Vertimus

On the new NFR title song snippet, the loose but flowing piano playing—which I assume is Jack playing—is reminiscent of some of Joni Mitchell’s many piano songs from the first half of the 70s—but LDR has said she was raised in “a Carly Simon household,” and I think I detect, despite the overt ‘fuck’ line, a Carly Simon influence in the sheer breeziness of her delivery. If so, it was very likely unintentional. LDR did mention a 70s Laurel Canyon vibe, but while a lot of female musicians were in Southern California in that era, Simon was pure East Coast and only made one album—one of her best, ‘Another Passenger’ from 1976–in Southern California.

I agree. Diction is important. That what ruins ‘Change’ for me, the way she says, “people are powerful beins” instead of “people are powerful beings.” How did that get past Rick? It grates on my hearing every time I play it. Likewise, though it’s a matter of phrasing rather than diction, the inexplicable way she stresses the word “parents” in ‘Coachella’ kills it for me, though I also consider it among her worst released tracks and have cut it from my LFL e-album.

Thank you. ‘Old Money’ is a masterpiece and genuinely universal in its theme, I think. I love the “cold cash divine” line because it reveals a fault in the women’s character, who we otherwise sympathize with and relate to. It makes her more believable. I was interested to find that some here thought “the kids” in the lyrics were not the children of the protagonist and her husband/lover, but simply their young group of friends. I never interpreted it that way, it never even occurred to me, and certainly takes some of the tragedy out of the song. I do like ‘Hope,’ but in some way, it almost seems disrespectful of SP, as if Plath often ‘ran around in her fucking nightgown’ like a madwoman when there were so many other images and actions from Plath’s life she could have used. If I were a Plath descendant, I don’t think I would care to see my famous relative used so cheaply. Some members here have said they never heard of SP before hearing ‘Hope,’ so the idea that some may have come away with is that Plath was some sort of “madwoman in the attic,” a raving lunatic. And we know that that is not the way it was for SP.

For me, ‘Old Money’ is her most brilliant and powerful song. Regardless of nouns she uses, she and her co-writer mesh everything together perfectly to create a masterpiece. The understated way she sings it makes it doubly moving. That she used the very famous Nino Rota piece from the early 70s film version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ as a jumping off point is interesting, but really doesn’t define the song melodically. I listen to ‘What Is a Youth’ frequently and ‘Old Money’ rarely comes to mind when I do.

From what I have heard of the NFR title track snippet, I think it’s going to be a good song. I like the melody better than the Hope melody, and the strings are very promising. The breezy way she sings it is also interesting. I definitely don’t want a PC LDR, but the “you fucked me so good” line seems slightly over the top, as less is often more, and will take the song in another direction for some. Do I believe in complete artistic freedom? Of course.

I agree, LF. We'll have to wait and see. Nothing in it jumps out at me. I think a lot of what we're hearing on NFR are reactions to the overproduction of LFL, most of which I liked, but the production of which was awful on a lot of tracks, messy and unnecessarily multilayered ('God Bless America,' 'When The World Was At War,' 'In My Feelings,' etc.). At least the album is referred to as NFR, so we can probably put that horse to rest.

The thing with stripped-down piano ballads, like 'Old Money,' among LDR's, is that they have to have a strong melody to work, because there's nothing else, and the vocal follows the melody. 'Hope' has a fairly strong, recognizable melody--you can hum it easily. Some of the other piano snippets don't seem to have strong melodies, but may when we've heard the entire song.

I agree about the condescending tone; few of us know anything about one another--and that's what we're talking about specifically here, identity and authenticity, ironically enough. All I was saying was that the LDR of 2011-2012 WAS a persona, an act, purely that, which was presented more or less as 'real,' as 'authentic,' and a great deal of us bought into it because we wanted it to be so. I know I did. So I was, I acknowledge, very disappointed when she dropped the 2011-2012 persona and presented us more or less with a "this is more of who I really am, warts and all, even if it's still not totally me" persona and started being amateurishly photographed on a deck in a nightgown. Everything changed with the advent of UV, though 'West Coast' was, to me, more in line with BTD/P. By the era of LFL, she was posting those, to me, grotesque, poorly photographed selfies on Facebook, which suggested to me that she was telling her audience "but I'm not that, no I'm not that. I'm a youngish woman on the pretty side who has had some facial surgery, and, without makeup, this is what I look like." I assume she had some private reason for taking that course of action, probably related to the desire to completely strip away here 2011-2012 persona. So yes, she's a part of a historical tradition that's been taking since the dawn of recorded history, and the American entertainment industry in which 'common' individuals transform themselves through a lot of hard work into figures of galore, power and elitism, whether they're Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, Lord Byron, Louise Brooks, Paul Muni, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, David Bowie, Madonna or LDR. They often change their names; they become 'Cher' and 'Nico,' 'Tori Amos' and 'Lana Del Rey.' In some cases, the new persona is an overt character, like Pee Wee Herman or the multiple characters Andy Kaufman did. In many ways, the LDR of 2011-2012 was an overt character.

This thread shocked me because it made me realize how deceptive she can be. Not sure if the artist I fell in love with, who bares her soul in her songs and stays after concerts to say sweet things to fans, is the real her or if everything was fake. I put her on too high on a pedestal. I've finally come to accept the theory that "Lana Del Rey" is just a character and she's fabricated a lot of stories about her life to fit that glamorous, tragic narrative. Never going to let myself fall this hard in love with a famous person ever again because it sucks when your view of them becomes tainted. It may sound dramatic but this era truly feels like a heartbreak for me at this point I don’t know how long you’ve been a fan, but it’s been apparent since the release of UV that the LDR persona of BTD/P was a fabrication. Like so many, including me, you probably ‘wanted to believe,’ consciously or semi-consciously, that the LDR persona as we knew her from BTD/P was authentic.

