veniceglitch

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

Hi, I don't have much to add to this but I just wanted to compliment you on an incredibly insightful and intelligent post that articulates so much that I have felt about Lana that hadn't really coalesced properly in my mind. As a child of the 90s, and a fan of Fiona, Tori, Shirley etc, your post helps to put my affection for Lana in a context I hadn't considered before. Thanks! Beautiful writing.

Don't know if this "unpopular," but it is a series of opinions.

 

I remember reading a piece that spearheaded Lana’s importance: holding up the lonely torch of the female depressive in pop culture as a voice that deserves to be heard.

 

I agree with this. It's so easy to see her disaffected nature as a defect, but it's at the core of who she is and why she makes art to begin with. It's what gives her introspection, but also brings forth isolation.

 

Lana's perspective, from a 'marketability' and thematic angle, is one that would have made more sense in the mid 1990s. She would have kindred spirits in Garbage, Tori, Fiona, even Alanis. But in some ways, her perspective is even more needed now, because there is SUCH a lack of diversity in the females we hear from in pop culture, and the kinds of stories they tell. Shirley Manson of Garbage has pointed this out, fittingly enough. We need to hear from the miserable girl, the loser, the ones who don’t want to play nice, and maybe don’t even get out of bed some days. There’s always been a place for that girl in other media: literature, film, art. Music, especially pop music, doesn’t know what to do with this personality type. If it’s Kurt Cobain or Leonard Cohen (or any number of current male indie mini-gods), it’s tortured genius. If it’s a woman doing it, it’s pathetic, INDULGENT solipsism. How dare you be so lazy, inwardly focused and torpid when there are SOCIAL ISSUES to examine and crusade. That's the attitude Lana faces.

 

 We live in the age of the Totally Transparent, Fervently Disciplined, and Manicured Go-Getter. Taylor. Katy. Demi. Even Rihanna. They are corporate workhorses, THIRSTY for the fame, and more than ready to play and stay in the game. The personality type this workload requires is not for the delicate, sensitive, ambivalent type. They don’t look inward. They are fixated on the crowd. You see these same types in offices all over the world. Type A middle managers. They get shit done, might seem like “team players” (dictators in disguise), but they aren’t interesting and don’t offer a lot of innovation or insight into life, creativity, or much else. I’m sure the economic collapse of the past 10 years and the wreckage of the music industry has a lot to do with why this middle manager pop star archetype has prevailed. It’s sheer survivalism. 

 

The truth is the Lana of Born To Die, and that album itself, is an anomaly. It’s a character study in what it would be like to be a famous pop star. In philosophy, there’s an idea that to create a character, you have to lack what that character has for it to work (Homer vs Achilles is a classic example.) Lana was never a natural star by any means, but she’s clearly seen it as a way to transcend herself or try to another skin on. (“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde.) To parallel her to Britney, Lana never has had a pre-Blackout glory era. This is where I think some LDR fans get it wrong. BTD was not her Baby One More Time or Oops! or whatever. Even on BTD, she was a propped-up simulacrum of what a pop icon might be like. She represented the IDEA. It was NEVER natural. She was the weirdo philosophy major playing dress up as the cool girl, singing into her mirror. The fact that she found an audience is a small miracle, but her intuitive habitat is still dancing around, alone, with her headphones on, wondering what it would be like to be onstage. The actual stage is foreign to her, and almost besides the point. I bet when she’s up there, she imagines being alone.

 

Look at ALL her work before, and after, BTD. The work of an outsider dreaming her life away, imagining that fame could transform her, fulfill her, then finding nothing there. Even before she became famous, the lyrics suggest she already was aware of its empty promise (probably due to her study of doomed cult icons). If anything, what she’s doing now is getting back to her roots: turning her LACK of fulfillment into art, trying to make something tangible of a void within. It’s hard work, and clearly she’s not always up to making it a complete vision. To create and share art is an attempt to tell your story in the hopes of CONNECTING with people. But that’s where it stops for Lana. In solitude, she records her vision then hits “send.” Then she disengages, unable to sustain the ideal in real-time. Unable to fulfill the pop duties. Unable to deliver the big pay off, for herself, or for her fans. It’s like a surrealist film that cuts off in the ‘wrong’ moment, just to leave you on edge. How many times can you get away with it? We’ll be finding out.

