Vertimus

I agree. But she has so much backed-up material, and she is or may be changing labels? Has any of that been confirmed?

So: is the 'new album' news for 2/30/22 completely discredited, despite the fact that there is no 2/30, ever, even in a leap year? Are we thinking there might be a new album in March? Lorde knows that, since she removed a good deal of the 'new' songs from BB, she should have enough for a new all-Lana album. Is she working with Jack again? Has that been confirmed? And then there's the 'American Classics' and the Nikki Lane project. I'd love to hear something aggressive like 'Serene Queen,' which, in a sense, is to me Lana at her most powerful.

I’d like some trip hop beats. Beats, period. Not in the Jack Kerouac sense, of course.

'Playing Dangerous' is so fun. Doo-doo-doo-doo....

I've been listening to Lorde's album 'Solar Power.' I'm not a huge Lorde fan, nor did I like most of JA's work with Lana, but the sound of 'Solar Power,' overall, is, to me, amazing. It makes me realize how much I miss Lana's pure pop music, and when I hear Lorde's 'California' and the title track, it makes me wish these were Lana's songs instead. They're so vibrant, bouncy, dreamy, upbeat, and ethereal, and you don't get the sense that she's trying really hard. It all just seems to roll out as if it were effortless and organic, so I give Jack a lot of credit, and Lorde too. She does a few of those brief Kate Bush vocal fillips, which she also did on her last album. The vocal arrangements throughout are fantastic. I know Lana doesn't appear to be going in a pop direction in any shape or form, but I would sorely love to see Lana do something like 'Solar Power'--like a combination of 'Wait For Life,' 'Radio,' 'Making Out,' 'Meet Me In The Pale Moonlight,' 'Summertime Sadness,' 'American,' and "Wild At Heart.' Emile, come back, all is forgiven.

I'm glad to hear the album has aged well for most here, as it has for me. Three tracks still haven't come to life for me (one being the Trio, which I've known in its original form since I was a boy from the Ennio Morricone TGTB&TU score), but everything else has. Right now, it's my favorite of Lana's albums. I really like where she's coming from on all the newly-written songs, and also on IYLDWM, which we know was written some time ago. I'm glad BBS has a pop-music chorus, since I think pop music is one of Lana's fortes. IYLDWM and VFR are now among my Top 5 personal favorites of all of Lana's songs. I play those three the most, but 'Arcadia' has also really grown on me--it fits well here, but would also have fit well on COCC, I think, in terms of message and sound. CB, NOFG and LL, I've loved since they leaked, so I play them less. 'Thunder' is good in its present form, though I prefer the demo version. TB and WFWF are tremendous, and underscore an apparent shift in her songwriting---there's no way other singer-songwriters can ignore her now, or consider her a niche act, not after '13 Beaches,' 'Hope,' 'The Greatest,' 'Mariner's Apartment Complex,' 'Yosemite,' 'White Dress' and these two tracks. We know Lana's songs will be covered by many in the years and decades to come--Cat Power has just covered 'White Mustang.' A lot of great musical artists have nonetheless also released a lot of bad songwriting--I'm thinking of Stevie Nicks right now, whose discography ratio of good to bad is fairly pointed, or even Bruce Springsteen, Tori Amos, or 21 Pilots. In my opinion, Lana's good-to-bad ratio is very strong, easily falling on the 'mostly good' side. On all her albums combined and her unreleased work from her LDR period, I can think of less than 10 songs I consider poor, weak, rushed-sounding or underdeveloped, like 'Coachella,' or some of the minor tracks on BTD (and on BTD, I don't really place the responsibility on her shoulders, because she didn't have complete control then). For me, BB is something of a crowning achievement, and, despite WFWF, overall has a fairly light touch.

Regarding 'errors,' I feel those have been there from the start of the LDR persona. I hear them on BTD/P and on all subsequent albums. There's a fair amount of vocal staining, and, for example, on 'BPBP,' her voice and Stevie Nicks' are supposed to be harmonizing at one point, and yet Stevie holds the note longer than Lana, which is technically 'incorrect' and seems sloppy and unprofessional that this wasn't corrected in the studio. Also, there's a lot of odd phrasing, as on 'Coachella' where she stresses the word 'parents' in an inexplicable manner, and on 'Change,' says 'human beins' instead of 'human beings.' These may be examples of what you call her 'organic' and/or 'one take' approach, and that's her right if she wants to make those choices. And perhaps some of it is the producer's fault, though we keep hearing that Lana makes all final decisions.

