Vertimus

This was the perfect time for her to reintroduce the name 'Norman Fucking Rockwell' to the world, or remind everyone of it, the non-Stans out there, and yet she referred to it only as "the new record."

That's right. Only an official corporate press release, unfortunately, means anything.

When VB was released, I didn’t se anyone here mention that the ‘fear fun’ line at the beginning was a direct reference to Misty’s ‘Fear Fun’ album.

That WAS ‘recently.’ But I want some official corporate recognition of the name. I want to see some publicity. Something more than just a LDR and Ben casually referring to the the album and NFR, or ‘the new album.’

When were those snippets posted? A hashtag is not ‘official’ in the manner I mean. I am not saying that NFR is not ‘going ahead,’ I am just saying it’s a bit mysterious that they’re not actively promoting the album by its name and keeping its name recognition high.

I’m not implying anything about the album name in terms of legal trouble, but the worst part is that the NFR name is not being bandied about in the media at all at present, and not by LDR and not by Interscope or Universal. You would think they would all WANT to keep the album title alive in the media as much as possible. They could even play off the delay and post a series of advertisements, something like “NFR IS coming...but when? Watch This Space.” But when was the NFR last publicized as the official title by Interscope? Months and months ago, half a year ago.

The thing is, all those hundreds and thousands of high fashion photos, numerous magazine covers, videos, etc. were LDR’s choice and/or done with her acquiescence. No one forced her to do anything related to all the various kinds of visuals. SHE made them important to the world and to her success, no one else did. Image IS important in the pop arena, we all know that. So the responsibility is hers. She publicly exploited herself and set that ball rolling. And when you get up on either a literal or physical stage, sometimes you get applause and sometimes people throw tomatoes or boo you, and you have to take responsibility for both, for getting up on stage willingly and willfully in the first place.

The BRD/P LDR was one Lana (or Lana persona), the UV & HM LDR another Lana, and the LFL LDR still another. Who knows whether the NFR LDR will be yet another. I think it will be.

Rather than punish yourself wondering, hoping, that the album will come out in August or September, it seems wiser at this point to just wait until something 100% official is released by Interscope. And that could come later this month, next month, and so on. I think is IS possible that the album won’t be released until 2020, or perhaps about Christmastime of this year. We still have no solid, factual news on what’s holding it up

Regarding the poetry book, if a genuine music critic respects her but dislikes the book or knows it's objectively bad, they'll ignore it completely. That's known as a 'respectful silence.' But general industry 'critics' will probably say something vague but nice about it; they'll rate it 'B' or 'A-.' That's how most industry 'critics' respond to almost anything today, it's the 'Entertainment Weekly' approach to criticism, which is really just publicity and not legitimate criticism of any kind, intended to generally support whatever product and industry they're reviewing, whether it's music, television, publishing or movies. No one in academia is likely to review the LDR poetry book, so the only real criticism we're likely to see is from fans online. And most of those will support it 'because it's Lana, and anything Lana does is GREAT,' the same way fans responded to Tori Amos for a decade. So very few with some knowledge and background in poetry are likely to evaluate it as objectively as possible and give a considered opinion that's worth taking into consideration.

With this new series of earthquakes, we'll be lucky if the only PC or iMac in the whole world which holds the contents of NFR doesn't slip into a crevasse and disappear forever. Or hasn't already. Hopefully Jack and LDR also have copies on their phones, so a copy exists in Poland.

I am aware that most here are huge fans of UV and HM. I am not. I felt somewhat justified when, at the time of LFL came out, LDR said she felt she had “lost her way” on those albums. Because of the messy production on LFL, I am looking forward to a cleaner, less cluttered sound on NFR.

I am a great fan of LFL, or at least 65% of it. I think the sound quality is poor overall, the production messy and overcrowded, and there’s a lack of cohesion, but I still rate it highly. Songs like WTWWATWKD were a big step forward for her, after retreads like ‘Freak’ and ‘Art Deco,’ among others, which she could have produced in her sleep. For me, on ‘Honeymoon,’ she sounded bored to death with her own material and on her own album, and PDLMBM was embarrassingly bad. I think the best tracks from UV and HM combined would have made an okay album, but I would still have liked it less than LFL.