 

And that’s another thing. I think Lana’s “failure” to rise the occasion affects certain fans personally. Not just because they want her to get a Top 10 and compete with the ‘normal’  pop stars. But because maybe they, too, are depressed and know too well what it means to not deliver, to not function optimally, to disappoint people. When you’re depressed, being able to complete ANYTHING can feel like an insurmountable challenge. If you’re blessed with the strange mix of being both ambitious AND prone to depression, you are constantly at war with yourself, which Lana seems to be. Sometimes she has the energy to fight through it and deliver us true magic. These are her little victories. Other times, she drowns in her own ennui and forgets everyone but herself. Some fed up fans say she doesn’t care, but I don’t believe this is true. I’m sure she’s in a state of frequent frustration, with the “world,” but more often, with herself.

 

Part of what drew me — and many others, I’m sure — to Lana’s work and persona was that she seemed malcontented, if not quite tormented. Life is too much, and not enough, for her. I remember that little-known Gwen Stefani lyric (“I sip on dreams and choke on real things.”) To me, that’s Lana constant M.O. She wants desperately to escape, to isolate, and to never work another day again (the ultimate sin of today’s life-hack-driven, entrepreneurial, “optimize yourself!” digital nomad climate). She never makes it clear what it IS, exactly, that would make her happy, because what she’s asking for is impossible. A LOT of people empathize with this ambivalence, despite the fact that this passive, me vs. the world view of reality is literally censored out of modern day music. You’re not supposed to complain! Things will get better if you live, laugh, and love! LDR will never live, laugh and love first-hand, but she’ll always wonder what that might feel like. And pine for it like its her to mourn.

 

Female depressives can sustain a career. It doesn’t have to end in a Sylvia Plath/Amy Winehouse tragedy. Shirley Manson and Fiona Apple are still going strong 20 years down the line, and in some ways, seem more connected and ‘healthy’ than ever, while still finding a way to channel their grievances through their art. They’ve evolved their artistry to a level that is undeniably iconic. They will never top the charts again, but that was never the point. They have huge cult followings that will always follow their next move. It’s a family. I’d love for Lana to have this in her 40s, too, but I believe at some point she’ll have to start making art as part of a conversation, not just a soliloquy, for this to happen. 

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

Having a Top10 album these days is not really an achievment. Many pop singers have one. Lana is a pop singer. She didn't sell 116k, she sold 105k, just by the way.
She has faded quite a bit though: From nearly 5.4 million to 1.4 million within 2.5 years is quite a lot and that has little to do with the current decline in sales in general. The decline does not explain 4 million copies less.
I have no problem with your opinion, beloved. I totally don't. You just don't hit the nail on the head.
Lana's decline in sales has nothing to do with the quality of the music either. She has topped BTD artistically with UV. With HM it's a bit difficult. While she is more confident as an artist right now, the actual outcome is not an exciting listen like her previous albums, so time will tell how it will rank in her discography when it is a bit older than a few weeks.
 
There is no reason to be defensive about Lana's commercial performance. Like, no reason at all. All recording artists have sales. That's what they do. They sell music. And the commercial performance also determines for how long the artist we love will be able to continue making their art, at least in the way she is doing it now.
We should all root for her to achieve more. We are her fans. Our job is to buy and stream her music if we want her to be around. I am pretty sure she was not really satisfied with the outcome this time around.
 
 
It's so ridic to even explain it every single time.

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

Don't know if this "unpopular," but it is a series of opinions.

 

I remember reading a piece that spearheaded Lana’s importance: holding up the lonely torch of the female depressive in pop culture as a voice that deserves to be heard.

 

I agree with this. It's so easy to see her disaffected nature as a defect, but it's at the core of who she is and why she makes art to begin with. It's what gives her introspection, but also brings forth isolation.

