Vertimus

I appreciate our thinkers, which includes GeminiLanaFan.

Imagine an album of dramatic, dynamic tracks like Serene Queen...one of my Top 3 favorite unreleased/leaked cuts... Thirded. I love COCC, but don't see the next album sounding anything like it.

Here's a thought. I don't know if someone's brought it up here before or if it's been obvious all along and it's just hitting me. But what if the Rock Candy Sweet title a play on words, with the double meaning of Rock Candy Suite? Bobbie Gentry did the same thing decades ago with her The Delta Sweete album.

Thanks--nicely done. I'm glad what is 'realistic' has value to you, as it does to me.

Yup. WAH is her most BTD/P song since that/those album/albums was/were released. I agree: more of that.

I believe they’re used interchangeably. It’s just a matter of spelling.

Got it, thanks for clarifying.

But if this is true/accurate, then wouldn't that make 3-4 albums? BB and RCS, plus the two cover albums, the folk/Americana classics being one and the other being country covers? Or could the cover albums all have been merged into one, perhaps a double album of folk/Americana/country covers? Which would make 2 albums of new material by LDR and 1 of covers. Isn't that rather a lot in a year in which she already released COCC?

Well done, DB. It’s my favorite of all her albums.

Boring for us, maybe, but some people, especially wealthy people, bury their whole lives in their homes, though LDR is not a typical wealthy American. Did you ever see 'War of the Roses'?

Remember in the last live interview how she was talking about getting her chimney fixed. With the several houses she has (4, I think?), she's probably quite into moldings, bannisters, chimneys, wainscotting, redoing hard wood floors, etc., to say nothing of the grounds, at this point in her life. 'Banister' (or 'bannister') is a common word for anyone whose home has staircases or at least a second floor, even a basement.

It sounds like an extension of the COCC album to me, and I loved COCC for the most part. By the way, did anyone figure out what the ‘Clementine’ being her child’s chosen name was all about??

Full agree. I really miss that particular voice whenever I hear parts of BTD/P. The whole first verse of 'Ride' gives us that voice at its best, even the beginning of 'G&M.'

Tori is very talented but her scope of themes is too limited for my taste. Tori is always angry, always victim-mongering, whereas LDR seems to be able to tackle almost any topic, theme, subject, and step into multiple personas.

Don't forget that, after the release of NFR!, she mentioned writing songs for a new version of 'Alice in Wonderland.' Perhaps that's part of what he's referring to? After 'Big Eyes,' and with all the success she's had since, I can see filmmakers seeking her out for scores or other additions to their films, though Hollywood is at its nadir right now. And she mentioned writing a theatrical musical--which, if true, is something I hope she think twice about, as Tori Amos totally derailed her career over her own musical, 'The Light Princess,' which took some seven years of her life and then flopped commercially, and, to me, creatively too.

Obviously, I disagree with all of that---I don't see things through a Marxist lens, or a materialistic "You have more, I have less" framework, because that is the way of the world, where everything is literally, naturally unequal, in the sense that nothing is identical except perhaps on a subatomic level (I'll leave that to the physicists). Share with us what you have found to be 'equal' in life outside of a humanistic philosophical position? I don't see any politics in 'Not all Who Wander Are Lost'--as we know, people of all frameworks, backgrounds and types have 'gotten the urge to wander,' like many soon-to-be hippies did in 1960s America, and most were lower middle class at best. People have gotten the 'urge to wander' since the dawn of recorded time, prepared or unprepared, well supplied or, more likely, just taking their chances with fate. Look at Jack Kerouac and the Beats. What is political about 'Yosemite'? The framework of their relationship, which the narrator finds liberating? Where are the politics in 'Dance Till We Die'? Do you envy or begrudge LDR the time she spends dancing in bars and nightclubs on occasion? Hopefully, many of us find the time for such release, whatever that release is. Do you hold it against her, when we know how hard she works, how prolific she is, how much time she spends on her craft? Where are the politics in 'Wild At Heart'? There are slight political angles to 'White Dress,' but it's a coming-of-age story, and a happy one ("and I felt seen"). All coming-of-age stories are hard, by nature. It's one's first testing of one's self in the outer world. She's recalling one of her first jobs as a waitress--don't most of us start out at difficult or unpleasant jobs, where we may be harrassed or bullied as newcomers who are green behind the ears or impressionable? She moves from realizing she can handle the waitress job ("'look how I got this') to succeeding at the 'men's music convention,' where she also 'gets this.' It's a success story. What's political about 'Dark But Just A Game,' a look at music industry, contemporary Los Angeles decadence? LDR worked very hard, for years, and took a lot of flack, to get the multiple homes she owns, the money she's accrued, her jewels, her 'little red sports car' and other aspects of the life she's living. I certainly do not begrudge her for it. Most of the time, 'the people who own the mansion on the hill' have worked hard for decades, made sacrifices of all kinds, tightly disciplined themselves, taken on debt, gambled a little and have luckily managed to succeed. As Camille Paglia says, in life, for every one who succeeds, 100 fail. I would put those odds at closer to 500 to 1. There's no guarantees, as most of us know already.

