necessary sacrifice

I knew Lana was gonna get AOTY nom this round. It was one of the most critically acclaimed albums this year, so the nomination was pretty much guaranteed. Will she win? Who knows, but I think she will. Kacey won last year and all I saw all over social media was how she had no chance and how Drake was gonna win, maybe Janelle, but definitely not Kacey. Everyone said Kacey’s album wasn’t mainstream enough. But it was very critically acclaimed. Lana’s album is similar in that sense. Yeah, Ariana might win, but I already think Lana will win. I still hope she doesn’t show up. The Grammys snubbed her for too long and she shouldn’t go to prove a point. But she will go and she’ll probably have a darling vintage gown again and I’ll forget I wanted her to skip it.

I always hope for Lana to get nominated for a Grammy just for the principle of it, but for the most part, the Grammys suck. This year it does seem like she’ll be nominated and may even win, based on her critical acclaim this time around. BUT since she almost has the win in the bag (it’s the most critically acclaimed album this year), I really don’t want her to attend. They snubbed her all these years because they didn’t take her seriously, so she should snub them right back like “oh I won? Who cares.” Even better, I’d love for her to skip the Grammys then post videos on insta of her having fun with her friends instead. The Grammys don’t deserve her, so if she finally gets her big win, I want her to show them she’s never needed their bullshit awards.

I’m getting sensual piano ballad vibes. The title makes me think of Carole King’s You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman, so I’ve been imagining it as a similar type of song.

I’m so excited for this. My brother gave me access to his amazon prime like days before I first heard this news so it’s like fate. I really like Kacey and her xmas album is one of our top 3 xmas albums spinning throughout this season. Even without Lana, I’d be psyched for this, but with Lana, I’m just head over heels. I’m so excited. I’m also excited that Zooey Deschanel is appearing too. This is like the perfect combination for me. The only thing that would make it better is if Brian Wilson has been on it too. I hope she releases a soundtrack to it. I bet it’d become our most played xmas album just because of Lana’s involvement. I trust it’ll be kitschy and fun like old Christmas variety show specials too, so I really hope it’s as good as it looks like it’ll be. Even if it’s not that great, at least I’ll get to see Lana and Kacey singing together. I need something heartwarming like that.

The fact that Lana’s been bringing out so many smaller artists, specifically ones that play their own instruments too, makes me wonder if she’s also networking to form bonds with more musicians who can help her create whatever she’s going for. She did say what she loved so much about Jack was all the instruments he plays. Imagine how unlimited her musical possibilities would be with a whole posse of multi-instrumentalists by her side. I kind of expect at least a couple of the people she’s invited to perform with her this tour to end up on WHF (or is it just LDR8 now?), whether as actual duets or just as session musicians and harmonies. It would be cool if she got a bunch of smaller musicians in the studio with her to do their own thing on her songs. Even just inviting Zella and Weyes to harmonize with her throughout the album would be magical. Ugh I know it’s unlikely, but imagine she recruited all female indie musicians to make up a backing band for her next album. She did say she’d love to have sort of a band (it would be extra cool though if it was all under appreciated and overly talented women). In general, I like the idea of her highlighting smaller artists in this tour and I’d love for her to give them even small roles on her next album if not full on duets. If not this album, maybe the next one.

I love Summertime Sadness. I didn’t even know about the remix til a few years ago because I’m a hermit so it didn’t ruin the song for me. Tbh I think it has one of the most dynamic instrumentals on Born to Die and it’s a fun/sad song with poetic lyrics and a nice bridge. Nothing to hate here. I do think fans are too hard on this song because it’s so popular. The music video is really cute too and fills me with so much nostalgia when I watch it.

My husband used to think she was saying “hotdogs in the summer” in Summer Bummer and now we just refer to it as “the hotdog song” to each other lol.

I meant about rolling her eyes. I don’t think she was rolling her eyes at everyone. It seemed connected to the interaction about TLY. But idk I wasn’t there.

As much as I love love love Venice Bitch, I think over time my favourite has become The Greatest. I love how the song is set up with the guitar solo before the second verse then ending with a piano solo. It’s different, you don’t see that a lot. Reminds me of Rhiannon a bit that way. And somehow The Greatest also is like one of the most versatile songs. I feel like every single time I’ve listened to it, I’ve been in the type of mood to relate but always in different ways. I think How to Disappear is my other favourite too. I’ve talked it up so much though that I don’t think it’s necessary to list everything I love about it (it’s probably annoying for everyone to read again).

Most likely she was just looking for requests for songs off the new record. She was probably just annoyed the request was for an older song. I wouldn’t take it all too seriously.

