It’s dry af so I’m going to theorize and get delusional in here . You know the theory that she ends her albums with a small hint of where she’ll go next? Whether intentional or not, you could argue that Honeymoon closes with Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, which leads into Lust for Life—where she starts looking outside of herself and opening up about her intentions. Then, Get Free at the end of LFL is like her modern manifesto, committing to her art and shedding everything else. The last minute of Get Free feels like drifting into the sea and the unknown, and NFR picks up right where that leaves off, with its nature and nautical themes and diary-like lyrics.
Same with Blue Banisters—it ends with Sweet Carolina, a love letter to her sister and family, and then Ocean Blvd opens with The Grants, setting the stage for a deeply introspective album about her family and herself.
These are my favorite examples of this theory, but because it’s such a consistent pattern, I’ve been wondering—why tack on the Venice Bitch demo to Taco Truck at the end of Ocean Blvd? I took it as her “going home” to Venice Beach, finding comfort after all the introspection on that album. In all likelihood it’s probably because she’s just ✌🏻so random✌🏻. Not saying she’s like Taylor Swift with Easter eggs, but what if that demo was a clue about an unreleased album she was working on after Ocean Blvd? She dropped Say Yes to Heaven a couple of months later, and her team even sent out polls asking fans to vote on their favorite unreleased songs. I think BoZ hinted there was more to come if SYTH did well—so if that was the plan, I wonder what changed behind the scenes. It seems like there have been a TON of projects teased or hinted at post Ocean Blvd but things are just stagnant. She spent a lot of 2024 touring so maybe there just wasn’t time or logistics on her side?