She should steer clear of politics, and almost everything is political today. That's why I think COCC succeeded: it's apolitical. She may want to get 'revenge,' presumably on her critics, but let's face it, they will counterattack in a huge and endless way. She doesn't even have to address them in any sense to be endlessly attacked and condemned by them.

I feel exactly the same way. It's Spring here in the Northeast, and the magnolias, tulips and cherry blossoms are all blooming, and COCC goes perfectly with the landscape, and the still-cool but warmer air...NFR! is my least-favorite LDR album so COCC is like an antidote to me, and I've regained my faith in her. And now Blue Banisters....

Exactly. I love the 'sad' LDR of 'Old Money,' '13 Beaches,' et al, but I'm very pleased with this more thoughtful, upbeat and confident iteration of LDR. She sounds mature, level-headed, happy, almost content. I think this is the closest to the genuine Elizabeth Grant that we've heard in some years.

No; but I hear "safe" when she says "seen."

Yup. I always rearrange the songs, remove any I don’t like (like ‘Coachella’) and add any songs removed that I really like, such as adding ‘Serene Queen’ to LFL (and eventually ‘Yosemite’ too).

It’s easily my favorite of her albums. Glad you’re enjoying it as much as I am.

Speaking of IG, I know LDR went to Texas to perform, perhaps among other things. Are the new 'cowgirl' IG photos she's posted a sign that RCS is the country album, 'country covers' or perhaps of her own material?

In terms of "she ironically displays some of what she protests about in some ways-Narcissistic values as displayed when she gets irritate with the tiniest amount of critique," that is accurate but also an understatement, purely on a material level. She can't complain or speak out against IG culture NOW, after years and years of producing and releasing hundreds or thousands of photos of herself in a great variety of styles, poses, moods and themes. It's clear she's spent a lot of time being photographed and also that a lot of it was precipitated by her, not by her record company or magazines. It was something she enjoyed (which I have no problem with). And since Hollywood has given up on the concept of 'stars' and glamour, IG is merely filling a void with all the beautiful, mostly young, people making small fortunes off their glamour alone. I also agree she often seems hypersensitive about criticism, which is to her detriment, as she is a star, despite what she says in 'Wild At Heart,' and she's only going to get more of it as long as she stays in the public eye, whether as a 'star,' a famous 'musician,' or whatever. Bob Dylan is an old man and a legend, still producing one album after another, and he still gets criticized, of course. I am often baffled with LDR's practical blunders (like the COCC interview) or misconceptions about reality and the wisdom of doing or saying certain things in this persecutory era, which seem so different from the wisdom she often reveals in her songs.

Agreed. I LOVE IT. There's only one track I don't care for, and I wish she had sung all of 'For Free.' COCC is 'unshocking,' 'quiet,' 'meditative,' "there's no bangers," nothing as grim as 'Hope' and nothing as experimental (at least for LDR) as VB, LDR did not give it a lot of press support, and it seems to show her moving into a more mature phase of her career. And, on the day after its release, she announces RCS coming out in less than three months. So naturally a great deal of Stans and media people took that fact and ran with it instead of focusing on the just-released COCC. Someone above said COCC is "fully realized" and I agree 100% with that.