Vertimus

I agree. We have no idea what the new album is going to contain. The three tracks released may or may not be on the album—I hope they are not. It doesn’t make much sense for them to be on a ‘new’ album almost a year after initial release in two cases. I also agree the new song sounds like a bop and a banger, and doesn’t seem to fit in with what we’ve heard so far, but it does fit in with her ‘surf rock’ comments from last year. Maybe it will feel ill-fitting the way ‘Summer Bummer’ did on LFL.

There was something about the person in question being a very reclusive rock legend—to me, that sounds like Brian Wilson, founder of and mastermind behind The Beach Boys. He’s got to be in his late 70s now. At one point a few years back, LDR was supposed to appear on his last album, but her participation fell through. He’s been a huge influence on surf music of all varieties. Another rock legend option from a later era with close ties to LDR is Axl Rose. Rose is also ‘reclusive.’ We know LDR loves him and wrote ‘Bel Air’ for him.

The issue with HIADT is that it’s not a pop song, and most of LDR’s fans became fans because of her talent at creating interesting pop music, like VG and ‘Cola.’ For me, she made pop music, specifically pop music, interesting again for the first time in a decade or more. She’s branched out in all directions since, and obviously not completely left the pop field. But while I like HIADT and recognize its artistry, I don’t think it’s pop music. It’s honest, it’s brave, it’s touching, but there’s no catharsis, at least not for me. Despite the ending, it’s kind of flat. I don’t think most people actively dislike it (though no doubt some do), they’re just looking for something more energetic. LDR used to project such a winning quality, such a commanding persona, she was an international sensation and style guru, what happened to all of that? Maybe she’s simply being more ‘real’ or ‘realistic’ now, but I really miss the haughty conqueror she used to be, or pretend to be.

The lyrics might equate being in love with doing time in prison, though that seems rather obvious.

Many were suspicious about ‘Heroin’ too, largely because of the famous Velvet Underground song of the same name and her brief UV-era association with Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground’s founder. I doubt the new single is a cover. Many were suspicious about ‘Heroin’ too, largely because of the famous Velvet Underground song of the same name and her brief UV-era association with Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground’s founder. I doubt the new single is a cover.

Full agree. ‘Color Blue’ is one of her best and most intimate songs ever. Why does she cut so many great tracks from her albums but release weaker songs like some of those on her last three releases? She’s getting like Tori Amos, who, as the years passed, tended to do the same with her best and brightest compositions, which became B-sides or were saved for compilations. To me, ‘Color Blue’ has more intimacy and genuine feeling than even ‘Old Money’ and ‘Terrence Loves You.’ And it’s that exact quality that so many artists tend to lose quickly. Before you know it, they’re releasing saccharine power ballads. I hope we see something like it on NFR.

I think the classic rock lyric and title references in her songs are getting too obvious. They used to be clever and insightful, but now they often seem redundant and lazy. This is one reason I can’t agree that LDR’s lyrics are always sterling. I mean the “I’m your man / Crimson and clover / Stairway to Heaven / Rosemary and thyme / Hotel California / Lay lady lay / Ground control to Major Tom” stuff.

How to delete?

Sorry for the repetitions.

I think the classic rock lyric and title references in her songs are getting too obvious. They used to be clever and insightful, but now they often seem redundant and lazy. This is one reason I can’t agree that LDR’s lyrics are always sterling. I mean the “I’m your man / Crimson and clover / Stairway to Heaven / Rosemary and thyme / Hotel California / Ground control to Major Tom” stuff.

I think she tried to do it again with 'Groupie Love,' but it didn't work, at least not for me.

I'd like to see some pure, fun pop songs on NFR (or whatever it turns out to be), like 'Radio,' 'National Anthem,' 'Making Out,' 'Go Go Dancer' and 'Meet Me In The Pale Moonlight.' I miss her lightness and humor, the clever lines like those in 'Hollywood's Dead,' which seemed to be full of brief but accurate commentaries on what was going on around her.

I agree, it's one of her most personal and daring songs and places her in Joni Mitchell/Tori Amos territory, but for me, personally, it's not what I look for when I look to LDR. It's not the rawness and vulnerability that is a slight turn off to me, it's just that musically, I don't find any sort of catharsis in the music or by the end. Objectively, I admire it and can see everything valuable and progressive in it in terms of her songwriting, but subjectively, I don't care for it a great deal.

About her songwriting, I agree that it's suffered at least a little. I don't we'll ever get anything as pure or personal as 'Yayo' again, though there were some weak songs on BTD, certainly. About the time of 'Paradise,' she wouldn't have used phrasing, I don't think, like "People are powerful be-ins" the way she did on 'Change,' which mars the song for me, or the way she sang, on 'Coachella,' "..and what about all their parents" in the inexplicable hard manner she did, which jumps out at me every time I listen to it, which isn't often. I wonder where the un-PC LDR has gone, the writer of 'Gods & Monsters,' the more visionary LDR. I like MAC very much, but it does seem 'safe,' 'warm and fuzzy' to me, and at least a slight example of 'virtue signaling.' When we find out how it fits in with the rest of the album, it will probably seem more that way, or less that way.

