Vertimus

It’s all of a piece with LDR, I think. We can’t, with the limited information we have, separate her glamour and beauty from her music, lyrics, personality and role-playing, especially when she’s written so much about her own beauty and the power it has provided her. So I hardly think almost any aspect is ‘off the table,’ including her appearance and presentation to the world, both privately and publicly. Regarding ‘Hope,’ we know she’s just said, about the 50s debutants, “I’m not that,” and I don’t think, as these are the latest comments on her appearance and being, that they can or should be discounted or written off.

There is nothing wrong with her ‘bare face,’ but purposely posting badly-taken color and B&W selfies shot at terrible angles so that she looks deformed or a victim of poor plastic surgery is not ‘bare-faced.’ She could easily take, or have taken, photos of herself in which she looks lovely/pretty but without much makeup. And that’s not what she’s been doing for two years. It’s as if, as with the Billboard cover, that when others take photos of her now, she often chooses the least flattering if she’s given a choice in the matter. So to me that seems at least partially a feminist message: ‘This is what I really look like, or do if I make no effort. And I am okay with that.’ But that doesn’t jibe too well with the LDR of ‘dripping peaches,’ by which I assume she meant her breasts as they look when she exits the sea. As I wrote before, there are semi-precedents for this in the case of Nico, who willfully destroyed her international beauty as she felt men didn’t take her seriously as an artist with that beauty, and Marianne Faithfull, who, after years of suicide attempts, debauchery, violence and homelessness in the Seventies, released very unattractive album covers for the almost next three decades. In old age, Faithfull finally started having lovely photos of herself taken for her album covers. Both Nico and Faithfull were junkies for most of their adult lives, however, and that played a significant role in their image difficulties, or was a partial reflection of those difficulties. I have no problem at all with LDR ‘just being herself’ and just looking like herself, but the desire for human beauty is a universal constant, found in all cultures to some degree since the dawn of recorded history. Most or all of us hope or want to look good in photos, the best we can at the moment, and we want attractive photos of our friends, family, and pets. That’s seen as just normal, just healthy. So I don’t know why she wouldn’t want to look ‘like herself’ but also as reasonably attractive as most of us hope to look in our own selfies and group photos. At this point I expect the NFR album art to be one of her industrial photos on the cover, like those accompanying the poetry book, with a small plain selfie-style photo of her inside.

But from sexy, glamorous and beautiful to very plain is rare, if there’s any precedent for it at all, and clearly she doesn’t need to do something like THAT to ‘maintain interest,’ not after having just had a number one record. If so, it would come across as desperate, in my opinion. David Bowie did alter his persona a lot during the 70s, but he was the dynamic, innovative exception, and his alterations were very artistic. Most artists of that era, like Bob Seger, Robert Plante, KISS, Heart, Leonard Cohen, Fleetwood Mac, Patti Smith, Lou areed, Blondie, Gordon Lightfoot, Linda Ronstadt, Iggy Pop, etc. hardly changed at all. Madonna was really the one who brought the ‘complete style change’ from project to project in with ‘Like a Virgin,’ abandoning the look and sound of her debut.

I don’t think ‘beautiful’ has to be ‘sexual’ by any means—equating the two for quite a while was LDR’s choice. In the distant past of classic Hollywood, a lot of actresses were beautiful and considered beautiful without being very sexy at all, like Irene Dunn and Margaret Sullivan, and later, Jane Wyatt. In the 60s, both Nico and Sandy Denny were considered beautiful without being in any way overtly sexy or sexual. Kate Bush has never been overtly sexual in any capacity, but certainly been considered beautiful, attractive and desirable. In LDR’s case, since the change—though not necessarily on her album covers—has been so dramatic, people are definitely going to take notice. Similar observations are made of male performers like Justin Bieber and Zayn Malik. Fans and Stans follow every slight change of appearance, every hairstyle change, every suspected shot of Botox or filler, every suspected pound gained or lost, change of makeup, body enhancement, etc., and includes the airbrushing of photos too, as we saw in Bieber’s Calvin Klein campaign a few years ago.

But musical stars usually don’t radically shift from ‘high glamour’ to ‘very plain’ in just a few years. In the distant past, Carly Simon, Rickie Lee Jones, Patti Smith and Kate Bush hardly altered their persona, style or appearance an iota over the course of their long careers, and, while more recently, Tori Amos has altered her look a little from album to album, it has remained largely consistent over almost 30 years. Note that none of these artists went from trying their damnedest to look sexy and glamorous to very plain and utterly unadorned. LDR is free to do whatever she wants with her appearance, style and persona, though I would prefer she look beautiful, since she is beautiful and has placed herself in the public eye by choice. But if she wants to abandon that aspect, that’s her choice to make, utterly. The lack of professionalism otherwise is also very troubling to me, which is why I wonder if the two are perhaps related.

