Vertimus

I sure hope so.

I really hope the tracklist is fake...'Songbird,' one of the blandest, most overly-used titles ever? I doubt she would title a song 'Trail of Tears,' as, regardless of the 'Ride' video and the recent talk of donating to Native American causes, it's a subject I believe she doesn't know a great deal about and has no authentic personal or familial history with. From what I've seen of her choice in reading material, she tends towards secondary or tertiary sources and 'lite' versions of whatever the subject is that interests her. Which is fair enough. We don't know for a fact that LDR's an actual admirer of Sylvia Plath's poetry per se either, but Plath is mostly known for her early promise, 1950s marriage, mental illness, book 'The Bell Jar,' and especially her suicide. Even in the mid-70s, it was Plath's life and legend, not her poetry, that sustained her reputation. IF LDR were to co-opt the phrase 'trail of tears' completely for her own personal use, that would be a terrible and foolhardy mistake on her part, and hopefully, she would know better.

I don't think that's necessarily true, how you feel about the line and whether or not you support, don't support, or are indifferent to BLM, though I agree with most everything else that you've said. For good or bad, better or worse, the BLM protests have been a significant part of American life for the past 3-5 years, and they'll be remembered the way the protests against the Viet Nam war in the late 60s have been. They're part of the American record. I think the lyrics reflect an actual experience of hers. It's very likely that she attended at least one BLM protest, with or without Sean, and, later, in reflection, it gave her a pivot point for the song. Who wouldn't be affected by such an experience? Unlike some here, I don't think she's saying that Sean, or whomever was with her, saw her in that moment as an authentic BLM supporter and thus 'saw her for who she is,' while the other person was not a supporter, and that individual's lack of support for BLM drove them apart once and finally. I think the second party's seeing her 'for who she was' at that moment was something that bonded them together, because the second person was seeing, however briefly or not, her authentic self, and we know authenticity and identity are issues that have long-troubled LDR. And, at that moment of mutual recognition of one another (whether the other supported BLM or not), she also felt, "God, I wish I was with my father, [that] he could see us in all our splendor." It was a moment of realization for her, and of something resembling pride in the best sense.

That's absolutely what she's referring to, a Freudian 'Electra' complex. She's saying, "I have a textbook case of 'Love Daddy, Hate Mommy, my competitor for Daddy's attention." When she says, "And then there was the issue of her," she's likely referring to her mother, especially as she trounces her mother as something of a monster on in 'WFWF.' As all these 'Electra' thoughts and emotions boil up, she says, "I never felt jealous before this year, but I'm jealous now," because she's projecting her jealousy of her mother onto everyone and everything, and certainly onto any woman who enters their orbit with an eye on Sean (or whomever the man or other person is).

A-men.

Nothing sells like controversy, so that's unlikely. It's as unlikely as LDR producing an album strictly to be perceived as 'controversial.' Lana has a fairly low public profile; most Americans still don't know who she is, her name has no recognizable value to most, unlike names like Brittany Spears, Justin Bieber or Beyonce, whose names the public has heard in passing, whether they've ever knowingly heard their music or not.

Not that long ago she wrote, produced and then unfortunately cut ‘Serene Queen,’ which certainly had a groovy, high tech/techo, studio-manipulated sound. She might return to a broadly similar sound at any time, at least for a few cuts. I admit that, though I loved almost all of COCC, after most of NFR! and the three recent singles, I’m personally pretty tired of the slower, piano-ballady tracks.

COCC is an amazing album, I think it's the purest and most persona-free we've seen LDR. I love all the songs but one. From the last snippet she published, the 'map' video, it looks like she may be continuing in this vein, especially as WFWF also seemed to reflect LDR 'laid bare.' I'd like a few 'bangers' or songs in the 'Serene Queen' mode, but I'm looking forward to whatever is coming on the new album.

LDR Only Fans when?

But we don’t know that the three singles are on the new record, or still on it. I love ‘Paradise,’ so if it is sonically like P, that’s great news to me.

This is absolutely true. As I said last week, I stand by her decision to write and release whatever she wants to release, but that, of course, doesn't mean fans and stans are necessarily going to like or embrace it en masse. 'Serene Queen' is an excellent choice for "what if the album sounded like this?" I'd like to hear more uptempo or semi-uptempo dramatic songs along the lines of 'Summetime Sadness,' 'Cola,' 'Ride,' '13 Beaches,' 'Angels Forever,' 'Hollywood,' and 'The Greatest.' I liked the three singles well enough--especially TB and WFWF--and the new song sounds good. But especially after COCC, I'm in the mood for something livelier, with more contrast and edge.

