Vertimus

I respect everyone's right to their own taste and opinion. 'Violets For Roses' is one of my all-time favorite songs by Lana. The subtlety of the "a-has" to drive the melody home towards the end--about 3:41--is amazing, and something only Lana (or early Tori Amos) could do. I agree with those who said "Jack had nothing to do with it"--meaning 'VFR'--we know from 'BPBP,' 'White Mustang' and 'Change,' among other pre-JA tracks, that Lana has been writing simple, '70s-Carly-Simon-like songs, sometimes with minimalist production for a while. This goes way back--'Old Money,' another of all my all-time Lana songs, was very simple in structure and melody. I agree that JA may have brought, or seems to have brought, a certain amount of blandness and/or obviousness to Lana's music, but for me, 'VFR' isn't an example of that. And for me, whatever 'NFR!' leftovers made COCC were better than most of NFR!, an album I'm not a great fan of. Lana has said she "grew up in a Carly Simon household" with a suggestion of disapproval, but she's middle-aged now and what we find on LDR9 may reflect that (or not), just as Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell were entering middle age in their latter 70s work (Mitchell was 33 at the time of 'Hejira,' and even has a 1981 song that begins, "Caught in the middle, Carol, we're middle class, we're middle-aged..."). I'd love to see Lana take command and do something really powerful, energetic, and blistering, like 'Serene Queen,' on LDR9, but we don't know where her head is at right now and we may never see that side of her again (though the JA 'bombastic' tracks seem to a suggest otherwise).

It seems a lot of us have a lot in common, judging by some of the responses here. I stuck only to only officially released songs. Summertime Sadness Ride Old Money Yosemite If You Lie Down With Me

It's a brilliant song, it's universal in its themes, and Lana's version is among her better official covers. I just wish Lana hadn't decided to lighten its tone. It's the somber humility of the original that makes the song.

Personally, I can't see any of 'Hejira' in VB, not even slightly, and 'Hejira' is an album I know well. The closest Lana's come to it is COCC, as you noted, and especially 'Yosemite.' And Lana seems to be pouring anything resembling 'Hejira''s amazing lyrics into her poetry and poetry albums, not her music (with an occasional exception).

Check out the 5:12 ‘single’ version of Rayland Baxter’s new trip hop track, ‘If I Were A Butterfly.’ I’d love Lana to do something like it on LDR9.

LFL should have started with '13 Beaches.' 'Love' was a total boner move in terms of positioning.

I'm on the fence about her officially-released covers, and leaning against them. Generally, I don't think they're her forte. She generally doesn't seem terribly inspired when doing them, and I consider DLMBM one of her very worst officially-released tracks. 'Season of the Witch' was ho-hum, and so was 'Blue Velvet,' during a period when she was attempting to get David Lynch's attention (and succeeded). 'For Free' would have been better had she sang it alone, left the lyrics alone, and not added the happy little fillip, which undercuts the entire point of the song. She did do a good job with 'Summertime.' So I'd rather have more Lana originals and no covers, unless it's the 'American Standards' album, which of course will be all covers.

Listen to Vinnie Hacker’s New song, ‘Another Day’with its pithy lyrics which almost everyone can relate to, or has had that experience. Considering he’s an Instagram pretty boy influencer, it’s very strong. I’d love LDR9 to have an open or that sound something like that. Is it That’s what UV should have sounded like.

It's the most beautiful song, Stevie Nicks wrote it but Lindsey Buckingham sings it. Haunting, authentic.

I don’t think we’ll even see that album completed and released. Some of the tracks from it will probably be thrown on a ‘career retrospective’ sometime in the next 10 years. Female artists especially love to release these, it seems: Diana, Marianne, Joni, Linda, Carly, Debbie, Kate, Tori, Chaka, Natalie, Amy, etc. and not only do they release one career retrospective, they often release a new one every five years.

I love FM’s version, it’s an all-time favorite, but I am not sure Lana could bring anything new to it. For me, her covers are hit-or-miss.

