two “For K” tracks, but I believe the story about his death. For one, the entire record being called Born to Die is even more chilling when you add that piece to the whole pie. Lana has said before that it’s in reference to how her existence was overshadowed by awareness of her own mortality as a child — which was fleetingly eased upon experiencing true love — but given the subject matter of songs like the title track, Blue Jeans, Video Games, Dark Paradise, and Summertime Sadness, it really seems like there was a literal loss and Lana is reconciling these worlds of love and death. 

I think the “K” trilogy of BTD, BJ, and VG is interesting, though, because we know VG’s verses are about Josh, but the choruses are about how she wished things went with someone else (and perhaps she can only wish, because he’s no longer here). BJ suggests a tumultuous road, the result of which sees Lana vow to love him till the end of time (perhaps in a way that honours someone whose spirit lives on in your memories, in your heart, etc.). And BTD is the thesis statement that precedes these two tracks — the first verse sees Lana touch upon the afterlife, where she hopes she’ll be reunited with him. 
 
I also found it telling that in a 2012 interview, Lana was asked if the boy in question knew about these songs, to which she replied “he doesn’t know — his mother knows.” I’ll put it in the spoiler below. 
 

Now, Josh has never really fallen out of contact with Lana (as we have seen photos of them together around the early 2000s, in 2009, in 2011, in 2012, Lana posted about his engagement in 2018, and Josh has posted several times about how he inspired Video Games) — so I really do think that this person’s fate as described in Lana’s songs is legitimate and true.
 
But alas, I think this will remain one of the most elusive Lana mysteries unless she herself opens up about it. It’s her story to tell, and if she does choose to tell it, I know it’ll be insightful and moving. 

OK but if she called it the Don’t Forget Me Tour  what a comeback. I hope I’m wrong about what I’ve been saying lately with regards to her not touring.
 
Let’s hope the collective attempt at realism here was really us just doing the law of attraction, and us “letting go” of any idea of a tour actually brought it to us. 

Chemtrails Over the Country Club 
Dealer (we need a 2020s version of the iconic Million Dollar Man belting vocals) 
Living Legend

Same. Discussions like these and Lanalysis—where deep probing into the songs is encouraged—were the reason I joined LanaBoards! 

Thank God I didn’t become an English professor because I’d be teaching LDR lyric studies and would have no holds barred in the debates that would inevitably spring from that…

OK glad we can agree on the first two, but I still think it’s “my body marred my soul”!
 
If we say it’s “mind”, the full lyric would then be “I can’t help but feel somewhat like my body, mind, my soul.” This feels like a redundant thought because, as a person, Lana is her body, mind and soul. Of course she’s going to feel like her body, mind, and soul. This doesn’t add anything to the narrative of the song. 

“I can’t help but feel somewhat like my body marred my soul” makes more sense to me———because this means that her body and her physical being have taken focus away from her soul. This links to the next line: “handmade beauty sealed up by two man-made walls”. 
 
So, like the beauty of the tunnel not being appreciated by the public because it was sealed up, Lana’s soul (and true inner beauty) is not being appreciated by the public because her body has “marred” it. 

OK glad we can agree on the first two, but I still think it’s “my body marred my soul”!
 
If we say it’s “mind”, the full lyric would then be “I can’t help but feel somewhat like my body, mind, my soul.” This feels like a redundant thought because, as a person, Lana is her body, mind and soul. Of course she’s going to feel like her body, mind, and soul. This doesn’t add anything to the narrative of the song. 

“I can’t help but feel somewhat like my body marred my soul” makes more sense to me———because this means that her body and her physical being have taken focus away from her soul. This links to the next line: “handmade beauty sealed up by two man-made walls”. 
 
So, like the beauty of the tunnel not being appreciated by the public because it was sealed up, Lana’s soul (and true inner beauty) is not being appreciated by the public because her body has “marred” it. 

“Lana is back and she’s cooler than ever 😍😍😍” — it was clever for like, 2 seconds on April 19, 2017, but then never again. 

I think the lyric is very clearly “Leanin’ on my back, whisperin’ in my ear, come on, baby, you can thrive”.
 
A random reference to Lennon when she’s already made Harry Nilsson the point of reference is too niche and obscure even for Lana to make—and she usually integrates references like that so that they can stand alone. It doesn’t work in this context.
 
I think she just kind of mumbles the beginning of the phrase as a stylistic choice, so it’s difficult to discern exactly what she’s saying (and phonetically sounds like “lenin’ in my back”). And there’s a clear “th” sound on “thrive” so it can’t be “drive”. 

The location reminds me of the movie drive-in scenes of the Doin Time video! Hopefully it’s sooner than later that we get to see this, assuming it is for Lana.

“When’s it gonna be my turn” is too real of a lyric…felt that at 8 am this morning xx

While I can’t say I possess the insight or enlightenment to always grasp your posts (you are lightyears ahead of us there and are definitely in line with the great surrealists of the early 20th century), you have a place here and have contributed immensely to our camaraderie. Keep being you and posting your thoughts even in spite of the feedback because this is a place where ideas are to be shared freely without judgement. You are always respectful and full of good energy, so don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise <3

Right?! And thank you <3 I also think we have idolized films that delve into this exact kind of subject matter—or even darker topics—to the extent that we’ve gone on to hail them as cinematic masterpieces and cultural staples (and rightfully so, these films are amazing). So I definitely think there are elements of misogyny and sexism at play here. It could also be the medium (song vs film), but that is such an unsound argument so I really think it’s the former. 

I think what’s so upsetting about this to me is that the people who say that period of her career is “problematic” are people who haven’t experienced any ounce of real life 💀 Which is not their fault but they can’t think critically about what Lana produces and what we consume as fans—which doesn’t require having lived a particular kind of life. And in thinking critically about the material, there are deeper sociopolitical conversations that could be had about some songs like Put Me in a Movie but instead it becomes an opportunity to denounce an entire period of Lana’s artistic expression because it contains some of her most serious, thought-provoking, and culturally-important subject matter. And it concerns the very true realities of our world and more generally, the darker underbelly of developed economies (in both the west and east!), which we certainly cannot ignore. These uninformed critiques of her pre-BTD work are, therefore, also the kinds of dismissal she talked about in QFTC. It’s so dismissive to her and the art! Sorry to get deep about this in a light-hearted thread but it must be said ❤️

“Lana is back and she’s cooler than ever 😍😍😍” — it was clever for like, 2 seconds on April 19, 2017, but then never again. 

While I can’t say I possess the insight or enlightenment to always grasp your posts (you are lightyears ahead of us there and are definitely in line with the great surrealists of the early 20th century), you have a place here and have contributed immensely to our camaraderie. Keep being you and posting your thoughts even in spite of the feedback because this is a place where ideas are to be shared freely without judgement. You are always respectful and full of good energy, so don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise <3

“Lana is back and she’s cooler than ever 😍😍😍” — it was clever for like, 2 seconds on April 19, 2017, but then never again. 

While I can’t say I possess the insight or enlightenment to always grasp your posts (you are lightyears ahead of us there and are definitely in line with the great surrealists of the early 20th century), you have a place here and have contributed immensely to our camaraderie. Keep being you and posting your thoughts even in spite of the feedback because this is a place where ideas are to be shared freely without judgement. You are always respectful and full of good energy, so don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise <3