Vertimus

I hope her contribution to the new song is more than she contributed, vocally, to Secret Life.

Very tough to cover that song effectively, Jeff's masterpiece in terms of his own songwriting. Lana's covers are hot or miss with me, mostly miss-. She could put a country twist on it, but obviously, it's not inherently country or Americana.

Thanks, BCTs. Holly did a great job; it's very Lana-like, a sort of twin to 'Fine China.'

I really like it now—it gelled for me yesterday. Did Lana have any part in the writing? The melody is beautiful perfect for autumn. I'd also like a solo version.

It is mine. I never tire of it.

Oy. I'd much prefer a LDR 'Americana' or country album of new material all on her own. I love COCC but hated Breaking Up Slowly. I didn't care for The Prettiest Girl in Country Music either. That's just me. Still, it might be great, who knows?

Full agree. The rework is a total mess. The original is perfect, pristine, powerful.

I think the lyrics, the apparent pride of being American as expressed, rile up a lot of folks on the Left and were partially responsible for the wave of aggression she received from the Left in the first years of her career, and which she still does in certain quarters. It seems to me they're much more comfortable with Lana writing songs like "American Whore,' where there's an element of self-debasement.

Totally. For me, it's the most underrated of all her released songs. Top 10 LDR for me. I was listening to Summetime Sadness yesterday and thought the same thing: the vocal creativity she had in that era was amazing and seemed like such a trademark—I thought we'd hear that voice going forward. Most of the material on Ocean Blvd just doesn't stack up to me when compared to the greater songs on BTD and P. Not that a comparison needs to be made.

How about the entire outro or last 4th of Black Beauty?

The children's voices, the piano, the "Grenadine sunshine, and it fades sublime" line on Bel Air, and the entire song.

A-MEN! It's one of her most sophisticated songs in every way; I really miss that haughty version of LDR, even if it is a fantasy or just an aspect of her genuine self.

I hope the production is better on whatever comes next. I've been listening to Orville Peck's Pony and wonder why Lana can't consistently get that kind of a clean, almost 'live' sound.

I agree—the LDR albums I love most of those least liked by most members here. I will die on the LFL hill too; songs like WTWWAWWKOD and 13 Beaches are so much more original and creative than say, Art Deco, Love Song or How To Disappear, certainly more so that Happiness is a Butterfly, which I consider her worst-ever released track due to all the non-happiness-is-a-butterfly parts. Being a creative myself, as I'm sure many of us are, I do know that an artist is usually most enthusiastic about what they're working on currently, that's where all your energy is, so over a long recording process, it's easy to see how Serene Queen and NBAR might have seemed distant in time while Groupie Love, Coachella and Change seemed 'fresh and new.' That's where objectivity comes in, during the final selection process, which I do not think of as one of Lana's strong points.

It's still particularly obnoxious to me; it degrades the whole idea of 'people are powerful beings.' Yes, I know, artists from the birth of blues and rock n' roll do that all the time; Nico and Tori Amos come to mind immediately. They both even added numerous syllables to words on occasion. If it's done artistically or well, I have no problem with it, though Nico in particular was mocked for doing it. I can't imagine that Best American Record, the NFR version, was the original, and intended for LFL. It's so awkard and gutted.

This is brilliant. Thank you. I feel we lost so much, or perhaps a better way of saying it is I feel Lana made some bad decisions. I don't mind Yosemite being cut since we have it now, and though I love 3/4ths of LFL, there's a handful of songs I don't care for, and they're the usual suspects: Coachella, Groupie Love, the bastardized title track, and Change to me seems rushed and underdeveloped, and the she says "beins" instead of "beings" drives me crazy, just as the way she stresses the word "parents" on Coachella. I don't care for Get Free at all. I actually like In My Feelings, which I know many do not. And then the way she bastardized Best American Record for NFR!, since it was perfect as it was. That Serene Queen was cut still breaks my heart: it, and Cola, are the prototypical LDR songs for me—13 Beaches too.

If You Lie Down With Me & Cola

She's having her Rhiannon moment, physically and stylistically. With all her current success and high exposure, a new album of some kind seems imminent to me, even if it's (just) the unreleased album, which I don't think it will be.

Yes.