If you don’t like the full dynamic, organic soundscape, you should compress it and lower the quality, not try to improve it. That’s the problem, the quality is too high so you hear more extra sounds that don’t make it through on a lower quality. Use a flac converter and turn the flac files into mp3 or wma files (or just get the pink vinyl). Yeah, compressing it makes it kinda tinny and flat, but it’s slicker and loses the “mistakes” left in. It’ll sound more comparable to Born to Die or Paradise that way. As an audiophile, I personally prefer the more dynamic sound we got since you can almost hear right into the room. But I know this soundscape isn’t popular with everyone, and creating the illusion of being more polished and synthetic can be achieved by compressing it. It won’t sound perfect, but if you enjoy the songs and just don’t like the style of production, that’s the easiest fix. If you just don’t like the songs though, I don’t have any solutions yet. But I’m a big believer that there’s a solution for everything.

If your copy of NFR sounds “tinny”, try the digital version on good headphones or get the standard black vinyl. They sound full and dynamic. But even the UO vinyl of NFR isn’t half as tinny as the UO vinyl of HM. I can’t vouch for the CD, but if it sounds that tinny, try a different format. You don’t have to give up, there’s a version for everyone. The standard black vinyl sounds very dynamic and organic and if you close your eyes, it will feel like Lana’s right in the room with you. I recommend this format if you want a full and raw sound.

She has completely different facial expressions and angles though in the 2012 and 2017 pics, so it’s a terrible comparison. You’re just looking for changes to suit your theory. My own face looks different in pictures from 5 years ago too because of angles and facial expressions and I can promise you I can’t afford to change it. Also weirdly as I get older or my weight fluctuates or I do my make up differently, my face looks slightly different, but that can’t be the case with Lana apparently? Find 2012 and 2017 pics where she has the same facial expression and camera angle if you want a fair comparison.

This is so so cute! Sometimes I wish I had a more modest collection so I could do a cute set up on display like this. It’s really classy. Which records do you take down and spin the most?

Back to the lighter side, what song(s) on the album did you initially not listen to much or not really care for that you find yourself listening to a lot more now?

Pin Up Galore vs Gramma

Fordham Road vs Blizzard

I don’t think I’m part of a select few who get it. Honestly I assumed everyone got the references because they’ve always been random and obvious. If you noticed the references before, then I don’t get the issue with them now. But who cares, if you don’t like it, I’m not here to change your mind.

Yayo (aka) vs Happiness is a Butterfly

She references other lyrics and artists on literally every single album of hers. Maybe you didn’t catch them all, but this isn’t something exclusive to NFR. I wonder how many of you would find her music altogether cringey if you noticed more of her references. At this point, the references are part of that relatable spark in her words. References have always been woven into her artistry. But I understand how it can be a rude awakening to notice them now if you haven’t noticed them before. But they’re there.

Yeah it’s probably not an actual astrology concept album. Obviously there will still be some fans who call her a liar when they see it’s not an album all about astrology though. But just like how LFL was full of unnoticed witchy elements but wasn’t an actual concept album all about witches (which some people still seem to think she meant), WHF might be like that with astrology. But luckily astrology is mostly just about behaviour and personality traits, so it seems like an easy place to start to grow into an album more or less about human nature and emotions and personal growth. It’s like a vaguest thing to work off of, so I wouldn’t be worried about it being about the actual zodiac at all. She seems to just work off fairly open ideas instead of focusing on specific themes.

I really hope the whole astrology thing does translate into each song being kind of the mood of each sun sign. If she did it that way, do you think she’d open with the Aries song and close with the Pisces song like the zodiac signs go or do you think she’d start with Aquarius and end with Capricorn to follow more of a standard calendar year? I think the proper way, starting with Aries and ending with Pisces would create more of a dramatic structure and make each disc/side almost mirror each other. I think the concept of each song representing a different sign would just be so interesting.

Why is anyone surprised that the album could come out in 2021? We pretty much already knew that. It’s like we already figured she would either keep the name or change it. If anything, everyone should be more at ease because Lana’s being honest and realistic about her process. Also after actually reading the interview, I don’t think the album will be explicitly “astrology themed”. It’ll probably just have subtle references to astrological themes/ideas throughout the lyrics, similar to how LFL had those subtle witchcraft references. And I don’t think it’s worrying that she only has a few songs recorded. She’s probably already written or partially written some more as well. She said they’re lucky if they finish one song a month, so we’re still on schedule. Remember we JUST got Norman Fucking Rockwell less than 2 months ago. She hadn’t even started NFR this soon after LFL came out. Lana’s on a creative spurt right now, so things are looking bright.