Vertimus

I love the Chieftains' The Bells of Dublin except for the tracks by Jackson Brown and Rickie Lee Jones, which I cut from my iTunes account. If you're into old-fashioned twee, Kate Bush's December Will Be Magic Again is interesting.

I'm only a mild fan of OB, but I'm glad the world is finally waking up to Lana's work and giving her the props she deserves.

As I see it, there's no use doing a cover of a genuine, certified classic, especially of an American radio classic, if you don't feel it and don't think you can bring something genuine and fresh to it. That's the whole problem with covers. Linda Ronstadt was the classic covers artist of the 70s and she brought it almost all the time, even into the 80s with her immaculate covers of The Moon's A Harsh Mistress and Anyone Who Had a Heart. Even the old 70s semi-schlock classic Wildfire by Michael Murphy, for example. If you're going to cover a song like that, you'd better be ready to bring it, to bring the magical emotion that makes the entire song, because comparisons are going to be immediate. The same is true of movies remakes, with recent failures-at-the-box-office like Ben-Hur and Westside Story. Simon & Garfunkel are top-drawer Americana, foolhearty to attempt, as I see it. I'd like to see Lana cover Lilac Wine, but not if she doesn't relate to it or can't feel it. I find about half her covers flat, lackluster. Even Season of the Witch lacked the punch of the original for me, and there's so much brooding spookiness in that song. I don't think she understood the song. I didn't see much effort put into it, anymore than has gone into CRTMH. The sad thing about her CRTMH is that, with all the touring, Lana no doubt knows that feeling very very well—she as much said so in the new interview. As always, I'm happy for those who enjoy it and hear something different than I do. Thanks.

I love ‘Arcadia.’ Like so much of BB, it’s underrated. I’d take it any day over 9/10ths of OB.

Me neither. I still find it interesting that out of all her albums, OB brings the Grammy nod, though of course the Grammy nod could be somewhat cumulative.

Having listened to it on headphones, I do hear her voice upfront.

Maybe this was recorded in 2015 from the aborted Americana album and she's decided to drop it now.

Funny, because to me, say, compared to anything on Paradise, for example, her vocals sound way in the background, which I've also found on some of NFR! and most of OB. To my ear, it sounds like her vocals are just one part of the song, instead of the main part, which they should be , as I see it.

And what about her version of Summertime? Would that be on the Americana collection as well?

Exactly.

It sounds rushed, stripped down, flat, basic. As others have said, where is the instrumentation that made the original seem and feel sincere and of its time and place? She's singing the lyrics a la the classic John Denver version, but she's not singing it as if she means it or has experienced what she's saying. Where's the sense of loss, the passion, the relief of finally getting back to the place that she feels she belongs? Compare it to Buddy's Rendezvous, for example. Funny how on OB she says, "the WAYYYY JOHN DENVER SINGSSS" and she's doing the opposite here, no passion. It seems to me that this would drive away potential fans rather than create new ones. I hope we get the Americana | Classics album and soon, but I hope the rest is a little more fully realized and heartfelt than this.

There's a hilariously bad cover of CRTMH on Youtube purporting to be Lana. I found it very funny.

Yeah, there's nothing heinous about the song, especially from a singer who wrote 'American' and 'God Bless America.'

I'd love a good studio version of The Good Life. Being older than Lana, I when I think of American classics, I tend to think of music from the 1930s-1950s with jazz/blues overtones, like Skylark, My Funny Valentine, Last Night When We Were Young, and Lover Man, and Unchained Melody does come from the late 50s. I can't see Chelsea Hotel No. 2 fitting in with CRTMH and UM, but it depends what the album is called and what its focus is, especially as it was written by Leonard Cohen, a Canadian, making it not literally Americana. Though some might consider it a standard, but Cohen has so many songs that could be considered standards in the broad sense. I don't consider CHN2 a standard. It would be wonderful to have a double album of covers, maybe each disc having a different focus, one Americana and the other covers of all kinds. Imagine Lana doing Lilac Wine. That would be awesome. Or The Warmth of the Sun. In My Room, like Caroline No, is certainly a post-50s standard.

Thanks--I assume others are hearing it complete via New Zealand. Certainly it will leak sometime today, for better or worse?