Vertimus

I can't imagine what a LFL 2.0 would sound like, since LFL was such a smorgasbord and compromise. A little bit of everything? A lot of tracks? A lot of features? A good song turned into a bland, would-be commercial single? Maybe Honeymouns just said that because she reposted the LFL trailer, and hasn't actually heard anything. It seems to me that after COCC and BB, a LFL 2.0, at least as I conceive it, would be pedaling backward. Anyway, unless there are some hard facts behind his choice of words (like a lot of features, or cut songs like 'Serene Queen' being included on the new album, or the many 'political songs' Lana cut from LFL), 'LFL 2.0' is probably a very subjective choice of words.

What I don't quite get about Lana is that coming up with album art concepts and executing them with a good photographer is not that difficult, and yet we get...the COCC cover, and, for me, the LFL cover art was poorly done, with the obviously fake daisies, which were evenly spaced in her hair, and the vapid interior photographs. I know there are a great deal of fans of the NFR! album art, but for me, it was another bust. I don't know if she's taking bad advice or if visuals are not one of her strengths, but I've been frequently disappointed with her choices. So I don't expect interesting or well-executed album art from Lana anymore, on any project, not just LDR9, and certainly not anything really eye-catching or, to use an overused word, "iconic." What makes this seem doubly odd to me is all the hundreds of excellent photos taken of Lana, and how those, and the idea of them, somehow hasn't translated to the artwork on several of her albums.

So what did the old sepia photo of young Rob Del Rey tell us...? I'm not getting it.

Rob Del Rey. I think so too.

Considering most of us already knew seven songs on BB upon release, I’d prefer no older leaked tracks be on the new album. I do like Fine China, however.

My unpopular Lana Del Ray opinions would fill a book the size of a Bible.

Hopefully because she's finally learned her lesson about titles that change, dates that change, albums that are endlessly postponed.

I'd love that for LDR9. Though I'm a big fan of most of LFL, it's neither 'witchy' or 'Blade Runner-esque,' (even if the latter was only intended for one song). Maybe she should have asked Stevie Nicks for 'witch' lessons, as Stevie introduced witches into rock n' roll with 'Rhiannon' (though she later retracted Rhiannon's association with witches, which actually was incorrect), and later seemed to write about them again on 'Sisters of the Moon' (which some people think was about Nico). As I've noted before, Lana once said, with apparent disdain, that she 'grew up in a kind of Carly Simon household,' and it's funny how influences get under the skin, because, to me, a good deal of BB sounds like Carly Simon, especially BBS, IYLDWM, VFR, SC, and 'Arcadia.' And the same for some of the songs on COCC, like LMLYLAW, WAH, DTWD, and WD. I would like to see Lana break free of her 'confessional' period, if only for fans' sakes, for at least one record, and give us something 'revved up,' like 'Serene Queen,' one of my all-time favorites of hers, released or unreleased. But, as always, I'll take whatever she serves up. Some real aural surprises would be nice, though.

'Mezzanine' would actually be a pretty cool name for LDR9, especially after 'Blue Banisters.' It could have symbolic associations too, "a low story between two others in a building, typically between the ground and first floors," as in, "I'm in a mezzanine phase of life, neither here nor there, neither in the past nor the future, neither where I want to be and don't want to be." Also, Cancer = Water sign, yes, but 'water' in astrology symbolizes feeling and emotion, so water would not necessarily be used in depicting Cancer, no more than a crab might be. I'm an Aquarius only 6 hours into Aquarius out of Capricorn, and have loads of Capricorn in my chart, but Aquarius is symbolized by the water bearer, even though it's an Air, or Thinking, sign. Astrology is all checks and balances.

Or Francis Bacon.

I think the new album's content will depend on whether she's still 'telling her story' to the world, or whether she's focused externally on making music for a public. If the former, then I expect more piano ballads and songs like 'TB' and 'WFWF,' but if she's looking outward and thinking of the public, then we may get something loud, playful, and exciting like 'Meet Me in the Pale Moonlight' or 'Serene Queen.' I'd love for Lana do something light and playful again. I remember reading long ago that the early Hollywood stars were thought of as either 'Inward Gazing,' like Greta Garbo, or 'Outward Looking,' like Katherine Hepburn. Lana has definitely been 'inward gazing' at least since Honeymoon.

