Vertimus

Sociology.

Thank you, Peppers.

Thank you, FT.

Are there any traditionally-structured songs on the album. or non-experimental tracks?

Sociology.

A-men.

I love good lyrics, but full agree, they're secondary to the music, always. That's why so few memorable songs came out of the folk revival era of the late 50s and early 60s, because the songwriters often seemed to believe that virtuous lyrics that take a noble political stance make a great song, but that's far from the truth. I have an older friend who always runs to the computer to check the lyrics of a new song, or a song new to him, to see how brilliant the lyrics are, but I try to show him how that's often useless. A great example, to me, is R.E.M.'s 'All The Way To Reno,' which is such a vital, driving, and fun song, but the lyrics only say, to paraphrase, "you're on the way to Reno, and all the way to Reno, you're a star," suggesting that when they actually arrive, the person will not be a star, or find themselves to be a star, but they are a star--in their own mind--"all the way to Reno." And that's the whole point of the song, only that, and, to me, it's brilliantly made, but my friend is always looking for lyrical depth and 'greatness,' and coming up short.

We're definitely alike in that way, TLM. A strong melody is what I'm always looking for, even if it's subtle, as in 'VFR,' and melodies, of course, can be a lot more subtle than that. In the last 5 years, I've realized that there are a lot of people who actually have no ear for melody whatsoever, and I mean that seriously. Though they're certainly not the majority.

It's really beautiful. My late mother played the piano by ear her entire life, and composed too. This sounds very much like something I would have heard in the background growing up and into early adulthood. I look forward to the rest. Will Lana actually sing, will there be lyrics, I wonder? Or just harmonizing?

I agree that 'A&W' has its Tori moments. In December, I wondered here if it would be a good bookend for Tori's 'Fat Slut.' 'A&W' does have the 'scabs off' rage and self-loathing Tori often expressed and worked through in her first 6 albums or so. Glad you're also a Tori fan. She is one of the artists, like the Velvet Underground, Nico as a solo artist, and Marianne Faithfull that changed my life.

G-R-E-A-T photo, when I feel she's let us down for the last 5 years or more in that regard.

She is a genuine artist in every sense, glad to hear you also Stan her. Yes, the passionate 'BJ' is like something Tori might have released on 'Under the Pink.' The sad part of their history is that I think Lana helped eclipse Tori as a public artist. Tori's fame and 'major artistic period' was passing just as Lana was rising.

Thank you--I am as lifelong a Tori Amos fan as there can be, so it sounds like we have a lot in common. She's so brilliant, and so under-appreciated, most of her best work still unknown to the world. You know, then, about her private and public battle with Methodism and what she sees as its vast hypocrisies and poor historical treatment of women. Lana mentions God on every album, so I take her commentary seriously, though I don't draw any definite conclusions. It will be interesting to see how else Lana mentions or dissects God on the rest of OB.

It's not blasphemy, it's writing, it's an expression of anger, pain, disillusionment. If there is a God, God certainly understands that. As I said in my just-posted comment, people of belief often fight 'God' and lose their faith and live for years or decades as an atheist or an agnostic. That's the story of the human race. If you study the vast subject of Christianity, you learn that hundreds of thousands of priests, pastors, ministers, and nuns have lost their faith and abandoned the church, or even committed suicide. Carl Jung's own father was a minister who went through a crisis of faith and fell into a deep depression in midlife.

Nothing new or surprising in that. That person I "always mention" but haven't in a while, Tori Amos, has had both a private and public push-me pull-you relationship with Methodism, Christianity, and God (one of her most famous songs starts 'God sometimes you just don't come through') her entire life. Many people of all religions lose their religion, faith, or belief at some point; some regain it, others do not, and still others, like Cat Stevens, turn to Islam, Judaisim, Hinduism, Shintoism, Buddhism, or any of the broad categories of contemporary paganism. Or something else. Questioning is good, and crises of faith can have good outcomes. Lana has made so many supportive statements about her belief in God that I do think she's an active believer. But she's also made negative statements, as in 'Gods & Monsters.' Her negative comments about God in 'A&W' I don't take too seriously, as it seems to me the narrator | character is not necessarily Lana in any pure sense, no more than the narrator of 'G & M' was Lana, or the narrator of 'God Bless America' or 'I Talk To Jesus.' We'll see what her overall take is on the rest of the album, including the pastor's interlude.

I saw a review of A&W on Google News in which the reviewer interpreted A&W as a conscious acknowledgement by Lana that, due to various past traumas, including the trouble with her mother and father, she is a sex addict, and that is what the song is about. Is anyone here interpreting the song that way? If that is a valid interpretation (though perhaps not necessarily a correct one), then how different of vision of her life and psyche that is compared to the relatively serene lyrics of the COCC title song and 'Arcadia,' and of 'VFR' too. Thoughts?

FJM has many great songs and can definitely sing, though, like any voice, it may not be to your liking, which is fair. 'When You're Smiling And Astride Me"...listen to that and tell me he cannot sing.

DC and FT, I agree with everything you've said. That's sociology too--I mentioned that about a year or so ago: as artists approach middle age, they and their work often mellow for a period, they write about their home, family, and children, and then suddenly they do a swift reversal and create something that is either truly 'relevant,' or at least something that is 'of the now' in their own minds. COCC and BB are two of my favorite LDR albums, and, between them, hold 3 of my all-time top 5 LDR favorites. However, while we don't know what is to come on the balance of OB, and the title track was a somewhat sleepy ballad, maybe 'A&W' is the result of a reaction in Lana's mind against 'Beautiful,' 'VFR,' 'Not All Who Wander,' and the COCC and OB title tracks. We know she's been experimenting with the mic approach to spontaneous or semi-spontaneous writing, and I think it's obvious that 'A&W' also reflects her poetry style. We've heard, via insiders, haven't we, that there will be more stream-of-consciousness tracks on OB?

Sociology!

Cheers!

Thank you, I appreciate all of your thoughts and reflections. I haven't reached any specific conclusions about those lines or the song, lyrically, overall, especially since the lyrics are not boiled down to their essence (as in, say, WFWF) but instead have an 'off the cuff' feeling that I think is probably the result of her speaking spontaneously into a mic and then perhaps editing them, or not editing them, later. Clearly, the narrator seems to feel bad about herself, which seems to stem to her appearance as well. But whether the narrator is wholly, partially, or not at all Lana herself is unclear.

Why do you think she's saying this now? Or is it not a reference to the Lana of 2023? Might the Lana of 2014 felt the same way? Or earlier, even before her major career?

So what are we making of the line about looking at her hair and the shape of her body?

I wish her voice was mixed forward a little bit more than it is on the first five minutes.