Vertimus

Maybe just dropping the 3 singles without notice, publicity or fanfare is a part of her revenge strategy, no press, no interviews, no magazine covers. You know, a "fuck the press" sort of attitude.

Nothing that I can tell. Text Book doesn't show up on Shazam; at least no one has found it there. Someone posted a track list for the album on Twitter, which most are calling fake.

I love COCC, much more than NFR, which seemed to me to have too many retreads. In fact, at present, COCC is my favorite of all her work. I love her balladry at its best--'Yayo,' 'Old Money,' 'Black Beauty,' 'Terrence Loves You,' 'Yosemite,' 'NAWWAL'---even 'Ride' might be considered a ballad. So while LMLYLAW seemed too underdeveloped to me, if the 3 songs we have coming are in the ballad mode, fine with me.

Great, Nikogo. Thanks--good to know.

IF the three singles are really dropping tomorrow, isn't it likely that they'll leak today? I'm not hoping or wishing for that; I can wait. But isn't that realistic, based on what we've seen with NFR and COCC?

She's definitely not lazy. Her output is astounding, especially in terms of songwriting. Sometimes artists become legends because of one good song that they've written that has become well-known. Look at LDR's output--it's like R.EM.'s, like Joni Mitchell's in her long heyday, like Tori Amos's, like Prince's, like Leonard Cohen's. I can't think of too many other, if any, contemporary artists who have released as much material of such high quality and originality. By the time she retires, if she ever does, she might be up there with the Elvis Presley and Rolling Stones in terms of her catalog, who knows? Sadly, unlike those two artists, thr world will remain largely unaware of her and her work, as often seems the case today.

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.