I agree; to me, WCE just doesn't sound like something ever intended for BB, especially since, as a new song, it doesn't present the singer/narrator/Lana in a position of control and relative power, as most of the new BB tracks do. And, as some have mentioned, it is true that we don't know for a fact that WCE and whatever the original song with the 'rock candy sweet' line are the same song, though I think it's a fair bet that they are. And we know Lana's songs often go through all kinds of gyrations and changes before reaching some form she considers final.

I'm a big LFL fan too; I find it one of her most creative records, due to '13 Beaches,' 'White Mustang,' 'God Bless America,' 'When The World Was At War,' 'Heroin,' 'BPBP,' 'IMF,' 'Summer Bummer,' 'Cherry,' and 'TNC.' Occasionally, I even like 'Love.' I would have preferred the title track to remain more like the original, and don't care for the Max Martin version on the record.

I apologize, you're absolutely right. COCC was initially announced as 'White Hot Forever,' not 'Rock Candy Sweet,' and it was what became BB that was announced as 'Rock Candy Sweet.' Thanks for the correction. So WCE must have been intended for BB at one point. Sorry everyone!

What was eventually released as COCC the album was originally announced as 'Rock Candy Sweet,' so it had to exist at that time, well before the BB album. And BOZ said that 'rock candy sweet' was not a song title, but a lyric, before COCC was released. So it was cut from COCC and may have been intended for BB originally, and then cut yet again. As we know, BB was one album, and then she suddenly changed direction and a lot of the just-produced new cuts were dropped. So, I think 'Watercolor Eyes' was originally intended for COCC, but perhaps the Euphoria people reached out to Lana's management and asked for a song, and perhaps Lana even gave them a selection to pick from, and they chose WCE (remember Season 2 of Euphoria was several years in the making due to the pandemic). So she dropped WCE from COCC and changed the album title and direction. OR she may have decided to save it for BB, and then discarded it, and Euphoria picked it up when they reached out to her. Personally, I think WCE would have fit better on COCC than on BB. I doubt it's from the Paradise era, as some have speculated, but of course don't know for sure.

Thank you kindly.

Yes. Factually, there are multiple examples, especially with officially unreleased LDR songs--how many versions of 'I Talk To Jesus' are there, at least three? And what about 'Yes To Heaven'? At least four that I know of. 'Beautiful' being the most recent example of an officially released track with multiple versions, and there's also 'FIILY,' of which there were two different versions (at least).

Thanks. I also love 'The Greatest' a good deal. I think for all of us, it's a matter of what songs touch us the most--and keep touching us, as well as their sound. It's such a private | personal matter, you can't let your friends opinions influence you, or their harsh words, or, in some cases, herd mentality. I don't rank anyone's songs, unless it's just for fun, to pass the time, and clarify one's thoughts and opinions.

Yes, it's almost completely subjective. For me, her 'best,' those that speak to me the most are 'Ride,' 'Old Money,' 'Yosemite,' 'If You Lie Down With Me,' and 'Violets For Roses,' though I consider 'Cola' the archetypal Lana Del Rey song in terms of mood and sound.

Thank you. It was one of the nicest birthday gifts I've ever received.

I'm glad you're enjoying it that much. I think it's a minor Lana song, as I stated, at least it is for me, but that's okay. I'm still enjoying it for what I find it to be. Yesterday was my birthday, so it was a nice treat. People extrapolated too much from the snippet, thinking it was going to be something that would fit comfortably on 'Honeymoon.' I used to do that too, but have learned not to after both 'HIAB' and the 'Blue Banisters' title track, and the 'Season of the Witch' cover, which didn't work for me.

There’s been different versions/edits/mixes of many of her songs, released and unreleased, and as recently as ‘Beautiful,’ there’s no reason it couldn’t also be true of WCE.

After the ‘Happiness Is A Butterfly’ snippets, and then hearing the resulting completed song, I have never trusted, from a snippet, what the final LDR song might sound like. Same with the ‘Blue Banisters’ snippet. We might still get the version with the bridge down the road via a leak.

It’s a great show. Don’t miss it.

Written by Mick Jagger for Marianne Faithfull, who broke up with him because his career was exploding while hers was dying (at that time, late 60s, early 70s). When I saw her in concert at Town Hall in Manhattan, she sang it as an encore, which sent the screaming and cheering. Regarding WCE, at least we now know what 'rock candy sweet' was all about. Someone--BOZ?-- was correct that it was not a song title, but a lyric only. So presumably it was originally intended for COCC in some form, perhaps a very different one?

Lana & bras/horns/windwood = a match made in heaven.

And there's always the possibility of a leak before release. The song does seem to be generating a lot of heat--'Euphoria' is white hot right now, as fans of the first season have been waiting forever for the second due to COVID--and here comes Lana attached to the third episode. It's a win-win.

It’s going to become available digitally one way or another, officially or unofficially. Exactly.