 

Lana's perspective, from a 'marketability' and thematic angle, is one that would have made more sense in the mid 1990s. She would have kindred spirits in Garbage, Tori, Fiona, even Alanis. But in some ways, her perspective is even more needed now, because there is SUCH a lack of diversity in the females we hear from in pop culture, and the kinds of stories they tell. Shirley Manson of Garbage has pointed this out, fittingly enough. We need to hear from the miserable girl, the loser, the ones who don’t want to play nice, and maybe don’t even get out of bed some days. There’s always been a place for that girl in other media: literature, film, art. Music, especially pop music, doesn’t know what to do with this personality type. If it’s Kurt Cobain or Leonard Cohen (or any number of current male indie mini-gods), it’s tortured genius. If it’s a woman doing it, it’s pathetic, INDULGENT solipsism. How dare you be so lazy, inwardly focused and torpid when there are SOCIAL ISSUES to examine and crusade. That's the attitude Lana faces.

 

 We live in the age of the Totally Transparent, Fervently Disciplined, and Manicured Go-Getter. Taylor. Katy. Demi. Even Rihanna. They are corporate workhorses, THIRSTY for the fame, and more than ready to play and stay in the game. The personality type this workload requires is not for the delicate, sensitive, ambivalent type. They don’t look inward. They are fixated on the crowd. You see these same types in offices all over the world. Type A middle managers. They get shit done, might seem like “team players” (dictators in disguise), but they aren’t interesting and don’t offer a lot of innovation or insight into life, creativity, or much else. I’m sure the economic collapse of the past 10 years and the wreckage of the music industry has a lot to do with why this middle manager pop star archetype has prevailed. It’s sheer survivalism. 

 

The truth is the Lana of Born To Die, and that album itself, is an anomaly. It’s a character study in what it would be like to be a famous pop star. In philosophy, there’s an idea that to create a character, you have to lack what that character has for it to work (Homer vs Achilles is a classic example.) Lana was never a natural star by any means, but she’s clearly seen it as a way to transcend herself or try to another skin on. (“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde.) To parallel her to Britney, Lana never has had a pre-Blackout glory era. This is where I think some LDR fans get it wrong. BTD was not her Baby One More Time or Oops! or whatever. Even on BTD, she was a propped-up simulacrum of what a pop icon might be like. She represented the IDEA. It was NEVER natural. She was the weirdo philosophy major playing dress up as the cool girl, singing into her mirror. The fact that she found an audience is a small miracle, but her intuitive habitat is still dancing around, alone, with her headphones on, wondering what it would be like to be onstage. The actual stage is foreign to her, and almost besides the point. I bet when she’s up there, she imagines being alone.

 

Look at ALL her work before, and after, BTD. The work of an outsider dreaming her life away, imagining that fame could transform her, fulfill her, then finding nothing there. Even before she became famous, the lyrics suggest she already was aware of its empty promise (probably due to her study of doomed cult icons). If anything, what she’s doing now is getting back to her roots: turning her LACK of fulfillment into art, trying to make something tangible of a void within. It’s hard work, and clearly she’s not always up to making it a complete vision. To create and share art is an attempt to tell your story in the hopes of CONNECTING with people. But that’s where it stops for Lana. In solitude, she records her vision then hits “send.” Then she disengages, unable to sustain the ideal in real-time. Unable to fulfill the pop duties. Unable to deliver the big pay off, for herself, or for her fans. It’s like a surrealist film that cuts off in the ‘wrong’ moment, just to leave you on edge. How many times can you get away with it? We’ll be finding out.

 

And that’s another thing. I think Lana’s “failure” to rise the occasion affects certain fans personally. Not just because they want her to get a Top 10 and compete with the ‘normal’  pop stars. But because maybe they, too, are depressed and know too well what it means to not deliver, to not function optimally, to disappoint people. When you’re depressed, being able to complete ANYTHING can feel like an insurmountable challenge. If you’re blessed with the strange mix of being both ambitious AND prone to depression, you are constantly at war with yourself, which Lana seems to be. Sometimes she has the energy to fight through it and deliver us true magic. These are her little victories. Other times, she drowns in her own ennui and forgets everyone but herself. Some fed up fans say she doesn’t care, but I don’t believe this is true. I’m sure she’s in a state of frequent frustration, with the “world,” but more often, with herself.