Anyway, the correct quote from Peter Pan is "Death will be an awfully big adventure," not "life will be an awfully big adventure." Presumably, LDR's last two IG posts have something to do with the new record.

Absolutely. I'm a huge fan of COCC the album--I like it much more than NFR! overall, but then, my favorite LDR albums are the unpopular choices here---'Paradise,' 'LFL,' and COCC. I also think, generally speaking, her songwriting on COCC is better than on NFR!, though of course NFR! has MAC, VB, TG, and Hope. I'm ready for whatever she's going to serve on the new album. I doubt she's going to be going in a louder mode, but who knows.

This is true, but remember that classic recorded folk music, in any of its many variants, British or American, was very sparse on production as well as instrumentation. Mostly just acoustic guitar, or just piano, with perhaps a dulcimer, banjo or fiddle thrown in. The emphasis was on the vocals and the lyrics. So Jack's approach to LDR's version of 'folk' was actually in keeping with tradition on COCC. Personally, I don't see anything worthy of accurately being called 'folk' on NFR! The most accurate folk track on COCC was 'Yosemite,' which has Donovan-like overtones, and it was produced by Rick, as we all know.

The correct quote from 'Peter Pan' is "To Die Will Be An Awfully Big Adventure,' so I don't know if that plaque she's holding is incorrect on purpose or if LDR knew it was, but---.

Especially since she said there were quite a few 'political songs' she left off. Whatever they are, I'd like to hear them. I liked 'WTWWAWWKOD.' 'Serene Queen' is a fantastic track, very old school LDR, and one of my favorite unreleased tracks.

This is true. Just as some artists since the 50s have thought every ‘protest’ song is great because they see the cause the song supports as being ‘heart-wrenching’ or ‘socially responsible,’ which certainly isn’t true. Most protest songs as such are as bad and boring as hell.

And bruises are hardly all caused by fighting or physical abuse. Many adults have hemophilia and so bruise easily, or take an aspirin regiment for things like high blood pressure, which thins the blood as causes easy bruising. And there are slips, falls and accidents to keep in mind. I agree it’s sad how many people there are in the world who think they’re amateur but nonetheless accurate, brilliant psychologists, social workers or medical doctors simply because they perversely want to see a world of victims and nothing but.

Totally agree.

I think it's like the overabundant and too-obvious classic rock references, it just seems that lately she's been name dropping too much and it loses any effectiveness as a result. However, they're her songs and I stand by her right to write whatever she pleases. I wish she'd really let go and write more distinctive songs like 'Live or Die,' 'Cola,' 'Gods & Monsters,' etc. But that doesn't seem to be where she's at right now.

I agree. She's painting a picture, using actual events from her life here, an idea there, a sudden inspiration or feeling here again. She's writing impressionistic stories or prose poems and placing them to music. It's a mistake to take any song or lyric literally. Whether it's 'Text Book,' 'Wildflower,' 'Old Money,' 'Honeymoon' or 'Cola,' we--the audience, the listener--get the idea and set of emotions she's conveying. She's not a more literal storyteller like Bobbie Gentry with 'Ode To Billie Joe.'

It was Diet Mountain Dew!

And we will probably have 'Land Rover' by that time as well. Cheers.

CL isn't saying it's not normal---of course it is. Stevie Nicks has been dredging up old songs that are 30-40 years old ('Sorcerer,' 'Planets of the Universe,' 'Candlebright,' etc.) for a while now. CL just doesn't want another NFR! situation where we've heard half of the album and almost all the best tracks beforehand.

Totally agree. I love your photo, by the way, it says so much with so little. Imagine LDR posing exactly like that for her next album cover. Having MAC, VB, and 'Hope' well beforehand ruined NFR! for me, as, with 'The Greatest,' they were the best songs on the record for me. We'd also heard the best part of 'HIAB' a year before. I didn't care for 'BUS' on COCC, and wish Lana had sung all of 'For Free,' so I hope she holds off on having Nicki participate until they do their country album or whatever. We have the three singles already, they can 'stand alone,' and we have 'Thunder' and 'Cherry Blossom.' If she wanted to use 'CB,' it would have fit nicely on COCC.