She is hard-working, she’s just no longer proceeding with her career in the accepted, standard manner, the thing most call “professional” and that includes being considerate of your fan base. The only real problem has been the totally irresponsible, blithe manner in which she’s communicated and miscommunicated with her public since last September. As we keep reminding one another, “she doesn’t owe us anything,” and that’s correct. But then don’t express things publicly that are flat-out wrong, misleading or inaccurate. And if you do, a simple tweet or post can correct any error or change of plans. As I have said, she could have let the world know the 3/29 date was wrong. It would have taken her 30 seconds to correct that, but she did nothing.

Let LDR and her team act irrationally and without common sense (or professionalism). That doesn’t mean we have to surrender common sense. Nor should we allow ourselves to be led down rabbit holes by what we WISH were true, or some nobody’s teasing or leading hoax tweet or post. Let’s not be gullible. When even LDR herself is not reliable as a source, then only an official press release by Interscope or a pre-order on a legitimate site can be trusted.

There are none and have been none in over half a year.

I think you’re wrong to use the word ‘confirmed’ about what she said at the recent concert about “in two months.” That’s not ‘confirmation’ when we’re talking about LDR, especially in this era. She also said, what was it, “soon” or “in a little bit.” I have no faith in any of these comments after the last year. ‘Confirmed’ is a strong word. We’ll have ‘confirmation’ when we get a ‘hard’ press release with a date from Interscope or a preorder on iTunes. Until then, I don’t think we can consider anything ‘confirmed.’

I feel the same way—I will accept it if they’re on the album, as I expect they will be, but I would rather have three new songs (I am including ‘Hope.’) Today it’s easy to customize your own version of an album via iTunes and the iPhone, and just add them if you’d prefer to in the event that they’re not on the official album. I took ‘Coachella’ off LFL and added ‘Best American Record.’

All true. And worse, she didn't tweet, "Hey, guys, the March 29th date is wrong. The album will be out somewhat later, about _______________ instead," when she easily could have. Right. She's essentially always in the studio in the same way most of us are at our jobs 40 hours a week. Being in the studio is her job, though I'm sure she does a lot of her writing elsewhere, everywhere. When she collaborates with others on songs, she probably often does that in the studio too, for obvious reasons. The instruments and recording equipment are there.

It doesn’t have any style, so I hope it’s not the actual cover. It doesn’t look any better in black and white. But in this era, anything is possible and nothing would surprise me.

That’s it!! Well said.

You’re. Hilarious. I didn’t say or even imply that: she.OWES.me.or.anyone.anything. I have argued against that idea—that she owes anyone anything—constantly here. It’s a simple matter of objectively-executed professionalism and respect for your public. Even if she DIDN’T plan to release it for a year or fifteen months, then why constantly tease it, give inaccurate information or estimates like, “it won’t be released before the top of the year”? Why DIDN’T she post something on FB or Instagram saying the March 29th date was incorrect?? Why not just say, if you must say anything at all, “I have completed a new album with Jack Antonoff, but won’t be releasing it for a year and a half, in approximately February of 2020. In the meanwhile, I’ll continue to record new songs and may even release a new project first, in the interim. More on that second album as it develops, if it develops.” Maybe if she hadn’t alienated a lot of her fanbase, she wouldn’t be playing second fiddle to a flash-in-the-pan pop tart like AG. That song will CERTAINLY bring her the artistic credibility she’s been chasing ever since UV! We know she’s not doing it for the money. She’s got plenty of that—many millions.

The worthiness or not of ‘Doin’ Time’ and the CA track are not what I was addressing. And what a sad day it is when LDR has to parrot and piggyback off AG to sustain a career and public profile! Neither of those singles explain the simple failure to give an accurate, concise release date, no matter how far in the future. It’s not as if she didn’t already tell the world, “It won’t be out before the top of the year,” etc. Even now she cannot, or more likely, will not, just reveal the release date like every other musician does, including legendary names like Springsteen and Madonna. No; LDR is above that. She’s different; she’s special; she’s entitled. She’s free to lie and/or manipulate her fans for a fucking year. I would accept all of this IF she hadn’t constantly/willfully /cluelessly continued to procrastinate WHILE continuing to misinform her entire fan base for almost a year with continual snippets of false and inaccurate information. When she realized the album was going to be heavily delayed, all she had to do is say so. And if, 3 months later she found out it was going to be delayed another 4 months, she could have posted that too. That’s all fans needed—accurate information. Not a lot of 8th-rate photos, self-indulgent navel-gazing and misinformation.