Vertimus

Who comes up with these categories?

Nor me.

It's terrific--there's a good chance I'll use it rather than the final album art, which usually disappoints me. Will the Christmas | Winter Solstice | Winter Holiday gods bless us with the leaked vintage Lana track on the 25th? A la Fine China?

It's terrific--there's a good chance I'll use it rather than the final album art, which usually disappoints me.

I think Margaret would have worked fine without the Jack vocal and without Lana speaking at the end. She seemed to be aiming for 'cute, something we can all relate to, like a cozy rom -com,' but it doesn't work as is. It's too syrupy and JA's vocals and Lana speaking break it up, and it's a short song to begin with. The melody is nice and I think with better judgement, it would have been a decent Lana song, more in vein of the songs on BB than on OB. As it is, it's like OB's Tomorrow Never Came. She did say at one point that the lyrics on Lasso/TRPWS were lighter and broader in tone, which does suggest songs like Margaret and Sweet. Maybe that's changed with all the other changed and reconceptions. From what we've heard of Henry, it doesn't sound middle-of-the-road or something that would appeal to a wider swath of listeners a la Margaret. But as we know from Happiness Is A Butterfly, snippets can be deceiving.

I see the themes and tropes you've listed on all of her albums, including her family and her relationship to God, except the tunnel image, which failed as a workable symbol for me. The Candy Necklace video also included loose references to the infamous Black Dahlia murder of the 40s but didn't add up to much; she seems to have thought very highly of that song, when I think she's done 'darkness' a lot better, on, for example, Gods & Monsters, Swan Song, Heroin, The Greatest, Hope, Money, Power, Glory , the UV title track, and unreleased masterpieces like Live Or Die. To my ear, OB just repeated a lot of what she'd done before, with A&W having the Ultraviolence Bad Girl vibe, and several songs being repetitive, like Fishtail with Tulsa Jesus Freak and The Grants with Terence Loves You. I'm glad you enjoyed OB as much as you did--and I wish I heard it as you do.

What was the concept of OB?

LFL had scope, variety, depth, and dimension. With Paradise and BB, it's among my favorites of her records. There were a few tracks I didn't care for and still don't, but the enjoyable tracks certainly outshone those. For me, the songs really played off and contrasted with one another, whereas on Honeymoon, the overall vibe was monochromatic. I still see 13 Beaches as one of the pinnacles of her recording career and don't understand the general lack of love for it. To me, it's kind of an ultimate statement of the Lana Del Rey Mood & State of Mind. I've heard people say, 'OB is what Lana was trying to achieve with LFL,' but I think just the opposite. OB was an attempt to create another album as full and varied as LFL. I also wouldn't mind an album trailer of TRPWS like we got with NFR!, though maybe not yet. It would be great to see the track listing so we know whether or not it will include Take Me Home, Country Roads, TPGICM, HBB, or Tough, or if, with Henry, we'll be getting 12 totally new tracks. If plans are still on track for two more singles before the end of the year, they'd better hurry. It seems more likely we'll get one or none, at this point.

I agree with that.

The way you feel about UV is the way I feel about most of the tracks on Paradise. Maybe the recent vocal style is the result of maturity, who knows—she's been singing about children and family, about watching TV and doing the laundry-- she's been mellower on NFR!, COCC, BB, and a lot of OB. She's singing more naturalistically and in a more relaxed manner, which is, to my ears, also less creative.

Well, Heart-Shaped Box is a good example, but I think they are few. Belting is just not her style or an approach she's used or seems a part of her essence as an artist. I'm referring to her vocal range more than I am her style (it was another member who thought I was referring to belting). I saw Linda Ronstadt in concert years ago in an enormous audotorium not known for its acoustics, which she opened with Lose Again, one of her much older songs, and her voice was powerful and crystal clear. It was one of those moments where you could imagine a crsytal goblet shattering just from her voice. Tori Amos has that sort of voice too. That's what I'm underscoring—Lana does not have that kind of voice, her voice and range are more in the Stevie Nicks-Debbie Harry category.

I'm not advocating for Lana to purposefully attempt to write songs that will become classics or songs that will enter the American Songbook. Obviously, that would be folly and a losing formula and has been since the rise of the idea of the popular song. For every Moon River or Shadow of Your Smile there are no doubt thousands of recorded songs that didn't even make a dent in the charts or the culture upon release. I've said here many times that I don't care for the production on most of NFR! and OB. To me, of her last four albums, the new tracks on BB, which JA didn't produce, sound best to my ears.

That may be accurate, but as I see it, it's putting the cart before the horse, trading in the immediate for her legecy. In fifty years, I don't think it's songs like Let Me Love You Like A Woman or Love Song that are going to be remembered, covered by artists of future eras, or become a part of the wider culture. But then almost everything goes into the dustbin of history anyway, so maybe she's right to do what is most comfortable for her. Full agree—or The Right Man Will Stay, presuming she's completely or predominatly romantically interested in men. Person is so clumsy, it sounds like an awkward attempt to get around naming a gender.

I think she was more vocally daring and creative in earlier eras too. Since NFR!, she seems to 'just sing,' and her vocals, to my ear, sound more monotonous and have a centered, plainer quality. I still love her voice, but the vocal approach is not as interesting or as challenging as in eras past. I prefer the Lana that kept more distance between her self (or her 'real self') and the lyrics, vocals, and music. But I'll support whatever she does on principle (knock wood).