When the Interscope site lists Lana Del Rey: 'Norman Fucking Rockwell,' and a release date, we'll know for certain that nothing has changed with the album and title, or when there is an official press release. Neither Eclipse speaking to the estate or what Abagail Rockwell wrote in a tweet is hard evidence. We all know anyone can say almost anything on Twitter. If Eclipse was a legitimate journalist working on specific assignment for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal or Rolling Stone, etc., and if he contacted the Rockwell trustees and was given a formal interview, and could prove that and produce even a short article for his employer, that would be hard evidence and news. Short of that, such a claim has to remain in the realm of hearsay, gossip, wishful thinking. In most cases, such organizations do not speak to the press, and certainly not off the cuff to curious strangers about legal issues. He would be given a 'no comment' at best, by phone or in person. This is not a matter of emotion, feeling or what we want to believe, not for me, not for anyone. We're trying to figure out what's causing the delay with the best information, the best hard, authentic information we have. As I have acknowledged, there could be numerous other reasons why the record has been delayed, especially because LDR decided to change her last album, LFL, at the 19th hour two years ago and add and subtract songs.

I don’t know what that quote means to you—it doesn’t suggest much to me. What do “going to Mars” and Trump being president have to do with one another? One is good, one bad? Both unbelievable? Shocking? And saying after both, ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’ doesn’t suggest anything to me either, unless perhaps she really doesn’t understand much about Norman Rockwell. Contemporary America definitely isn’t like the America of Rockwell’s era. America hasn’t been like his America since JFK was assassinated, so it doesn’t really work, as a punchline, on an ironic level. Some of her lyrics are outstanding, others, like to ‘Groupie Love’ or ‘Freak,’ are rather flat and/or labored. Laws and Legal precedents are not conspiracies.

I don’t know your age or interests, but Norman Rockwell is EXTREMELY famous and well known, as famous and well known as Andy Warhol, just not as critically acclaimed. So that you should hear Rockwell’s name mentioned or bandied about on television or elsewhere in the media is not at all surprising.

Look, she’s making fun of the men who think they are, as artists, ‘so fucking great’ that they think they’re ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell,’ just as she might have said, ‘Pablo Fucking Picasso’ or ‘Jackson Fucking Pollock.’ I don’t think she picked Norman Rockwell specifically as an artist’s name except that it probably fit with the melody, and the number and placement of syllables was right. She could just have used Grandma Moses or Salvatore Dali. Rockwell is not ‘an artist’s artist,’or a fine artist, but merely a well-loved commercial artist. Well-loved by the ‘common man,’ that is, not by academia or the critics, who consider him a magazine illustrator. The album title is definitely not a parody, satire, spoof or lampoon, and it’s not a burlesque either. As three words, it’s a mockery or insult. Your own handle here is a lot closer to a parody, as would be ‘Norman Fuckwell.’ A well-founded lawsuit with fairly clear legal precedents by the Rockwell trustees and/or Hallmark is not a conspiracy. I’m not saying that the album will not be called NFR, I am saying the album title (and title song, if any) are the most likely reasons for the album delay, regardless of what a Rockwell family member says now or what LDR says either. If you were LDR, would you want to have to tell the world, “Well, when I named and announced the album, I was being thoughtless, ignorant and headstrong, and persisted and persisted regardless, but finally had to give into overwhelming pressure and legal threats from multiple fronts and so have had to scrap the title, the title song, and all the printed album art, and had to go back into the studio for half a year and am now calling the new result ‘Happiness Is A Butterfly.’ Would you want to attempt to come up with a better, face-saving explanation and be mocked or have to eat humble pie in front of the entire world, music industry and fandom?

If you believe placing the word ‘Fucking’ between anyone’s first and last name constitutes a parody, then you don’t know what parody means.

What is parodic about the NFR name? Nothing.