No one is look-shaming or ‘policing’ her appearance, I am just acknowledging the change while observing it. Maybe it means nothing. But that is rather like saying her lyrics, her poetry, her music and her life mean nothing either. Some people are more comfortable attempting to draw educated, tentative conclusions, and shouldn’t be ‘shamed’ for that either.

I am saying she has radically altered her public persona, and almost eliminated it. That is her choice, I am only observing and remarking on it. If for 18 to 24 months you successfully and consciously present yourself to the world as a glamour doll, then slowly withdraw from that stance to the degree that 3-4 years later you’re willfully posting ugly selfies of yourself taken from distorted angles, people are going to notice and wonder what’s going on in your psyche. Does it ‘mean anything’? I think it does, since I am a believer in depth psychology. What it means, I am only making an educated guess about, but you are of course free to think and believe that it means nothing or something entirely different.

I don’t think we know who she is anymore. After the ‘Plain Jane’ Billboard cover last year as well as the ‘Plain Jane’ photo of her sitting by the side of the highway, she’s clearly negatively reacting to her former glamorous image and saying, “I’m not that.” Keep in mind that she’s been roundly criticized by the Left, by members of her own party, many of whom are feminists against the glamorization of women, which they consider a male plot to keep women oppressed. Personally, I think she’s going through an identity crisis, or coming out of one, which is to be expected, perhaps, for someone who has assumed numerous identities over the last ten years or so, each with its own set of expectations. That’s why the NFR cover art will tell us a lot—not necessarily who she is or ‘ really is,’ but at least how she is projecting herself to the world now.

Everyone has their own opinions on this. Except for a handful of songs each, I don’t care much for UV or HM .

. I would really like to hear more trip-hoppish BTD/Paradise-style production and arrangements for her current material. It was her best sound, I think.

. About eBay, absolutely true.

Which suggests to me that it hasn’t been worth frustrating her fans for, or needlessly holding up the new record for. I personally believe that when she announced it in September of last year, she had it written or almost completely written, and had taken the accompanying photos, but had no publisher, and believed by announcing it she would begin a bidding war, one which either never materialized or which came to nothing after publishers reviewed the content. I’m of course not sure of the number of copies, but I remember seeing the number 500 somewhere in the last four months. It’s possible that it will be physically beautiful and almost a kind of art object in itself, and thus a sort of folk art piece. I wish it the best as a project, but wish she would have just released NFR as soon as it was completed and not announced the poetry book until later. Naturally, it’s easy to see how she would have wanted them to be released simultaneously, especially if the book were commercially published. But such things take a lot of time and planning by experienced business professionals from often two companies working together, in this case Interscope and the publisher. Silence from her and her team for 18 to 24 months or so and then an announcement of both the book and record and a release date would have been perfect.

If she successfully hypes up and manipulates the release of the poetry book, if she manages to create a false sense of urgency about it and a "you're no one in L.A. unless you've got an original copy" vibe, at least among a certain subculture of hipsters, then some people might care about it. But the idea that there are tsunamis of people in L.A. and all across America who are clamoring for the poetry book is absurd. Even here on this Stan site, there hasn't been much enthusiasm for it or the individual poems she's released so far. She can say, "it's self-published and each copy is individually bound by me, each copy is signed and one-of-a-kind, it's a limited edition, a limited run, it will be a collector's item," and some people will be affected by that, but that doesn't change the fact that for most, the content will be almost worthless in itself, except that LDR wrote it.

Short of an official press release from Interscope, I don’t know why anyone would trust anything she ‘admits’ or says about the new record. She and Ben and her other handlers can say anything they want, and have, and it’s s come to nothing.

I have never advocated the ‘record company is holding it up’ theory on its own, only that they may have had to in light of a possible injunction from the Rockwell Estate. But Interscope having some other motive for doing so I have never believed. To my way of thinking, Interscope probably finds the poetry book a colossal pain in the ass and realizes it has no commercial potential in any way, not even as added synergy potential for the album’s publicity. Few if any self-published books make any mark; most are pure vanity projects that sink like stones. Even here on this board of Stans, not a great many people have shown interest in the book or the individual poems she’s shared.

. It still makes no sense, and few if any record companies would allow it, as such an album cannot be effectively promoted, and without adequate sales, they have little chance of recouping their investment. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Nor Is there anything “simple” about such an explanation. It’s a more complicated explanation, not a less complicated one, than releasing the album in essentially one fell swoop as most artists do. And what actual actions of hers are we genuinely aware of, short of attending certain events or dating various men? Few if any, unless some of us know her personally.