The last thing Lana could ever do is 'belt' vocally. I'm not talking about the style of singing but the vocal power and range that allows someone like Aretha Franklin to sing the way she could when she chose to or a song requited it, or a Tina Turner, who could certainly 'belt,' or Linda Ronstadt. Lana is unique in her vision and approach, I agree.

She used to remain at a remove in her songwriting as in her album titles, but lately she's seemingly wanted to go the late 60s, early 70s singer-songwriter route, very confessional, very personal, very attached at the hip, and to me, for the most part, it's less interesting, or at least I feel she's done enough of it for my taste, though of course she's free to do whatever she likes. The reason I liked a great deal of LFL was because it was dramatic and removed, like 13 Beaches or Heroin; even White Mustang keeps a distance from itself. Songs like Love Song and How to Disappear don't do a thing for me, nor Life is Beautiful—because we can get those kinds of mellow songs from any number of middle-of-the-road artists, female or male, and Sweet Carolina and Let Me Love You Like A Woman falls into that category too. For such songs to work, at least for me, they have to be truly exceptional or genuinely touching--like Bel Air--and those are not for me. If she's going to do that sort of work, I prefer Hollywood Bowl and the collab she did, Suburban House, more than half of NFR! and almost all of OB.

I agree completely about NFR!. I think it's partly because Lana doesn't really have a powerhouse voice a la Whitney Houston, Linda Ronstadt, or Aretha Franklin. She's more in the Debbie Harry - Stevie Nicks category (if you've ever seen either in concert, then you know they have very little actual vocal range)—she needs the studio to sound really good in the varied notes—look at Video Games--it has very few high notes and is fairly monotone throughout, which is part of its charm. I sometimes find vocal straining charming, but I don't on Grandfather. Her various producers probably have to do a lot of studio dickering, and we know from the video she posted on Facebook during the making of Lust for Life how she was experimenting with singing with a piece of paper between herself and the mic (I believe it was on BPBP). Lord knows what other similar hacks she's used to enhance her vocals—I'm assuming singing with the paper between her and the mic was her idea, but who knows? It may have been Rick's. Though it's not one of my favorite of her songs, to me, vocally, Lana sounds best on Money, Power, Glory, especially in the refrain. That's my own personal standard or how I'd like to hear her vocals. Clear, immediate, crisp.

Lust For Life seems to have more outtakes than any other Lana album, though some, like Daffodils, might be one of the 'four political songs' for all we know.

Today Embach referred to it as Past, Present, Future. Does anyone know anything definite?

But Sweet Carolina was so surface and upbeat, to me, it doesn't foreshadow OB, because the family-themed tracks on OB were so heavy.

Sorry to learn of the loss of your grandmother. Let her legacy live on within you. That's one great way to honor her. Sad songs are one of Lana's fortes, obviously, though I certainly don't see her music as 'sad girl shit,' as I've heard some do (not here). I still label all her music Hollywood Sadcore. And she's covered such a wide range of emotional vulnerability and pain, probably more than any other artist since 1990 or so, maybe going back even longer. Tori Amos comes close , but she often has to mix in her personal brand of feminine defiance of all things, as well as her politics, which I find it tiring. Based on her albums since BTD, I think Lana can do almost anything, any theme, any type of song, any genre, which is why I had confidence she could have pulled off Lasso as originally conceived. If Lana is predominantly happy on TRPWS, great. I wouldn't mind seeing an entire 'happy' Lana album as long as it's not as middle-of-the-road- as Life is Beautiful. I also love the Lana of American, Meet Me in the Pale Moonlight, and Making Out.

I can buy that theory, but I don't subscribe to the theory, mentioned many times here, that the last song on every Lana album predicts the thematic, lyrical, and musical direction of the next album. Since TRPWS was put together over some four years, I don't see how OB's colorings could influence it in a major way. Since I'm not an OB fan for the most part, I hope it doesn't.

Thanks for the clip--I had heard it but didn't realize that was Past, Present, Future. I thought it was Lust For Life that had the acknowledged the Shangri-Las influence, on Cherry for example, and Get Free. Maybe it carried over to NRF!?

Have I missed something? We do we know Lana's PPF is an original song? The Shangri-Las song is pretty grim, and while I can see Lana covering it, it doesn't seem to fit with the theme of the album title or her marriage.

Could Past, Present, Future be a cover of the song made famous by the the Shangri-Las and brilliantly covered by Marianne Faithfull about 15 years ago? We know Lana is a fan of the Shangri-Las. The Past, well now let me tell you about the past The past is filled with silent joys and broken toys, laughing girls and teasing boys, Was I ever in love? I called it love- I mean, it felt like love, There were moments when, well, there were moments when The Present, Go out with you? Why not Do I like to dance? Of course, Take a walk along the beach tonight? I'd love to, But don't try to touch me, don't try to touch me 'Because that will never happen again, Shall we dance? The Future, Tomorrow? well tomorrow's a long way off Maybe someday I'll have somebody's hand Maybe somewhere someone will understand You know I used to sing- a tisket a tasket a green and yellow basket I'm all packed up and I'm on my way and I'm gonna fall in love, But at the moment it doesn't look good At the moment it will never happen again I don't think it will ever happen again.