Summersault

This song was the soundtrack of my summer, I've listened to it so many times and I still can't figure it out. Knew? Threw? Thew? Also I love how much FJM's writing style suits her. Like this could legit have been a Lana song. They are twin flames who should collab much more than they already do.

Re: The underdog angle My own possibly unpopulary opinion is, that while I strongly agree that the initial backlash wasn't planned and must have been very traumatizing, she lacks self awareness as to how it comes off when she pulls out the "I'm the underdog"-trope again and again years later now that she's litterally a rich, succesful, critically acclaimed celebrity singer who most critics would agree has had significant impact on pop culture. Like...what more do you want girl? A statue? It gets especially aggrevating when she uses it as a shield against any kind of criticism, like when she went on her Insta-rants a few years back. At the end of the day she is only human. I can't blame her for being stuck on that, I would probably be the same way to be honest. Unlike us, Lana doesn't have the luxury of analyzing her own life from the outside and making coolheaded decisions about how to feel about trauma that happened to her depending on what looks best to the public. We're all the protagonists in our own stories. But I sometimes wish that she had a good PR manager who would tell her to go easy on that angle. But then again she wouldn't be Lana.

Me @ this new reponse:

I can see why you (or I for that matter) don't get that impression. We're giving her the benefit of the doubt. But I also think it's a fair point that for those women their sexuality is exactly part of why they've been criticized or held to double standards too by critics through out the years. As if Nicki or Beyoncé haven't had backlash against them exactly because of them sexualizing themselves in paticular ways. Emma Watson critcizing Beyonce for showing off her body too much and how that was unfeminist of her i.e. comes to mind. Not saying whether Emma's point was valid or not, just noticing how these female artists' sexuality are not that "normalized" afterall. They're pretty much in the same boat as Lana in many ways, so why hold them up as counter examples ? She's complaining like "can I go back to singing about.." as if she hasn't been doing exactly that to great acclaim with a thriving career for the better part of a decade. If you're not in a kind mood when reading her letter, Lana implies that she's been struggling with watching her artistic work influence the world to little acclaim until recently and seeing other artists thrive while she herself has been shunned by critics, feminists, the likes. That is not exactly true and I can see why people call her out on it. Yes, when reading her letter in a nuaced way that lends her the benefit of the doubt she has very valid points. But she doesn't make it easy for herself to be understood ("I'm not not a feminist"?????) and then she get's very upset that people misunderstands her.

I really do agree that people trying to make it directly a racist comment are reaching. And I agree with your interpretation of what she was trying to say. But... 1. It was poorly worded. It takes a very kind reading to not get the impression that she's painting herself in a very poetic light compared to her descriptions of the other artists. Not my biggest grievance with her letter, but it is quite poorly worded. 2. It skips over the part where litterally all female artist are criticized for their sexuality or held to double standards at some point. That doesn't mean that they should stay quiet about it, but it's really is tonedeaf of Lana to single herself out as different from those female artists. Especially because.... 3. Lana has been quite succesful and reached critical acclaim in spite of her critics. She keeps peddling the "woe is me, media hates me" narrative when NFR was one of the most acclaimed albums of 2019. I'm not saying she can't still be justifiably mad about her earlier critics, but she needs to acknowledge her succes at least a little in order to not come off as spoiled. SO many other artists never reach her level of fame or are able to have the kind of artistic freedom she has, and it's not unreasonable to say that less privileged female artists' careers wouldn't have survived the backlash she recieved at first. She doesn't have to apologize for being white or coming from an affluent background but to paint herself as more silenced and distraught than her peers is just... tonedeaf. So yes her point stands, but I see plenty of things wrong with the execution. It takes a very kind reading not to. And we all know Twitter don't do kind readings

Yes, I think you're absolutely right. It has become increasingly clear through the years that Lana is hyper-sensitive to any criticism from the media and tastemakers in general. And yes, she did get a lot of unwarranted and unfair criticism at first. I can understand being mad about it and speaking on it. However it seems like she's completely unable to weigh it up against the rivers of critical acclaim and accolades she has recieved since the years after her debut. She's it very bitter still and it clouds her judgement sometimes. She's so keen on framing herself as the percecuted artist that she doesn't see the bigger picture and how other female artists - of colour or not - are also treated unfairly by the media a lot. Maybe not in the completely same way but unfairly none the less. It's a bad look to frame them as somehow different from herself in that regards. Love her to death, but I'm only half joking when I say she needs a spin doctor who can help formulate her thought on politics and society. Almost everytime she tries to get political she kinda puts her foot in her mouth. Often because her persecution complex gets in the way of her valid points. It's a real shame cause I genuinely think she has some interesting takes.

