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Yeah I agree, I'm not saying that she's completely free of any blame or criticism but I've always found the very aggressive way that people talk about her and her creative output or recent lack of artistry or whatever you want to call it, a little uncomfortable given how open she's been about unknowingly struggling with CFS for years and the plethora of other glaring issues in her personal life. After thinking about it more, IIRC the contract/label theory was about both L+F and ADIAML. L+F was marketed as a "Double-LP" to try and fulfill the (alleged) remaining two albums on her contract, but I guess that didn’t fully satisfy the label, which is why she quickly followed up with ADIAML, which like you said makes a lot of sense. I also remember some of the "insiders" alleging that the reason some of the better outtakes were scrapped was because Jesse St. John, who was credited a lot of them, was accused of sexual misconduct. L+F was such a cursed era particularly behind the scenes and I would really love to know what her original vision for the album was, especially with all the leaked "Aquamarina" visuals.

A lot of people like to blame Marina's psychology courses and her just not having the creative juice anymore for how mediocre L+F and while I'm sure those were contributing factors in some way or another, I personally blame Jack. Even when you ignore the implied issues in their relationship and how they likely affected her personally and creatively, the fact that L+F was the album that she worked on with and centered around Jack-- yet it turned out to be her weakest project with a clear decline in artistry-- suggests to me that he was a major obstacle for her creatively, especially since her music has been improving after their breakup. Also this could easily just have been fan coping, but I swear there were rumors going around about L+F being rushed to fulfill commitments to her label and contract, and that was in part why it was pushed with so heavily with the "double" album concept.

Her website has been updated with a tour section-- wondering if we might be getting an album announcement on Friday. Also, I've been thinking that the Metallic Stallion snippet is the same song as the leaked American Dream snippet. The production is similar and part of the MS lyrics show up in the American Dream snippet.

I'm gonna guess this was likely it-- IIRC she ran into the fan at the grocery store on the 15th and her hair then was definitely lighter/a different tone, so she must've had it done after that. I'm curious to see what the timeline of this album looks like from a bts/production standpoint once it's out. Also interesting that if this speculation is correct this was put together very recently.

She always seems to lead with a slower, simpler single so I'm not sure why he's so surprised by this lol

Glad to see that she's working with Neil Krug again! Has anyone able to guesstimate when this photoshoot may have been done based on her hair color? Because I was thinking about how her hair seems much darker there than it did in the grocery store sighting picture.

I know a lot of people didn’t like Butterfly, but it must have resonated with the general public. With around 7 million streams, it’s her biggest single by first-month streams, surpassing Venus Fly Trap by about 2 million. Curious to see how Cupid's Girl fares.

I don't really mind the sound effects either (so far) but it does give me war flashbacks to the children cheering stock sound effect in Life in Strange

Why do the Cupid's Girl lyrics lowkey read like they're about pegging... Unrelated, but I'm excited for the album cover reveal because I'm curious about what the theme or vibe for the visuals will be this era- the single covers have a little simple textured-scrapbooky vibe but her looks/music visuals have been fairly colorful and dramatic.

Yeah, personally, based on the IG snippet and the lyrical rhyme scheme/themes I think they're the same song. The instrumental tracks shown in the IG clip makes me think the "keep it sweet and sour" is likely the intro to or some kind of break in Princess of Power- The wiki has snippets separated unless lyrics/instrumentals overlap or it's officially confirmed in some way so atp the separate pages don't necessarily confirm that it's a different song. Unless it's another bitch/witch moment like on ADIAML, I also just don't see her reusing such a specific motif and scheme over multiple songs.

More likely that he doubles down and Lana finally releases her cover of Stand By Your Man (but if that's what it takes to have that on streaming...)

It's not 100% but based on one of the leaked snippets and her writing/usage of rhyme schemes I'm pretty certain they're the same songs. I could definitely see her dropping it in April and doing some kind of campy song related April flowers promo similar to what she did for Butterfly.

That makes sense. It's most likely going to be title track/third single & album announcement together like with ADIAML. I'd personally guess we'll get the announcement and single sometime in April with a late May/early June album release, she loves her late spring/early summer releases and that fits with her drop schedule so far. Especially if the album is titled "Princess of Power" as it's rumored to be bc iirc based on the leaked snippets that's the song with the line about "sweet sour/April showers"

I believe she said that something was coming during Aquarius season, not the album specifically and I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be Butterfly but it got delayed and released a little later bc of the wildfires in LA - The way that this is lowkey the most positive this thread has been during a single's release in years... Diamonds we're finally on our way out of the trenches...

I agree, sometimes I think about how there's a couple of songs/lyrics in her earlier discography that if she had released them now she'd get dragged for being cringe and a bad writer. But in all honesty, while I don't think she's the greatest writer, I do think she gets judged on a bit of a curve because people seem to over-nostalgize and romanticize her older work. Like I don't particularly care for L+F but in the grand scheme of pop music they're generally decent and digestible songs, mediocre sure, but not unlistenable trash in the way that a lot of people like to act like they are.

Oops, I didn't mean to imply that something nefarious was happening. I was also thinking along the lines of her shifting focus to her relationships and possibly considering changing how she approaches her career and art. She's always sounded very one-track minded and focused on creating her music even in "off-season" in the past so it would not surprise me if a lot of the lack of activity is either her deciding to reprioritize or even just trying to figure out how to balance her career and marriage

I tend to not believe blind items because the majority of them tend to be false or just speculation passed as truth. However, given how dead this pre-release has been and the lack of activity I do kind of wonder if their relationship is impacting the album/her career in some way.

One sneak... IMO True is literally one of the worst songs on the album next to Orange Trees which at least has a cute bridge moment lol.

That's true. Since they haven't really said anything I wonder if it's just a visual a la Superstar and the L+F acoustics and the next MV is being saved for the title track. I'm also kinda hoping that she'll do an album trailer for this era, seems like it could work well since she's mentioned the album being more character driven and conceptual.

Actually unless there is no video and it was just a promo shoot with some clips done for the music streaming platforms?

Is she going to announce the Cupid's Girl MV? I'm assuming it drops with the single tomorrow around noon like Butterfly did but the only reference to the MV so far seems to be the promo stills and the BTS clip she posted awhile ago.

She's collaborated with Kacey before for her Christmas special so I feel like there's a decent chance that if there's any features on the album it could be her. Zella Day has also recently been doing some classic 60s-70s country as Chaparelle and has an album coming out in April so I'm curious if there's any crossover there.

I completely agree. I love europop too and one of the first things I thought when she dropped the song was that the production sounded like the baby of Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head and ATC's Around The World.

Apparently Cupid's Girl samples the instrumentals from her Aspartame and Eat the World audio-visuals. I have no plans to listen to Eat the World but I am curious if it has any other easter eggs for M6 that will turn up once the album's out.

My potentially controversial thought on the unending Jack production discourse is that the issue isn't Jack, it's Lana. I've listened to a lot of the other stuff the Jack has worked on and he has a decently diverse sound and style. I've noticed in a lot of interviews where artists talk about working with Jack they all sort of say the same thing, how they're super comfortable working with him and that he's basically a kind of conduit for their ideas or a chameleon who brings their ideas to life, or something to that degree (a really talented yes-man is my reading of it). So ultimately, I think that the "lackluster" production on some of her more recent albums is a result of Lana as opposed to Jack not being able to do anything else as most people like to claim. That said, I do agree that she could potentially benefit from working with another producer or at least bringing on another producer to help push her out of her comfort zone and try something a little different.