Teach me to care and not to care, teach me to sit still. – T.S. Elliot

So wise. Yes—leave expectations behind. We should I think, want (WANT!) Lana to do something completely different and fully, genuinely creative. Personally, I don’t think we’ve seen that since VB, though I loved most of COCC and BB.

Nicely put.

If people are a little apprehensive about the **new** snippet, it may be because both the full HIAB and BB songs actually went in fairly different directions from what could be gleaned by the snippets—especially HIAB. I don’t feel apprehensive, because, while I disliked the final HIAB, for example, I somewhat disliked the ‘Arcadia’ snippet, but ended up loving the song 100%. I can’t say I am responding in a huge way to the new very short snippet, but, finally, it’s something, and it’s something NEW, and it means LDR9 is on the horizon!!! I cannot wait to hear more.

Rockefeller >< New / Old Money.

At least we have solid hints that something's either 'finished' or 'coming soon.' It's a few crumbs, which are better than nothing. I still can't see LDR9 being released this year. Maybe a single in late autumn or at Christmastime. I hope, with BB, she got the older | leaked songs she wanted released finally released, and that's over (unless the older leaked songs are completely rerecorded, which doesn't mean they'll necessarily be better than the original).

You make it sound as if she's going Full Fiona on us!

I didn’t see NFR! as a ‘somewhat radical change,’ but as a blander version of her previous catalog and a capitulation to the critics.

Without it being 'country,' I'd like it to be at least vaguely commercial, melodic, and relatable. Not anything like Fiona Apple's 'Fetch the Bolt Cutters.' With Robert on board, I can't see that happening this time, but you never know. Some artists make huge creative mistakes when they decide to radically switch gears. I can think of an entire list of musicians who have shot themselves in the foot and careers that way.

Thank you. Lord knows what that means. We know she thinks, or thought, 'Ride' and 'Video Games' sound like country songs, and 'country music' is such a broad umbrella term in 2022, it might mean almost anything. Lana might have thought that 'Tulsa Jesus Freak' could have been produced to be more of a 'country song,' or 'Wild At Heart,' or 'LMLYLAW.' I'll take what comes, but that's probably the last direction I'd like to see her go, based on my own imaginative interpretation of what 'country music' might mean to her. If it's 'The Prettiest Girl in Country Music,' or the other two she played live some time ago, then I'm (probably) not going to dig it very much. I love COCC but not the song with Nikki Lane, which I deleted.

Did Lana actually say she hopes we like country? When and where? It doesn't sound like her speech patterns. Or did an 'insider' say it?

Or braille. Sign language?

There's a great deal of what I call '21st Americana' out today, by artists like the Brothers Comatose, Anderson East, the Secret Sisters, the Cactus Blossoms, Rayland Baxter, Great Peacock, the Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers, Pokey LaFarge, the Deslondes, Parker Millsap, Frankie Lee, Jamestown Revival---I listen to their music a great deal and don't consider any of their music to be 'country.' Like any other artist, their work is hit-and-miss, but what's good is great. What we call 'country' today is mostly bland 'country pop pabulum,' which I loathe. As we know, Lana has a somewhat skewered idea of what country is--'Ride,' for example, will never seem like genuine Old School 'country' to me, though she thought it was or could be in terms of structure.

Fall formally starts 9/22, but depending where Lana's dad is in the United States, weather conditions can become 'autumnal' a lot sooner, like, mid-to-late August. It's hard to say today, with climate change being what it is, but if he's back ir or near the Adirondacks, autumn could actually seem 'a whisper away.' I feel the longer we all self-consciously wait for 'the LDR9 pot to boil,' the longer the wait is going to be. Maybe if we attempt to trick universe by hiding our curiousity and pretending to have put our minds completely on other things, hard news and all the facts on LDR9 will spill and the album will drop shortly thereafter. Isn't that how 'magic' is supposed to work, the magic that the Golden Dawn practiced and promoted?