'Americana' as a music term or category is not a subject or theme, predominantly, it's a sound, using traditional instruments like fiddles, banjos, dulcimers, mandolins, acoustic guitars, harmonicas, etc. while drawing inspiration from 19th century American music like ragtime, Dixieland, and early 'country music' like the Carter Family and Bascom Lamar Lunsford. I would expect Lana to do something like Brandi Carlile, the Secret Sisters, early Parker Millsap and early Rayland Baxter, J. R. Jones, the Brothers Comatose, Ben Morrison as a solo act, Anderson East, early Dylan LeBlanc, Frankie Lee, and the California Honeydrops. All of these artists go in and out of 'Americana, largely because Americana doesn't sell and so they try popularizing their sound, and, in my opinion, usually fail at this. They make their money and career touring, unless, like Carlile, they do become popular successes. Almost all of these artists have tried to go beyond their sound and totally shot themselves in the foot. Rayland Baxter and Anderson East are the exceptions (though Baxter's 3rd album was horrible). 'Americana' broadly used as a term means nostalgic 'symbols' of America past, like gas stations, doo-wop, Elvis, car washes, push-up bras, young men hanging out on the corner, argyle socks, bowling, Route 66, classic cars, family road trips, poodle skirts, Mount Rushmore, the Mississippi River, bootleg whiskey, the Everly Brothers, Walt Disney, riverboats, beehive hairdos, the Depression and the Dust Bowl, flappers and the Roaring 20s, suffragettes, the 50s suburbs, diners, "Where hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day," cotton candy, the Twist, "I found may thrill on blueberry hill," Stuckeys, cowboys, covered wagons, famous candies like wax lips, hula-hoops, folk art paintings, jug bands, famous carnival rides, etc. Lana clearly understands all of that! I'd love to hear her do Chuck Barry's 'Back in the USA.' We have to keep in mind that Lana said she thought of 'Ride' as a country song or potential country song, so that might be a clue.

If Lana is going to work with David Lynch, she'd better hurry. He's 77 and the members of his posse—Angelo Badalamenti, Julie Cruise—are dropping like flies. I was disappointed in his ghost-written autobiography, 'Room to Dream' in 2018, which seemed to suggest that there was no rabbit in the hat and no man behind the curtain, and I also thought he ruined Twin Peaks with the revival Season 3, which spent most of its running time on Kyle Maclachlan running around like an idiot zombie with a stupid smile on his face. That was a real shot in the foot for him. I am a huge fan of 'Blue Velvet,' 'Wild At Heart'—almost too painful to watch—and 'Mulholland Drive'—definitely too painful to watch if you 'get it'—and the first season of Twin Peaks. I like 'Eraserhead' and 'The Elephant Man' too, but not much else (though I've seen everything). I don't care much for 'Fire Walk With Me' despite its excellent Badalamenti score and the extremely painful ending, when the just-murdered Laura is approached by the angel and she laughs and laughs with bitterness—it's far too late for anything to comfort her, even salvation. He had some interest in Lana during her early Vamp era as LDR, but it might have been the pose and the overall package as she was then that drew him. As we all know, her persona has changed a great deal, so much so that she's almost a completely different LDR (the same way Nico went from 'Nordic Blond' to 'Brooding Goth Queen'), and we don't know that Lana as she is at present would still hold the same appeal, perhaps mystique, for him.

Listen to the song ‘The Stranger and His Wife’ by The Flight. I’d love to hear LDR do something like it.

So do we think the covers album is next? Or the country-esque one? When I think of 'American classics and standards,' I don't think of 'Rocky Mountain High,' but I can see how Lana might, and it is an 'American classic.' But the music of the Seventies isn't generally considered 'American classic,' especially, like the music of the 60s, so much of it came from Britain. 'Standards,' to me, are songs like 'I'm a Fool To Want You,' 'Laura,' 'I've Got It Bad And That Ain't Good,' 'Skylark,' 'Love For Sale,' "Lilac Wine,' 'In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning,' etc. and there's literally hundreds or thousands of them. If Lana is thinking of 'classics' in terms of the 60s and 70s (perhaps as well as earlier), I'd love to hear her take on the Beach Boys' 'Caroline, No' and Cat Stevens' 'Morning Has Broken,' my all-time favorite 70s song. What about Al Green's 'Love & Happiness'? If the standards album is ever released, it's the one album I would like to be cohesive, not an album that contains 'Rocky Mountain High' (let's say) and 'My Funny Valentine' or 'When Your Lover Has Gone.' I'd prefer it be older songs like 'Lilac Wine' and 'How Deep is the Ocean?", and then maybe a second, or a two-record album, with post-1960s songs.

'Americana' is not necessarily country music; a lot of the artists I like categorize themselves as Americana, which I love, but what passes for 'country' for the last 30 years is really country pop, and so lyrically repetitive and, to me, stupid, and I can't see Lana being attracted to country pop, except perhaps for one or two tongue-in-cheek songs like the ones she sang live a few years ago. It does sound as if something's coming soon.

What does the article say? Is it out? I see some Dorothy Gale vibes in the photo with the bike. GOT IT. Never mind.