Vertimus

Yes, Hitchcock is a sterling example. And The Birds still bites harder than most much more excessive films today. Look at fashion and the art world. The latter doesn't exist anymore except as high finance and bourgeois acquisition, while the former has almost nothing to do with 99% of the population in the West. That's one reason why shows like The New Look are important, to remind or educate people about the world that once was, and, contrary to so much education today, was certainly not all bad (by any means). I've seen historical example after example of 'artists' being given free rein and then totally ruining their careers because, at that point in their lives, they still needed some tight reining in by producers or studios who were creative professionals and/or knew better. A great historical example, if ultimately a minor one, is the Monkees, who were a studio-created band. After their first 15 months of global success, they demanded to write and release the songs they desired and take over the direction of their television series. As a result, they collapsed creatively, and the show was canceled. They attempted something of a comeback with the plotless, would-be-trippy movie Head, which they named after oral sex, and it and their last-gasp effort with a one-shot television special were total artistic and commercial failures. And that was the end.

I agree; sharp, almost too clear. Honestly, I think most creators strive for artistic vision today over pleasant listening experience, and that includes filmmakers too, which is why so much of today's art fails and fails to reach a sizable audience of any kind. Look back to the great Golden Age of Hollywood when films were routinely geared towards a general public, and yet masterpiece after masterpiece was produced, and the writers, actors, and directors were still allowed to put some of their signature creativity into their work. I think Lana's rise and success--as well as the respect she's received from her peers in the industry--is due to her being a genuine artist with an authentic vision. Sometimes she creates middle-of-the-road songs like Tomorrow Never Came, Arcadia, or Margaret but the balance of her work is very visionary, like When the World Was at War, 13 Beaches, Gods & Monsters, Money Power Glory, Ultraviolence, Cola, Bel Air, Heroin, Swan Song, and Old Money among others. It's difficult to hear those songs and then just walk away from Lana as an artist. No one else is doing what Lana is doing or 'world building' the way she is in terms of her vision.

So Lana is singing Blues Skies? I prefer the Jim Reeves version to those by Ella Fitzgerald, Sinatra, and Willie Nelson. Based on The White Cliffs of Dover, can we assume it's going to be a jazz version a la the Fitzgerald version? I can see the wisdom in that since it was composed as jazz. It's an American Classic too; I wonder if Lana considered it for that fabled album that may never see the light of day.

Has anyone else noticed how much Dido's White Flag sounds so much like something from BTD? Yet it's from 2003.

Me too. How quickly Stans brushed it aside.

To me, BD X CN, I Tried To Love You is his best so far, really sad, melodic, and haunting, but also very simple. Enjoy it.

As things stand, I do not understand what actually drives the popularity of Lana's various albums, in the scientific sense. There has to be more to it than 'mere taste.' For example, we don't know how much a thriving community in constant contact with one another like we have here actually influences people's choices, likes, and dislikes. I'd like to see a genuine experiment that would accurately reflect how people would react to her various albums if the listeners were in a vacuum, isolated from one another, and so unable to influence one another and unable to read reviews online. I can see why some would not respond well to Sweet Carolina coming from Lana. I can understand the dislike of the name-dropping title track, which I also dislike, and the hate for the YouTube rips, which one us proved by showing the actual poor aural quality compared to the new tracks. I can understand some thinking she was exploiting Black Lives Matter, or that mentioning it was just poor judgment on her part, but it's not at all clear to me why Stans reject or don't respond to Textbook, Arcadia, BBS, IYLDWM, Dealer, WFWF, and VFR but love most of the, to me, substantially lesser tracks on NFR! and COTCC.

Check out a new song called I Tried To Love You by Coyle Girelli. Brilliant. It's from the album Museum Day, and I also love Swim, New York Rain, Nobody, So Predictable, Real Life, and The Girl from the same record.

And thank you for that too. I had a wonderful celebration.

Thank you! Thank you!

Whose birthday was it...? Yesterday was my birthday and Rob Lowe's is on 3/17.

She looks terrific.

Yes, I also access LBs on my phone, and went in and and thanked Elle there. I try never to be sarcastic here.

Thanks--when I go to the page above and attempt to follow instructions, I don't see the symbols such as the lock, and don't see anything under Settings under my account either. I see that on Elle's first post about this new song, many have Liked it; that's what I cannot do at present. I would like to show her my appreciation, thus Thanks, Elle.

Great news. I'm excited. I'm still really enjoying Suburban House. Thanks, Elle. My Like button still isn't working in Chrome.

Probably because it's about the end of life on Earth, and she dramatizes it very well.

I don't care for the title track either and never play it. Beautiful may be slight, but I wouldn't call it anything more than that; it's not nearly as bad or embarrassing, IMO, as HIAB or the reworked version of Next American Record. I bet if Beautiful had appeared on NFR!, some people would have loved it just as they love a lot of the tepid 'smaller' songs that round out/fill up that album. BB gets a lot of hate as an album because: A) It has the leaked songs, not rerecorded, remastered, or otherwise altered or bettered; B) A handful of songs, including the title track, are from an early-middle age perspective, including Beautiful, Violets For Roses, Arcadia and Sweet Carolina; C) Dealer either works for you or it doesn't (I consider it something of a novelty track, I neither like nor dislike it): D) The Trio is admittedly completely out of place, and a misuse of a great piece of Ennio Morricone music; E) The "Black lives matter" lyrics may offend or seem like virtue signaling; and F) Like some of Chemtrails, it presents a Lana who wants to walk to the mall and watch television rather than going to the Ramada and splaying herself on the floor. For me, unlike OB, none of the songs sound like earlier songs (Fishtail in particular, which I still like), and, for me, the production is better and it has a more cohesive vibe than OB, where, again, for me, Lana puts her foot in it more often than not. But, with different production and fewer shrill notes, I could see Grandfather and The Grants being on BB, even Taco Truck, which is not that dissimilar in mood to WFWF, but I'm glad they're not. Certainly Margaret, in its happy middle-aged mood, is not that different from Arcadia.

She shrieks way too much for my taste on OTTR. Yosemite is another very good choice, low-key.

I believe HIAB to be her worst released song from every angle, so I can't agree. For me, it's Cola. A-men. A-men again. THAT is the classic LDR sound!

I still don't care for the title song at all. Overall, I personally place OB the album at the bottom of her discography. I know both are unpopular LDR opinions. I agree winning one or more Grammy and then releasing a LTLI video would be a shrewd move.

I wish the categories were a little more thoughtful. As they are, they're too superficial for my taste and there's too many by far.

It's not going to stick, nor the Maine one either. The Supreme Court will overrule it and any others that arise. Those are just the facts, for better or worse.

Her music has changed a good deal since BTD, but doesn’t mean that every album is better than the one before or that there’s even been actual creative evolution or forward progression from album to album. That’s the way it is for most musical artists. I think Lana’s albums are very much of that pattern. OB has some good things on it but a lot of filler and repetitive tracks. I’d like to see the next album have a higher percentage of good/great tracks and sound very different. I would welcome a different producer/production team.

A-men.

Bad children always got a lump of coal in their stockings on Christmas....