Vertimus

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?

I wish I could believe we're going to get some big change in the sound of LDR9, but unless it's by a really conscious effort on her part, I don't see it happening. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

If Lana is smart, she will leave QFTC, in and of itself, in the past, dead and buried. Personally, I doubt she's going to be very specific in the targets of her anger. On all of BB, the only definite target was her mother, and, to a lesser degree, her father for not "stepping in," on WFWF. The anger at her critics on BBS suit was so mild as to be something the average listener might not even notice. 'Arcadia' was fairly mild too. I'm sure a lot of people might say, 'Wow, what a lovely song' and miss the ending lyrics altogether. Look at Tori Amos--she's been spewing righteous anger for 30 years, and her targets have always been extremely broad in terms of her lyrics (unlike her interviews, where she has been extremely specific, and to her detriment, IMO)---record labels, 'the patriarchy,' and only some aspects of the Christian Church. And, on one song, Courtney Love ('Professional Widow'); but even regarding that song, she said in interviews she did not wish to it discuss, as "we have friends in common." Similarly, most of Fiona Apple's songs are angry, but the target is usually "you," an ex-lover or ex-boyfriend, or current lover/boyfriend.

A lot of artists eventually release such compilations in one form or another, and we know Lana has an enormous backlog. I think it will happen.

Indeed! Me too.

With all the projects she has going in various states, it's too bad something like the 'Standards' album couldn't be dropped in the meantime, assuming it exists in anything like completed form. WHEN the time comes for a self-decided "career retrospective" like Tor Amos's 7 disc, 80 + track 'A Piano,' Lana's going to have scads of unreleased material of all kinds to bulk it up and send fans into the stratosphere.

By 'karmic lineage,' I thought she was just referring to her own private, personal karma, nothing larger or broader than that, but it's possible. Full agree about the QFTC; it read as if written by an eighth grader, and as such deserved to be criticized for raising such heated topics but doing it in such a mediocre manner.

Could be, why not?

It's possible she DID say, 'Fuck Marina,' but in a context which would make sense and not be insulting in the least. It's easy to take a few words from several of her songs and make them 'offensive' out of context. Like what if the full lyric or ad lib was "Fuck, Marina, you're the best, baby" or "[What the] Fuck? Marina? She's the hottest girl around," etc. etc.

Thanks! Elle was asking where I heard it. Now we know. Thanks so much. It's odd how little known that statement by Lana is.

This is the clip I've mentioned many times, and LDR posted it on FB at the time of the LFL release. Thanks for posting. Now if I could only find the print interview where she stated that RBFY was just an intro and outro to the LFL album, and not a full song in itself, I'd be happy.

They sound fake to me also, and, as hoaxes, less than half-assed. Did they think starting with 'Loved You Now And Then' would make the rest sound legit? I also agree about YTH. We've already heard so many versions of it, and except the early one with accordion, they've gotten sketchier and skethier as they've proceeded. It's run its course.

I'd rather not use previously leaked material on LDR9 and her other forthcoming albums, unless they're rerecorded, or she releases an album of all the leaked songs together (rerecorded or not). I can understand her desire to use great material like 'Hollywood' and 'Angels Forever,' even the original 'Live Or Die,' but is she still in the L.A. frame of mind, or the murderous rampage state of mind reflected in 'Live Or Die'? Especially after Uvalde? I love 'Serene Queen,' but after the last three albums, is that where she is temperamentally? I keep thinking about where she could go next sonically, and then I think about Robert Grant's involvement, and I can only see him slowing and lowering the mood, a la 'Sweet Carolina,' 'Violets For Roses' (which I love), and other Carly Simon-esque, middle-of-the-road numbers. On the other hand, Rob clearly heard her sing, "You fucked me so good I almost said I...love..you," so maybe his presence has little immediate self-conscious effect on her. My preference would be all new material.

Full agree. Beautifully said. I never considered FR as a suicide note, but I appreciate that interpretation and will look at it from that perspective next time I play it.

I was listening to 'French Restaurant' and 'Cult Leader' earlier, and it struck that both have a sort of intimate, bleeding edge and 'emotional danger'--I don't know what else to call it--that's been lacking in her last three albums, as much as I like COCC and most of BB, and to be fair, lacking from most of LFL too. It's almost as if she feels she has to 'clean things up for the public' instead of revealing the more dire, hard-to-describe emotions she explores on those two songs. I'd love to see some real emotion and vulnerability on LDR9, and I do think there was a trickle of it on COCC and BB, but that was not the emotional focus of either album.

If it were a song called 'Paul Newman,' or about him, for LDR9, that would be great, and, broadly speaking, help younger people today come to know who he is/was. With all the rumors and mythology about him, he'd make a great subject or symbol for a Lana song. Sylvia Plath I can see being an obscure or unknown cultural figure to most today, but I am surprised when I find out younger people don't recognize the name Paul Newman or Steve McQueen, or have never heard of 'Caddie Shack' or 'Animal House.' Of course, the same applies to music. And the entire catalog of Western culture is at everyone's fingertips today, as it never was the past.

LA or San Francisco! The New America.

I was listening to Miles Kane's 'Loaded,' on which Lana does background vocals. It sounds, to my ears, like the brother to sister 'Serene Queen.' I'd love Lana to do something revved up like that on LDR9. Something that sounds like 2022-2025.

'Wait For Life' is also one of my favorites--so passionate, so overflowing with emotion and pain.

I also miss her earlier BTD/P vocals, also heard on 'Wait For Life,' were she seemed to be really concentrating on her vocals and doing all kinds of original and novel things with them, expressing different personas, etc. I think she's just become happy with what she considers her 'true, real, and authentic voice,' and just wants to use that, so we hear it on 'Arcadia,' and 'Sweet Caroline,' and 'VFR.'

I agree 100% about 'Yosemite' and 'IYLDWM.' 'Yosemite' definitely fit better on COCC than it would have on LFL as released. Both are among my Top 5 Lana songs ever. IMO, she ruined TNBAR completely on NFR, and it didn't fit at all on NFR. I'm glad I have the 'original' demo or ready-to-go leaked version. I keep it on a second version of LFL I created, and call 'Next Best American Record.' I think, in the past, we've known that Lana herself, or her people or handlers, leaked a couple songs--isn't that a fact? It's been discussed here so many times. Can anyone produce any hard evidence? If so, if correct, we can't 100% blame all the leaked tracks on others or outsiders. Going forward, I don't mind previously leaked tracks on LDL9 if they're reworked in the studio.