Me neither, but we probably will be when some hard, definite news drops.

It's nightmarish to think of the large stockpile of completely unreleased and unleaked Lana songs that exist out there somewhere.... .

I'm glad many of you are very excited about LDR9. I lost that ability with Lana during and after the NFR! rollout. I just rely on my intuition, if, that is, an intuition appears. I had the intuition really that I was going to like COCC even before we heard any of it, and the same with BB, and I did really like both.

Lana has quite a catalog at this point, she's done a little bit of everything and done most of it very well. She's proven to the world that she can do it all. I, personally, would not want her music to continue to get heavier and heavier in the 'Hope' and 'WFWF' vein, though some tracks like that, I'd welcome, if sincere. 'BBS' was so fun, and 'Arcadia' and 'COCC' were too in their own way. I wouldn't mind seeing some lighter pop material like 'Radio,' 'National Anthem,' and 'American.' I thought Lorde did a great job of balancing the heavy and the light on 'Solar Power,' with 'Mood Ring,' 'The Path,' 'California,' and the title track.

Overnight, I thought of Debbie Harry too, who presented herself as a 'tough bitch' from the start (though an overtly sexy one), as did Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth (who was later a vocal critic of Lana's early persona).

I think that 'Violets For Roses,' 'Arcadia,' 'Not all Who Wander Are Lost,' 'White Dress,' 'Love Song,' and other recent Lana tracks are very conversational and poem-like, and could just as well be poems, like those on her 'Violets' poetry album.

This is very true--look at Marianne Faithfull and Nico at the very start of their careers---they practically had to destroy themselves to be taken seriously as artists. Joni Mitchell has commented on this, and Tori Amos has written and said a lot about it in song, book, and interview. It seems like the only women exempt from this were those that took on a 'tough bitch' image from the very start, like Patti Smith, Chrissie Hyde, Nina Hagen, Siouxsie Sioux, Joan Jett (and the rest of the Runaways by extension), and Annie Lenox. Nico would learn to take on that image, as would Marianne Faithfull. Others, like Lena Lovich were so gonzo from the start, so original, that no record executive would attempt to make anything more of her than she already presented. They knew they could never fashion her into an Olivia Newton-John. I agree with you, though I always saw what she was doing with 'Cola,' 'Wait For Life,' 'Gods & Monsters,' 'Money Power Glory,' and most of 'Honeymoon,' but many people are idiots and take things at face value, and in the most superficial ways. They have extremely limited cultural contexts.

I think Rick brings out a certain Romantic Lana that we all love, Romantic in the original sense of the Romantic poets, as well as the contemporary meaning. '13 Beaches,' 'The Blackest Day,' 'Cherry,' 'White Mustang,' the Honeymoon title track, 'Swan Song,' etc. There may be a sense that that is the old Lana persona, and her work with Jack presents a woman in far more control of her life and emotions. I think most of the songs on BB, the new tracks, that is, but including IYLDWM, showed us a Lana in control, and facing, and thus defeating, her demons. I certainly loved the Lana of VFR. I think IYLDWM showed us a hybrid Lana persona, Romantic and strong, in charge. Perfect. It's one of my all-time Lana favorites.

If I had to choose, I'd much rather have a new album produced by Rick than one produced by Jack. And I'd love to see Emil Haney work with her again sometime.

She writes so fast that it seems to be that LFL, NFR!, COCC, and BB have more or less been thrown together in the end, with no absolute direction, master plan or clear concept that 'stuck.' COCC seems the most cohesive of the four to me, and I think the songs on LFL (for the most part) and BB work well together. So it seems to me that LDR9 may be another fun hodgepodge or musical stew, a little of this and a little of that, with highs and lows, dynamic songs and somewhat flat ones.

DNC = Dagon Not Cthulhu

Speaking of which, I wish, in 'Arcadia,' she had sang that her 'breasts,' not her 'chest,' were the Sierra Madre.

I'd settle for just any hard kernel of news.

I'd like LDR9 to have a few powerful, domineering, non-piano-driven songs like 'Serene Queen,' one of my favorites of all her songs. How different LFL would have been with it instead of Roachella.