Vertimus

Sorry, I‘ve got poppers on my mind. Will correct.

I’d like a few traditional pop songs like BBS on the new album. Having heard ‘Peppers,’ and the ‘Jon Baptiste Interlude,’ I don’t think these are going to manifest. One can hope.

Yeah, unfortunately, 'manifesting' doesn't work. It is a delusion.

Right. Because I'm not giving in? Block me.

I understand that. Members have raised this issue before. In today's world, it's not a joke for some, which amounts to tens of thousands of people who declare 'ownership' without thinking it all through. If they did, they'd realize they're just as guilty, unless every piece of clothing on their body and in their closet came from their ethnicity and its culture, and everything they own, buy, prepare, and use.

People with that kind of cultural sensitivity, sincere or otherwise, are never going to succeed in the end in the 21st century, which really is a global village. There's not a nation in existence that cannot claim 'ownership' or 'origin' of some aspect of culture, even if it's a hairstyle, hem style, way of preparing fish or fowl, manner of binding a book, or a bead design. If we all decided to claim rights and ownerships of what we decide we want to claim as belonging to 'us,' there's be literally no time to do anything else or hear about the din. Lana can use the term kintsugi; it's obviously not a word in her first language of English, and I don't think she's pretending or suggesting that it is. On the contrary, like Joni Mitchell using the word 'Hejira' for the title of her 1976 album, it's a kind of way of honoring another culture and its conceptualizations.

I think some are just equating piano songs and sleepy ballads as always identical.

The problem with songs about kids and family is that to each individual, their own child is adorable almost beyond measure, but other people may find ongoing talk about someone else's child's tiresome before very long. It's the old 'come over and watch our home movies' situation you see in old movies and television shows, where the hosts are boring their neighbors to death with their endless vacation reels and talk about what fascinating action 'little Stevie' or 'little Susie' took today. How many people complained about 'Sweet Carolina' as "interesting to Lana, no doubt, it's about her niece, but not to me" after BB came out? I didn't use the word "lazy," you have seen that somewhere else, and I didn't say female artists who write about their family aren't "trying." It's exactly what you just said in your last line: their priorities change in a massive way when people have children, for both women and men. Men write about their kids, parents, siblings too, often to equally undramatic or interesting effect, like Jimmy Buffet's 'Little Miss Magic' (groan). Or to good effect, as with Rayland Baxter's song about his relationship with his father, 'Oh My Captain,' which is so broad and archetypal that the themes are expressed in a kind of universal language. I'm all for women having children and raising families, and men too; I live in NYC and have been here for a while; I've seen what ambition and careerism can do to women especially, who are urged to "rise to their potential' and give up having a family, or having one child only, that they barely see due to 24/7 career and commuting demands. Lana has every right to explore her family, its history, and her 'karmic lineage,' as she has been doing on some of the BB songs and now on 'The Grants' and others from OC. But whether those songs will have real appeal to even her Stans is another question.

I'm not the biggest JA fan, and when I heard that statement, whether sincere and/or accurate or not, to me it sounds exactly like what one powerful friend in the industry would say publicly about another of equal power and status. In another words, I think he's just blowing smoke and sunshine. And it's not accurate as I see it, because Lana was already quite daring on BTD---naming her debut album that, and including a song with that title, was pretty ballsy, as were 'Gods & Monsters' and 'Cola' on Paradise, and then on to UV with all of its aggression. To me, she 'led' and broke her own mold right from the start of being Lana Del Rey, she was already in the artistic wilderness at square one, like some other notable musicians and bands before her. It still remains to be seen what the balance of OC will be like, but, from insiders, we've already heard that some of the other songs will be on the quiet and reflective side. For me, 'A&W' is loud and 'different,' but those qualities don't make it 'great' automatically. I'd prefer to listen to 'VB' or '13 Beaches' over again rather than 'A&W.' All I ask for from the universe is a few songs per album that I really like, and do expect that.

And whatever that was on the BBC yesterday was a lot of nothing, as I expected. Just a lot of BS that had almost no focus on Lana whatsoever.

I find the title track boring, clumsy, and a little forced. ‘The Grants’ is pretty but sleepy. I’m not 100% that there’s going be anything with much of a pulse on OC except Jimmy Jimmy Poco Puffs, but I hope there will be.

Because no one is ‘miffed’ or ‘peeved’ about self expression.

Yup. It needed more contrast in terms of the music and vocals, even if low key. ‘Hope’ was low key, but also full of musical contrasts. And the production was crisper and clearer.

It’s a nice little track but it sort of gives off a feeling that is was written and produced for Lana herself, primarily, rather than for an audience or wide audience or public. Thus, I call it sleepy.

No; but I don’t encounter this situation with any other album, at all, including COCC, BB or Lorde’s ‘Solar Power.’

My hearing is normal, and I am using an iPhone and the latest iteration of Apple earbuds. So it cannot be that. Far from sounding close to the mic, to me, she sounds like she’s on the other side of the room.