Imagine LDR trying to do NFR interviews and facing a barrage of embarrassing questions about the history and delay of NFR. No matter what the truth and complications, these could still be handled with finesse and easy style by the right person, but at present I don’t have faith that she handle them at all. It could be a dramatic story, but I don’t have faith that she can tell it. She’ll be lucky if she gets sympathetic journalists who are willing to work with her or tell the story for her.

Whatever the apparent delay, he probably knows all the details. It’s partly his baby, after all. And I am sure she doesn’t have to worry about Jack spilling the proverbial beans.

Jack has probably moved onto a second or third new project since completing NFR, assuming he didn’t return for retakes, additional production or the addition of new songs to NFR. I doubt he’s sitting around concerned about the state and fate of NFR. He’s one of the most sought-after producers of the moment, as we all know, and he’s got his Bleachers projects. It may also be that LDR and Jack enjoyed working together so much that they’ve continued to compose together every now and then. She has mentioned getting together with Miles Kane often, saying about him, “we’re always up to something.” It may be the same with Jack, the Weeknd and others. She’s good friends with these people, and probably enjoys hanging out in the studio with them.

Hello and welcome. The main thing is, don’t tease your fans beyond the very small amount of teasing that goes into building suspense for a new project. Treat them with respect, as intelligent individuals who also support you financially. Don’t offer them something they can’t purchase. Don’t jerk them around, don’t confuse them and treat your own public statements are inconsequential. Treat yourself and them with respect.

THEN when she spoke about it, she should have just said, “I have finished a new album called “________,” and will share with all of you that it will be out a year from now, in the early Fall of 2019. You won’t hear much from me until then. Cheers.”

Okay. But that brings us back to the “how unprofessional can you get?” aspect of this highly-flawed rollout. It’s self-destructive and self-defeating to tease your fans, to dangle something in front of them and then yank it back or otherwise make it unavailable. It makes her look arrogant, indifferent, clueless and stupid (take your pick); it makes a great number of people lose respect for her. No one likes to be teased, fooled, toyed with or manipulated. I am not willing to make excuses for her poor business acumen based on speculation about her emotional and mental health, though it’s clear she does have troubles of these kinds; ‘Hope’ as much as declared it to be so. If the album is finished and she’s unable to make business decisions of any kind due to her inner troubles, then Ben and Interscope should make them after conferring with her.

But no one writes, produces, announces and completes a specific album, with a specific concept, and then just sits on it. If it were not repeatedly announced, over a period of 6 or more months, it would be different. It would be her private project that she can do with whatever she pleases. That’s like an adult making a grand evening supper for his or her family, making sure everyone knows to be home, having it ready to enjoy by 7:00 p.m., but then inexplicably letting it get cold and sit on the table overnight, and then offering it without explanation to your hungry, confused family at 3:00 p.m. the next day.

She was attempting to conquer the world then, and succeeded on multiple fronts (perhaps much to her surprise), then seemed to decide that she didn’t want it after all. Since then, she’s slowly withdrawn from the public eye and all the trappings of the 2011-2012 LDR, despite a subsequent Number One album and huge LFL tour.

"she hated the whole paradise album", "she didn't say anything about nfr when i asked" Paradise is my favorite of hers, except for ‘Blue Velvet,’ which I don’t care for, so that’s a shame from my POV. It would be helpful if we knew, assuming it’s true, what LDR hated—the production, the songwriting, the instrumentation, the arrangements or some combination of those. I know she said she didn’t like a lot of the production on BTD, and that it was forced in her. I wonder if she’s only begun hating Paradise recently?

It only makes sense that there is SOME reason for the delay. Whether it’s the poetry book or whatever, there has to be a reason. Albums don’t get recorded and announced and then thrown in a drawer or left sitting on a hard drive ‘just because.’ Since last September when MAC and VB were released, she could have written and recorded an entirely new album had she wanted to.

Thank you, it’s very kind of you to share that. I am glad we often think alike. I do write professionally in my work, though writing is only a part of what I do. I worked in a Communications unit of a large NYC organization for nine years, still write for another NYC organization now, and enjoy writing at all times.

Not that very long ago, LDR was celebrating being ‘a wild young thing’ in Southern California on songs like ‘West Coast,’ and I think that is how most of us still perceive her. Some of the songs on HM and LFL cemented that position— she was a ‘freak,’ still on the club scene, walking the beaches ‘with dripping peaches,’ interested in and frustrated by young men. So it’s hard to adjust to the perception of LDR now being something like a ‘Soccer Mom Without Kids,’ being PC and perhaps even referencing Jesus in a significant manner on MAC (which for many ties directly into Hillsong, accurately or inaccurately; we don’t have enough information to tell). Tori Amos became another sort of artist after the much-ballyhooed (by Amos) birth of her daughter, and releasing songs like ‘Ribbons Undone.’ A lot of fans felt she lost her edge. I have nothing against motherhood or parenthood, but I am not quite ready to reimagine or accept LDR as a middle class soccer mom. And you can become like a soccer mom or dad without actually having children, simply by settling into an early middle age, wearing ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ jeans that come up the navel, wearing ’comfortable shoes’ and so on. That’s why I feel the new album’s cover art will tell us a great deal about who LDR is now, or at least what role she’s playing or where she’s heading. I do not believe she has to appear ‘sexy’ in it, not by any means.