 

Part of what drew me — and many others, I’m sure — to Lana’s work and persona was that she seemed malcontented, if not quite tormented. Life is too much, and not enough, for her. I remember that little-known Gwen Stefani lyric (“I sip on dreams and choke on real things.”) To me, that’s Lana constant M.O. She wants desperately to escape, to isolate, and to never work another day again (the ultimate sin of today’s life-hack-driven, entrepreneurial, “optimize yourself!” digital nomad climate). She never makes it clear what it IS, exactly, that would make her happy, because what she’s asking for is impossible. A LOT of people empathize with this ambivalence, despite the fact that this passive, me vs. the world view of reality is literally censored out of modern day music. You’re not supposed to complain! Things will get better if you live, laugh, and love! LDR will never live, laugh and love first-hand, but she’ll always wonder what that might feel like. And pine for it like its her to mourn.

 

Female depressives can sustain a career. It doesn’t have to end in a Sylvia Plath/Amy Winehouse tragedy. Shirley Manson and Fiona Apple are still going strong 20 years down the line, and in some ways, seem more connected and ‘healthy’ than ever, while still finding a way to channel their grievances through their art. They’ve evolved their artistry to a level that is undeniably iconic. They will never top the charts again, but that was never the point. They have huge cult followings that will always follow their next move. It’s a family. I’d love for Lana to have this in her 40s, too, but I believe at some point she’ll have to start making art as part of a conversation, not just a soliloquy, for this to happen. 

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

I agree with the general consensus that she needs to challenge herself. As much as I admire her work and connect to her viewpoint more than most artists right now, there's something missing in her work ethic as an artist. Doesn't she want to grow? Learn a new instrument, try playing with new forms/elements of expression? Explore a new way of writing or singing? Learning to produce? Where's her hunger? It's like she's paralyzed in a very specific, very evocative spot creatively. She can go 'deeper and deeper' but she can't move PAST it. It feels like compulsion. It can be beautiful and compelling and euphoric when she gets it right, but I'm starting to wonder, like others, where it can go from here. Surely, this is some sort of finale.
 
For someone who has traveled much of the globe, she acts like no place exists but LA. For someone who claims to be a writer first, I sense no drive to push herself further, to become more nuanced, imaginative, precise. For someone who seems, at heart, mainly preoccupied with existential ponderings, she refuses to offer us a true peak into her intellect. She'd rather link to a famous philosopher's video than share her own opinion. Similar thoughts on why she covers Nina Simone and quotes TS Eliot on record — to add a weight her own work cannot provide yet.  For awhile, that evasion felt like mystique, now it's beginning to reek a bit of fear. She's managed to create a pseudo-reality for herself where she gets to play the frigid icon who never explains, but she's painted herself into corner, one where she cannot let loose and experiment and fuck up and be FREE. She professes her love of being WILD and FREE,  but she seems quite conservative and inhibited at the end of the day. I mean, the fact that she hates Thai food (and also "spicy and exotic" food) actually says a lot about her tolerance for 'openness to new experiences'. I maintain the belief that she's actually closer to Little Edie of Grey Gardens than Marilyn Monroe — a grandiose recluse. And that is fascinating. But there's many ways to create haunting art that deviates from the themes she's already worn thin. I'd like to see her explore her devout solipsism a new way. Or even better, let go of it, connect with the real world and join humanity. At some point, the bubble needs to burst.
 
Maybe she SHOULD start by traveling somewhere new. If she were in Seoul or Tokyo or Cairo, would she just shut her eyes to the present moment? Has anything new inspired her since she first started making music? She prides herself on 'always being inspired by the same few things,' but either her relationship to those things needs to change, or the actual content does. As beautiful and intriguing as Honeymoon is, it is safer than Ultraviolence, where she tried on new sounds, moods, perspectives, eras of living. Honeymoon all feels like a daydream of youth and romance long dead and gone. I'm okay with that, if it really IS the "swan song" for the Haunted Hollywood LDR. It's hard to tell where Lana's head is at now. On one level, she seems to be getting more metaphysical, on another, she seems to want to stick to shallow tropes. It's almost like she's afraid to show how smart she actually is. There's some vanity vs. intelligence schism within her that I've never understood, but seems to hold her back. It's always sad when women dumb themselves down, and the reasons are always rooted in fear of rejection.
 