After 4.5 years of deliberation I've concluded that she's saying "motel speed sprees" as it makes sense both thematically and phonetically.

This is not meant as a personal attack on anyone, just some perspective on the vegan criticism in this thread: Has Lana actually ever said that she's vegan/ against fur within recent time? Cause otherwise it seems a tad unreasonable to project your own values onto her and accuse her of hypocracy. You can of course still criticize her for wearing fur but remember: - Almost all chemicals, including those in medicine, are tested on animals. - Our houses, roads, hospitals and schools displace and kill animals as we build them. - Vegetable farming kills animals as well through i.e. pest control and harvesting I'm not saying being vegan isn't reducing animal harm but that's all you do. Reduce,not eliminate. We're part of an ecosystem where we inevitably embarge on animal lives, simply because we're alive. In itself, fur is really not this totally different moral class of harm than the other many ways we use and embarge on animal lives through our lives (yes, vegans too). Especially not if it's sustainably sourced. It's just a very visible reminder of how we hurt animals and I think that's why it provokes a stronger reaction than say the building of a highway (highways are terrible for biodiversity and animal lives in general). I understand that reaction but it makes the criticism seem a bit arbitrary and not well thought out. That being said I find that real fur teddy oddly creepy as well, like it's gonna come alive in the night and murder me. It has that Buffalo Bill vibe

Exactly. Just curious, what type of political song would you like her to do? I get what you mean in the sense that she's only really explicit in the chorus ("without the guns") and that the fireworks line is a bit clichéed. But I have a hard time imagining her being more concrete without it sounding forced. To me this is one of her most heartfelt songs in very long time, because she goes beyond her own little world but in such a very Lanaesque way that it still feels authentic.

It's amazing how different experiences we all have connected to the same albums. In general her music has followed me throughout my twenties, and been very formative, as I imagine it has for most of us on here. BTD and her unreleased material was an awakening to me. I started seeing the world and exploring it differently - everything could be an adventure when seen how Lana sees the world (in her songs at least). With UV I was still high off that adventourous feeling, but around that time life also started to change for me. With Honeymoon I was in a chaotic evolving state and with LFL I'd say I was a very different, more mature person who was ready to take on some challenges I had been postponing. I still love her music to death, but I've also felt the need to disentangle myself a bit from that very sensual way of living in your own little world that her music first inspired in me. As a result LFL is definitely the album that had the least impact on me. There are beautiful tracks on there, but it wasn't the life-altering experience that BTD or UV were to me, because I was in different place mentally. But I'm not counting out the possibility that she will rock my world again. I remember after Tropico, I temporarily had a distinct feeling of Lana-saturation, feeling like she had played out her role as the most inspiring artist in my life. I think I even made a melodramatic blogpost about it. Then she dropped West Coast a few months later and I was right back on the Lana-train

Women and gay people don't deserve violent abuse either, yet here we are. I dont think that many people actively wished death upon him, or think that death penalty is good thing. But he happened to die, and it does seem a little karmic, given the fucked up things he did. It's quite rare that abusers actually get to repent proportionally for their crimes, so I can't really be mad, that people who have experienced abuse, or know people who did, see this as "divine justice" so to speak. I personally don't celebrate it, but I'm not mad either. There are other people dying that I'm infinitely more worried about, than a guy who did absolutely terrible shit.

These are some of the most spot on descriptions of Lana I've ever seen! He doesn't gloss over the fact that she's making up sh*t, but he also sees that it's exactly the kind of eccentricity that makes her so interesting. He genuinely appreciates her for the kind of artist she is. I wish more journalists could see what he sees. Would have spared the world (and Lana) for a lot of unnecessary think pieces

Yo wtf You gotta expand on that story, mate

I had the misfortune of reading the thing about Stevie sounding like Spongebob before listening to the song... I thought "why would they do Stevie dirty like this? No respect, the youth.". Then I actually gave it a listen, and she opens the song like she's wistfully about to flip Krabby Patties. Still love her though

Oh God, I forgot Coachella is up there as well. I'll take any of of her mindblowingly corny lyrics over a faux-deep, wanna be political song any day. The corny ones always make me laugh, and somehow she can pull off being over the top like that, which is an art in itself.