neuf

Sad Girl isn't as good as I was hoping for

Do you think it will be more difficult to get the demos from this era? It'll be interesting to hear the versions of these songs done before DA's sessions. Something tells me things are more tight-lipped with the demos from that time though.

I'm underwhelmed by this "Sad Girl" snippet. The first one made it sound more seductive and cabaret. Now it sounds it kind of dissolves into the same old sound SoC and BB kind of muddles in. Hopefully they balance out with more of the sparse sexy verse. I do like her vocals on the refrain though. I think it'll be one of the more underrated tracks, excited for it the most along with MPG and FMWTTT.

Just played it through and it exceed my expectations from the sound clip we got before. Really interesting! I like there's a quality to it that I can't tell if Lana is kind of also making fun of the Brooklyn "lifestyle".

"He used to call me D.N., that stood for deadly nightshade" "He used to call me poison like I was poison ivy" Ugh, hard to believe she's 28 and making lyrics like this. BUT... I think the song itself is good and the stuttering bass drum is cool. I'd like the vocal mix with the spoken word a little lower that it creates an atmosphere. Like Carmen but a little higher in the mix. Sometimes DA's production is little too straightforward, I think. This album is shaping up to be interesting.

It's not terrible live, though it's always hard to tell because of the crowd. I think it's definitely the best song to put forward as far as presenting UV to the unwashed masses. Anyway, Letterman's show is notorious for really hit-or-miss mixing. Especially on rock songs, it's usually pretty bad. Given she performed last time with piano and strings, that's going to be a challenge.

I guess it's West Coast then if SoC is promotional. I can see her small set just being WC, UV, and something old (Summertime Sadness, Young & Beautiful). Usually artists play their current single, something else new that they've rehearsed, and a well-known recent one off the last release. Then the current single gets aired.

West Coast is the best choice but isn't Shades of Cool the current single? I could see that. Letterman is pretty progressive as far as music goes on his show for a national show, so she might have time to play it. Artists usually now play 2-3 songs on Letterman but only one gets aired. I think they do a series now where they do a miniset and it's released on YouTube. That's usually reserved for select artists though. She won't talk, Letterman nearly never interviews the music guest. Ultimately, I think an SNL appearance is bound to happen. The show is hurting and it would easily draw viewers, it would also add to her "redemption story".

So did he get in after all or not?

This song is better than SoC for me, but not as good as WC yet. I can see it growing on me more, though. I hope more of the songs aren't just her belting out the title over and over in the chorus. I know it's not just like that but it feels like that. I like the mature lyrical side of Black Beauty and hope there's some of that more. Shades of Cool seems to touch more on that than either of the two so far (and what we've heard from Brooklyn Baby).

Morricone influence? She likes him.

It's growing on me but I still really just like the guitar solo and the ending. I like the idea of this song, if that makes sense, more than the song itself. I think it will fit the album better but I don't know how it is as a single. It reminds me of "Rhapsody in Blue" or something. Feels kind of pastoral, maybe driving through the Inland Empire.

I doubt it

I think this album, like the sound (so far) -- late 60s/early 70s (with nods to the 50s a la Phil Spector), was done very old school. Like the recent Dan Auerbach interview said, she recorded it nearly in a week or two with a session band. This was the norm for the era she seems to draw from the most -- Dylan, Cohen, Morrison, Joplin, etc. That's how they all did it. If you fucked up or weren't satisfied, well tough titties. Fix it up in production if you can otherwise, take the best comp you can. That kind of died out with ProTools/Cubase/Ableton/Logic that everyone uses now. It'd be interesting to hear about the recording process more. It seems Dan Auerbach would be into analog techniques, so she might record straight to reel. Anyway, I think we have to take that into consideration. This style lends to the vocals being lower in the mix too. I think the label is releasing these mixes with the vocals boosted to make it a bit more radio friendly. I think, even if this album flops commercially (and judging so far, it won't), she will get some more respect out of people who considered her not so legit before. So far so good. She's not blowing my mind that much with the lyrics (but she's keeping with the stuff I think we all like her for and not being too dumb so far) but the music is a definite risk. I respect that and it's hell of a lot more interesting that what similar pop stars have decided to do. Honestly, if she couldn't get a big name like Dan Auerbach to do this kind of music, I think the label would have shut her down. The Black Keys are one of the few big rock acts right now in a largely R&B/hip hop-dominated pop scene.

I like a lot of what Floppy Seal Pop said and he hit most of it on the head. That said, what little we've heard from Brooklyn Baby, it obviously doesn't touch what she' capable of. Aside from kind of dumb lyrics, I hope she doesn't just repeat the title of the song like we've seen so far in Brooklyn Baby and Ultraviolence. I think that's what put me off a bit about it. I like UV though, but I've heard that in its entirety of course.

Nothing on Sirens sounds like this and the unreleased stuff is such of a mixed bag of everything. This is 50s-by-way-of-70s "Blue Velvet" meets "Bel Air" or some other slow meandering song that I always skip. I like some of her slow songs but the "cinematic" thing can be hit-or-miss for me.

Meh not my kind of track. I feel like it would be good in the context of the album. The guitar solo/obscured vocals are nice and I like the ending. I can see how people would like this but it's really boring to me until the final 2 mins or so. I tend to skip these slower ones that pervade Paradise most of the time. It's an interesting choice for single, though. I think a shortened radio mix that keeps the guitar would be better for someone like me.

Yeah that's an aspect of the "cinematic" feel I guess. Maybe we'll get a loon.

Didn't we get a snippet with Black Beauty that had Spanish guitars a while ago and it was never confirmed fake? It would make sense. I don't think Kill Kill is on this album.

Edit: Looks good now

I think Florida Kilos still might be some variation on Hawaiian Tropic/EMGHS/Daytona Meth. I get a feeling that bonus tracks might be bonus tracks because they're 1) from other sessions outside of DA and/or 2) they use themes from or are songs that were leaked before. She's used that motif so many times, it's bound to be released in some capacity.

Wasn't it confirmed that it wasn't anything on UV?

We'll probably get a long build in especially since it's the intro track. I'm excited to hear the energy of the live takes. With the band there might be some more jamming going on in the songs too.

I posted this as a status, but I'm only a casual listener. I heard her previous albums and they were okay. I really like "Gunshot" but this album is exhausting to me. It's too much of the same stuff. Nothing is really bad on it but it's hard to listen to it fully in a sitting. I wish she'd vary up the vocals a bit. I think the reviews (at least the Pitchfork one) is really over-hyped. Ian Cohen is trash as it comes to reviewers anyway, but that's not to say it's bad. A lot of the album feels very Scandinavian Pop and that's it. I like that for the most part, but I don't see anything more special about it. I'm trying to keep an open mind, any insight on what I might be missing?

This album is so solid, easily the best thing I've heard this year even though I was into her before.