TL;DR:
I get that she's aiming to be an Auteur, therefore consistent in her themes, but I mean, even Woody Allen eventually ventured outside of the neurotic tics of the Upper West Side....

What I really like about UV is how she took every single of the criticism she received and instead of denying them she incorporated in her music. People complained about anti-feminist lyrics? She wrote a song with the line "you hit it me and it felt like a kiss"; there were rumors about fucking her way up to the top? She wrote a song Fucked My Way Up to the top; some fail blogger wrote she changed just to be famous and get money? She did Money Power Glory. This album is full of irony and anger. When it comes to her lyrics I think it's pretty clear that she abandoned the unrealistic romantic persona of the "lucky one" to be "the other woman". A lot of her lyrics play into the idea of her being the mistress on this guy life and it's a more realistic take on romance and love than anything on BTD. As a whole I can see more ambition on UV than anything on HM.

I agree a lot with this. I feel like Lana is really staying in an artistic "safe zone" and that's part of the reason why she won't perform on TV or anything. We know she hustled back when she went under Lizzy Grant, performing everywhere, and I think she's said that she sees herself as a singer. But... singers sing. It's disappointing that she seems unwilling to perform or promote a lot of her new material.
 
Lyrically, she continues to write awkward lyrics that circle around similar themes. I wrote once that Honeymoon feels like a parody of an LDR song, and while I have since warmed greatly to the song, the lyrics still feel like someone went through a checklist of Lana references. Being misunderstood? Unusual sexual metaphor? Ill-advised mention of violence? Loving a bad boy? It's like those "Lana Del Rey song title generators" that were popular in the year following Born To Die's release. While I think Lana revisiting certain themes makes her stand out among her contemporaries (we wouldn't have Lanalysis if she didn't have such revered items as diet mountain dew, the chateau marmont, or pink flamingos), it's really easy for it to feel like a retread as opposed to a thread tying her world together.
 
Musically, she continues to show a knack for great melodies. But production-wise, she gets a little monotonous. I like Honeymoon, but I tend to skip the songs after a certain point. When 24 actually starts sounding like the Bond theme it was meant to be, it's great, but the build-up to that part of the song is excruciatingly slow. I literally forget Religion is on the tracklist every time I listen to the album. Similarly, I don't remember how the verses of Art Deco go. God Knows I Tried is a beautiful song, but someone should have told her "okay, stop here." Having the equivalent of a musical editor isn't "compromising your vision." Art doesn't have to be a one-man process. On a positive note, the bridge of TLY is probably one of my favorite musical+lyrical moments in her entire discography, and the best one on Honeymoon. I get chills listening to it every single time.  
 
Visually, I haven't really cared for her official music videos much in general. I like her homemade videos because they're so innocent and direct. It's the closest you can get to having a visual representation of what Lana pictured when she made that song. I wish she would bring that lo-fi but intimate quality back. I mean, she's rich, she can probably afford to clear the rights for her clips and have better quality shots of her, so it doesn't need to be some 240p artifact-ridden mess. It was so unique; none of her contemporaries have done anything like that, to my knowledge.
 
Honestly, if I'm frustrated with Lana, it's because I feel she could be doing so much better. We know from her unreleased catalog that she's an incredibly flexible artist. Her voice sounds unique no matter what her range is. Yet I feel like with all her released bodies of work, there's something holding them back. Too self-indulgent at times? Some poor song choices? Lazy lyrics weighing down otherwise beautiful songs? I have a hard time explaining what it is. But I just really want Lana to deliver that album that's going to be (almost) universally recognized as an enduring body of work. Her "Dark Side of the Moon," if you will (no, that's not my favorite Floyd album, but it's a solid one and that's undeniable). If sales are anything to go by, BTD is the closest she's come to that - it's the album that refuses to die. I love Lana so much, I want the best for her artistically and commercially (and any word that ends with a -ly) but I feel like she's holding herself back and I don't know why. Is she afraid of her potential? Afraid of success? Afraid of being the object of the internet's scorn again?
 