And we have no way of knowing whether Abagail really knows what she’s talking about, whether she’s sidestepping a touchy situation she doesn’t want to be publicly associated with, etc. The only parties in the Norman Rockwell camp who can absolutely clarify that are the trustees and their lawyers, and not even they may be able to speak freely if there was a non-disclosure agreement. It’s not just using the NR name, as some keep repeating, which is no doubt trademarked anyway, as it still brings in millions a year in licensing fees from Hallmark and others. It’s that NR is associated with traditional, vintage America, and homey values like innocence, first love, selflessness, courage, appreciation, hospitality, trust, love of family, love of parents, neighborliness, grade school, gardening, Little League, etc. Therefore, the trustees of the estate are very unlikely to allow the word FUCKING to appear between Norman and Rockwell in any public or commercial context, as it would besmirch the name in the contemporary mind and they and the family and descendants would stand to lose millions, and of course Hallmark would certainly object too, and perhaps sue them as well. So if the album was just called Norman Rockwell and there was no profanity on the album, and the conception of NR was treated fairly and traditionally, and they approved the entire album contents, they might allow the use of the name provided the estate received some cut of the profits. But they certainly wouldn’t approve the title with FUCKING in the middle, and would also likely withhold permission because of lines like “fresh out of fucks forever,” or, in the past, “my pussy tastes like Pepsi Cola.” We’ll know a lot more when the album is released, in terms of what it’s called, whether there’s a title song of the same name, or if the album has another name. The NR estate probably ALREADY objected to the name NR being used in a song that also has the line, “fresh out of fucks forever.” NR was about a traditional and in some ways, conservative, as you get, and that is still his image. You have to think in terms of celebrities from another, more ‘respectable’ era, like Carol Burnett, who is still living, still makes a living off her name, and would sue if someone released an album called ‘Carol Fucking Burnett.’ As I said here weeks ago, before her death, Elizabeth Taylor filed a lawsuit against people using her name and image and won. Someone like Britney Spears might or might not object to an album being released by a popular recording artist called ‘Britney Fucking Spears,’ but she’s relatively of this era. I bet Taylor Swift would never allow it, even though she’s from a later era.

There is another version which was released/leaked about two years ago, which is trip-hoppish/disco-ish/house-ish, and was referred to as the 'final version,' and is many times less good to me. The original is much more in the 'Velvet Crowbar' vein, with clear vocals and lyrics.

Another way to approach the NFR delay is right in the 'Hope' lyrics. These are the lyrics of a professed very troubled person, and I think it's safe to assume that the narrator is LDR to some unverifiable degree. And we've seen admissions that she, or the personages in her songs, are mentally troubled in other lyrics, on 'Ride,' on ''Cruel World,' among others, and on some of her unreleased songs. Mental illness is as common as physical illness in my experience, and just as varied, and no more to be shunned or feared than a broken leg or psoriasis. A lot of those homely selfies she posted during the LFL era, where she was wearing no makeup and the camera angles grossly distorted her lips and nose, didn't seem to suggest mental health either, not if she was the one making the decision to post them (which I believe she was). I have no problem accepting that she may be experiencing some mental distress, even significant mental distress, and there's her teenage alcoholism and frequent mention of hard drugs in her lyrics to potentially factor in as well. Who knows what she's been experiencing? One of the things I've always liked about LDR is that she's able to tackle the darkness as well as the light. I don't think there's barely a darker song extant that the unreleased original version 'Live or Die.' As disappointing as this era has been, and as much as we want NFR to have dropped yesterday or in February, I think we have to try to wish her the best and hope any technical, production, aesthetic, record company, or legal issues go away soon, and any deep personal matters too. It certainly appears, via her Insta Baddies and other posts and photos, that she's trying to live her life in a completely different way at present. Perhaps she's 'gotten free' or is still trying to 'get free,' or perhaps she's found that she's as 'stuck' as ever, which is a very human place to find one's self.

It’s unlikely, but possible, that NFR will never be released. It’s happened before, with artists like Marianne Faithfull. There are problems with the production, everyone involved gets irritated and angry and points fingers at one another, the record company likewise loses patience, and decides to shelve the project altogether.

The endless delay might be because of the poetry book, which she apparently miscalculated the production time for (and in spades), but the delay really suggests that there's another reason for it. It may also be that when she announced the poetry book in September of 2018, she had no publishing plan, and was hoping established commercial publishers would coming knocking, hoping to get the publishing rights, and either none did, or none wanted it after reviewing it. Such 'baiting' ploys are common in all media industries. Artists don't typically release an entire cohesive album in singles and pairs over a period of a year, and corporate record companies don't support that, because it makes promotion almost impossible, which means they have no opportunity to recoup their investment, among other problems. It may be that whatever the cause for the delay is both complicated and embarrassing, and no resolution has yet been found. LDR may be frustrated and angry about all of this, and so has become relatively apathetic about the future of NFR. She certainly sounds as if she has. She has had a lot of what seems like bad luck since the release of BTD, with the SNL gig (and SNL mocking her a week later), the public Lorde feud, losing the James Bond song to Sam Smith (who then had a huge hit with it and appeared on SNL with Lorde, of all people), Lou Reed dying the day he was to record with her for UV, her troubled relationship with Barrie and the fallout from it, her houses being broken into by obsessive fans and being stalked and threatened by them, the significant drop in her sales with UV and Honeymoon compared to BTD/P, the Left (which she sees herself a member of) turning against her in various ways on multiple public fronts, Eminem slagging her, whatever the G-Eazy situation was, and so on. Some of these things are just par for the course for any celebrity in this era, and some are just life, period. But I think it's enough to frustrate and exhaust anyone. No wonder she doesn't have the time or inclination to be an international style influencer anymore.