Vertimus

I don't think artists and labels end to conceptualize 'summer albums' anymore, unless they're artists who spend the summer playing at festivals across the country, particularly in the South, and make the bulk of their income that way. Perhaps Lana is afraid that an overtly 'summer album,' which I would also love to see, would reignite the claims from critics that she is a 'superficial pretty girl' and not much more. I believe she still has a lot of unfriendly critics out there who would never think of dumping that sort of criticism at almost any other female artist currently making waves. Perhaps that's why the COCC and BB releases were on the down low side, and perhaps she'll continue that trend, knowing she can still be commercially and critically successful enough without doing more.

How long is it, exactly? Are you referring to the song by the Weeknd? I see; you're not referring to Lana's song. Got it.

How about some beats? That's what I want on the next album most of all. And some trip hop beats in particular.

Most of my favorite Lana tracks are piano-based and not bombastic, but I agree. She's been 'inward gazing' long enough, lyrically and musically, at least for many of us. How fantastic would it be to hear her command the studio, the mic, and the stage and really create some sonically stunning music. But as I have noted before, when songwriters start writing about their families, children, parents, etc., and in some cases, allowing them to participate on an album's creation, it usually means they're heading towards middle age at the speed of light and things get cushy, flaccid, and sentimental for a long spell, and then, realizing they're 50, they do an about-face and try to show the world they're still a mighty force.

Or Tori Amos, who has a lot of angry piano ballads, usually not directed at men or specific men, but at being "considered too old to make pop music," the GOP and conservatives, "the patriarchy," the historical mistreatment of Native Americans, and the United Methodist Church (that was).

Also, Rhode Island is home to Newport, the tony, centuries-old East Coast playground for 'old money' and the socially-prominent wealthy. Therefore, Rhode Island also has very strong associations with 'Old Money,' one of Lana's best and saddest. For me, it's one of the all-time saddest songs, with Tori Amos's 'Playboy Mommy' and Sandy Denny's 'Banks of the Nile.' I'd much rather have an 'Old Money' 2.0 than a 'How To Disappear' 200.

And Stevie Nicks, another classic rock legend, and Courtney Love.

When she has the praise of Dylan, Baez, and Springsteen, who cares what Kim Gordon thinks? Obviously, not everyone is going to like her music or admire her. That's a given.

I agree completely, and don't forget Bruce Springsteen, who is a huge fan and probably knows all her leaked tracks too. She already has the respect of her peers (I'm waiting for Tori Amos to chime in, Yay or Nay). I will accept whatever comes next, though I would like some tracks that are a little more dramatic, uptempo, and perhaps flippant like 'Serene Queen.' I've at least liked, if not always loved, all stages of Lana's releases in her LDR persona, but I still think she'll eventually show more strength, not less, when she feels comfortable releasing relatively 'liter' tracks something like 'Summertime Sadness,' 'Hollywood,' or 'Angels Forever.'

If we get snippets, or a snippet trailer, great. If we don't, great. I have an intuition that Lana is 'over' making pop music, for some reason, perhaps due to her maturity, at least the kind of pop music Lorde made on her last album and Taylor made with 'Gold Rush' on Folklore. It seems to me that Lana really wants to "say something" now with her music and poetry, and make some kind of 'mature' point, as she did on, say, 'Marriner's Apartment Complex,' 'The Greatest,' 'Hope,' 'White Dress,' 'Yosemite,' 'WFWF,' and 'Arcadia.' Lyrically, I expect more songs in that vein, songs that can be taken seriously, especially by her peers in the music industry.

I also enjoy it a great deal--I play it more than any other of her albums, followed by COCC and 'Paradise.' The string version of 'Beautiful' leaked and can be located.

When I hear 'Beautiful,' and then 'French Restaurant,' I can't understand why the former makes the cut, but really intense songs like the latter do not. I assume she thinks of FR, as we know it at least, as a fragment, and 'underdeveloped,' the way she seemed to think that the original 'Lust For Life' was too underdeveloped to be left alone or included on LFL. The same with 'If I Die Young'--I'd rather have had it, 'LFL,' or 'FR' than 'Beautiful.'

I really like BB---except for the title track [and 'The Trio'], which, for me, starts out so awkwardly. It seems rushed to me, in terms of its composition. But I love the rest. The problem, which many have noted here, is that most of us already knew 7 of the tracks well, from start to finish, backward and forward, which was almost half the album. So there was, to say the least, a Stan-wide sense of the BB being anti-climatic. Luckily, I loved IYLDWM, VFR, and 'Arcadia,' and BBS to a lesser degree, so that helped me enjoy it. I like the side(s) of Lana's personality that it reveals. For LDR9, having read this thread carefully, it seems that 96% of us or so want LDR9 to be all new, and contain no leaked tracks, especially in their original form. More energy is also something most of us seem to be clamoring for. But let's be real: we're going to get what we're going to get, and right now, no one seems to have any actual knowledge of what LDR9 sounds like, assuming LDR9 is going to be another album of her own songs, and not a collaboration with NL or the 'Standards' album, which I could certainly see her dad contributing to. With Lorde, Taylor, and other female artists stepping up their game recently, it would be terrific if Lana would shock the hell out of us and world and give us something she's never done before and that has a great deal of energy and shows a sense of mastery over her art.

Two of my favorites.

I finally had a LDR9 dream. The initial rollout was a video something like the television program Jeopardy, with two contestants, who both seemed to be women, guessing the name of the album, which finally turned out to be 'American Connectivity.'

'Paradise' is one of my favorites of all her albums and/or releases. It is brilliant.

I'm with those who see 'Paradise' as a separate record, though of course seeing it as an EP extension of 'BTD' is also correct. For me, the vibe of 'Paradise' is very different than that of 'BTD' and has its own vision.

I think it was a 'bad fan edit,' it's the 50-second song repeated one more time. As far as I'm concerned, that's the actual version, which she also posted a short video clip of it on Facebook, that is, her singing it in the studio and asking Rick's advice.

That's a good point and a good example. As far as 'RBFY' being leaked, it was leaked, in a rough demo form that repeats what exists of the song twice, making it 1:48 in length.

As I've noted here before, Lana said in one interview or article that 'RBFY' was just an album opener, like a short 50-second introduction, and then used again at the end as a coda. But she scrapped the idea. Therefore, it's not a full song, though she could either expand it or use it for the same purpose on another album, which seems unlikely to me. Elle asked me if I knew which interview or article she said this in, and I do not. Whenever Lana or her label release a massive career retrospective, like Tori Amos's 'A Piano,' then we will probably get an album's worth of deleted tracks like 'Serene Queen' and 'RBFY.'

I agree. The limitations are in the song itself (like with 'HTD'), it's not really a song that Lana probably wanted Jack to do a lot with. It's another of Lana's tracks in the 70s Carly Simon mode, not too dynamic, but sincere. If Lana didn't like it, she wouldn't have included it or made the video that aired on late night television. Could I live without anymore such tracks on LDR9 and her next couple of albums? Sure. 'Groupie Love,' on the other hand, I count among her worst officially released tracks. 'Art Deco' I find empty and vacuous, like the person she's singing about.

I must be on Mars. Thanks. "Life on Mars ain't just a song."

We haven't really had a Lana summer [music] album since...when? Ever? It would be terrific if LDR9 were released in two weeks or so and we were actually able to enjoy it the balance of the summer, the warmth of which extends well into September and even October up here in the Northeast. That's my dream.

That makes the most sense. If music is featured or added, why anyone else's, especially when she has a new album coming out?

I love most of LFL—so full agree. Some of her best songs are on LFL, I’ve been saying this for years.