I'm certain that everyone else here who has expressed disappointment at Lana's artistic/commercial choices feels the same way I do - we feel Lana isn't doing her best or not getting the recognition she deserves; we just all have different ideas on what the ideal is or how to achieve it.
 
I'm gonna go listen to Honeymoon now because for all the flaws I've listed, it's still one of my favorite albums of 2015.

I think you're letting your investment in commercial success cloud your enjoyment (and to a certain degree, opinion) of her output. A lot of this smacks of being really attached to other people's opinions and characterizations of Lana instead of your own. Which is unfortuante but I notice that a lot of fanbases get caught up in this way of thinking. Most grow out of it eventually and just relax. Living vicariously through pop stars is a bit pathetic but I realize it's a phase.
 
I saw someone make a comparison of Lana and Bjork awhile ago. They're completely different artists, and Bjork is far less polarizing and controversial, but her trajectory was very similar. She started relatively strong considering the material she was putting out. She had a shtick and never veered from it. Her albums are all markedly different, but still rooted in the same world (the alien experimental art world). She's still a household name, but doesn't sell albums and hasn't been a commercially viable artist since the late 90s. Yet critics fall head over heels for her and she still has a very solid fanbase. I see Lana going this route.
 
Lana's refusal to succumb to commercial/mainstream demands the way say, The Weeknd  has (arguably her most perfectly matched contemporary) is not somethign to shit on just because you're not happy she's not doing 2012 numbers. You should applaud her for settling into her vision confidently, for not doing things she doesn't want to do (television and interviews), and for being true to herself overall. I guarantee you that if she felt forced to be or do things she wasn't interested in, she'd unravel, like anyone would.
 
I understand the artistic frustrations you have, with lyrics or videos or whatever, but you're going to have to accept that you're in the minority since she's getting the best reviews of her career and despite the bare-bones budget, the last two videos have gotten a great reception too (and this is coming from someone who agrees that the videos have gotten a little unimaginative, but I can still find things to admire about them on a technical level).

Don't know if this "unpopular," but it is a series of opinions.

 

I remember reading a piece that spearheaded Lana’s importance: holding up the lonely torch of the female depressive in pop culture as a voice that deserves to be heard.

 

I agree with this. It's so easy to see her disaffected nature as a defect, but it's at the core of who she is and why she makes art to begin with. It's what gives her introspection, but also brings forth isolation.

 

Lana's perspective, from a 'marketability' and thematic angle, is one that would have made more sense in the mid 1990s. She would have kindred spirits in Garbage, Tori, Fiona, even Alanis. But in some ways, her perspective is even more needed now, because there is SUCH a lack of diversity in the females we hear from in pop culture, and the kinds of stories they tell. Shirley Manson of Garbage has pointed this out, fittingly enough. We need to hear from the miserable girl, the loser, the ones who don’t want to play nice, and maybe don’t even get out of bed some days. There’s always been a place for that girl in other media: literature, film, art. Music, especially pop music, doesn’t know what to do with this personality type. If it’s Kurt Cobain or Leonard Cohen (or any number of current male indie mini-gods), it’s tortured genius. If it’s a woman doing it, it’s pathetic, INDULGENT solipsism. How dare you be so lazy, inwardly focused and torpid when there are SOCIAL ISSUES to examine and crusade. That's the attitude Lana faces.

 

 We live in the age of the Totally Transparent, Fervently Disciplined, and Manicured Go-Getter. Taylor. Katy. Demi. Even Rihanna. They are corporate workhorses, THIRSTY for the fame, and more than ready to play and stay in the game. The personality type this workload requires is not for the delicate, sensitive, ambivalent type. They don’t look inward. They are fixated on the crowd. You see these same types in offices all over the world. Type A middle managers. They get shit done, might seem like “team players” (dictators in disguise), but they aren’t interesting and don’t offer a lot of innovation or insight into life, creativity, or much else. I’m sure the economic collapse of the past 10 years and the wreckage of the music industry has a lot to do with why this middle manager pop star archetype has prevailed. It’s sheer survivalism. 