. But why, at this point, should we believe that statement over other things she’s said that have proven to be wrong or inaccurate?

. Oh, of course LFL’s album cover etc were better than what we have seen so far for this era. I just feel the quality and aesthetic were not up to standard for her, or even very professional by professional standards. But I didn’t think much of the HM artwork either. With LFL, it wasn’t the concept that I disliked as much as the execution. With so many amazing artists and photographers in the world, with so many brilliant conceptualizers, that’s the best she and her team could do? Musically, I liked LFL better than UV and HM, so we’re in agreement that many parts of LFL were good or great. I never saw her as a role model either, but of course she’s been inspirational to me as a person of the other gender. She’s like an anima figure for me. Don’t give up on yourself or your life, as there are brighter days ahead, you will get stronger as you mature, and be cautious of others, especially those you are romantically involved with.

In other words, she’s an extrovert in the genuine, original Jungian sense of the term. Extroverts like to be a part of the group and like to join groups, suffer a lot when alone or isolated, and tend to temporarily take on the group identity or what they feel is expected of them in a given situation, whether it’s soccer mom, heroin dilettante, club kid, pretty young neighbor, pop star girlfriend, Instagram influencer, dutiful daughter or granddaughter, new mother, Gucci representative or whatever.

I think most here just feel, “If NFR IS going to come out JULY 17th, September 14th, or November 6th, JUST SAY THAT.” Like any professional would do, like 98% of artists do, whether it’s the Cactus Blossoms, Rihanna, Barns Courtney, Royal Deluxe, Frankie Lee or Marina. LDR’s unreliable and seemingly scattered comments since last September seem like a combination of manipulative behavior, unprofessionalism and incompetence, and are a huge turn off. I don’t think it’s anything more than that on the part of fans. AND if a major hitch did come up, she could easily just admit it publicly in this era of varied instantaneous communication, and once she’s absolutely certain of the new date, say, “Sorry everyone, the album has been unavoidably delayed until ______.” And if she wants to give a reason, she can. It may be that there has been some factor involved completely beyond her control that has caused the delay, and, if so, I am sure we will accept it and eat personal crow.

How can that be predicted, much less forced? The releasing record company can really get behind it, give it a huge promotion and contact influential DJs and radio personnel, but short of that, what can they do?

I have known men and women like her too as I perceived her then, so I was pretty impressed as well. But I also wanted to believe. So I take responsibility for buying the fantasy. I have lived in NYC long enough to know that few artists are as they seem when you encounter them in person. But sadly, this new LDR is so much drearier than the fantasy in terms of her presentation as an artist that I cannot help but continue to be disappointed. Even her tour posters and graphics were actually hip back in the day—now we get things like the interior photos of LFL and the album cover, with the fake-lookin daisies in her hair and the awkward hippy dress. Remember when BTD came out and all the DJs wanted to remix her songs, and did? That sure stopped abruptly. I don’t know why she dropped the Trip Hop production in the first place.

I think she played a seductive role most of us loved for the first few years, but has abandoned that role and now we’re left with the genuine human being, and it’s difficult to adjust. But she’s been forcing us to a little at a time, via the very unflattering short clips and photos. That’s why I say the album art of NFR will tell us a great deal about who she is now and where she’s headed. It’s sort of like Hitchcock’s classic film ‘Vertigo,’ in which Jimmy Stewart falls in love with a seductive, poised and cultured woman who turns out to have only been a rather lower middle class shop girl ACTING due to a third party’s manipulations and murder plot. When Jimmy Stewart finds out his obsession never existed, he goes mad. That’s us!

I wouldn’t mind 20 tracks. Tori Amos has one or two good albums with a great number of tracks. Unlike many here, I don’t tend to see much of a ‘story’ in LDR’s released albums so far, certainly not on UV or HM. At best, there’s a ‘sort of’ theme or, more frequently, a musical aesthetic. LFL seemed very disjointed, with some tracks reflecting one another but those collections of reflecting tracks in turn not jibbing with one another. Aesthetically, ‘Love’ and ‘Summer Bummer’ were about as different from one another as could be. So if NFR ends up being a loose collection of tracks, that’s okay with me. Some I will like, some not.

I have no problem with plastic surgery per se for anyone, female or male. But I don’t understand why she would want her face to be fuller since she already tends towards being apple-cheeked. The gaunt look of the Paradise and UV album covers is what brings out her beauty and cheekbones the most.