 

The truth is the Lana of Born To Die, and that album itself, is an anomaly. It’s a character study in what it would be like to be a famous pop star. In philosophy, there’s an idea that to create a character, you have to lack what that character has for it to work (Homer vs Achilles is a classic example.) Lana was never a natural star by any means, but she’s clearly seen it as a way to transcend herself or try to another skin on. (“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde.) To parallel her to Britney, Lana never has had a pre-Blackout glory era. This is where I think some LDR fans get it wrong. BTD was not her Baby One More Time or Oops! or whatever. Even on BTD, she was a propped-up simulacrum of what a pop icon might be like. She represented the IDEA. It was NEVER natural. She was the weirdo philosophy major playing dress up as the cool girl, singing into her mirror. The fact that she found an audience is a small miracle, but her intuitive habitat is still dancing around, alone, with her headphones on, wondering what it would be like to be onstage. The actual stage is foreign to her, and almost besides the point. I bet when she’s up there, she imagines being alone.

 

Look at ALL her work before, and after, BTD. The work of an outsider dreaming her life away, imagining that fame could transform her, fulfill her, then finding nothing there. Even before she became famous, the lyrics suggest she already was aware of its empty promise (probably due to her study of doomed cult icons). If anything, what she’s doing now is getting back to her roots: turning her LACK of fulfillment into art, trying to make something tangible of a void within. It’s hard work, and clearly she’s not always up to making it a complete vision. To create and share art is an attempt to tell your story in the hopes of CONNECTING with people. But that’s where it stops for Lana. In solitude, she records her vision then hits “send.” Then she disengages, unable to sustain the ideal in real-time. Unable to fulfill the pop duties. Unable to deliver the big pay off, for herself, or for her fans. It’s like a surrealist film that cuts off in the ‘wrong’ moment, just to leave you on edge. How many times can you get away with it? We’ll be finding out.

 

And that’s another thing. I think Lana’s “failure” to rise the occasion affects certain fans personally. Not just because they want her to get a Top 10 and compete with the ‘normal’  pop stars. But because maybe they, too, are depressed and know too well what it means to not deliver, to not function optimally, to disappoint people. When you’re depressed, being able to complete ANYTHING can feel like an insurmountable challenge. If you’re blessed with the strange mix of being both ambitious AND prone to depression, you are constantly at war with yourself, which Lana seems to be. Sometimes she has the energy to fight through it and deliver us true magic. These are her little victories. Other times, she drowns in her own ennui and forgets everyone but herself. Some fed up fans say she doesn’t care, but I don’t believe this is true. I’m sure she’s in a state of frequent frustration, with the “world,” but more often, with herself.

 

Part of what drew me — and many others, I’m sure — to Lana’s work and persona was that she seemed malcontented, if not quite tormented. Life is too much, and not enough, for her. I remember that little-known Gwen Stefani lyric (“I sip on dreams and choke on real things.”) To me, that’s Lana constant M.O. She wants desperately to escape, to isolate, and to never work another day again (the ultimate sin of today’s life-hack-driven, entrepreneurial, “optimize yourself!” digital nomad climate). She never makes it clear what it IS, exactly, that would make her happy, because what she’s asking for is impossible. A LOT of people empathize with this ambivalence, despite the fact that this passive, me vs. the world view of reality is literally censored out of modern day music. You’re not supposed to complain! Things will get better if you live, laugh, and love! LDR will never live, laugh and love first-hand, but she’ll always wonder what that might feel like. And pine for it like its her to mourn.

 

Female depressives can sustain a career. It doesn’t have to end in a Sylvia Plath/Amy Winehouse tragedy. Shirley Manson and Fiona Apple are still going strong 20 years down the line, and in some ways, seem more connected and ‘healthy’ than ever, while still finding a way to channel their grievances through their art. They’ve evolved their artistry to a level that is undeniably iconic. They will never top the charts again, but that was never the point. They have huge cult followings that will always follow their next move. It’s a family. I’d love for Lana to have this in her 40s, too, but I believe at some point she’ll have to start making art as part of a conversation, not just a soliloquy, for this to happen.