daphnedinkley

California is a great song but i wished it had more of a climax and added bigger production for the chorus, they could've added some really crazy guitars or something to match the vocals. It comes off almost demo like

 

I think this is exactly my problem with the track and why I can't love it like everyone else does - the messy raw vocal could work, but the song needs more of a grunge vibe to really pull it off and make the song special, and like you said with the crazy guitars that could've given an UV-esque vibe.

Norman fucking Rockwell - 21

So I think I've figured out my ranking finally! Though I'm sure it'll change soon enough.

 

edit: nvm I started typing it out and I still can't fkn decide     

Norman fucking Rockwell - 21

I dont even know the exact words

 

you're in Ireland?

 

 

I think its "you're in the yard, I light the fire"!

Boy oh boy do I have a response to this topic   Since this will probably be quite long I'll try to format it appropriately and not just have it as a huge wall of text!

 

Oh Say Can You See

I know the AKA album gets a lot of love in general, but I've seen a lot of people dismiss this track as useless and filler - I won't have it! Good lord, this song is divine. It's folk meets early Lana meets a Halloween edition of the Animal Crossing soundtrack. I know that's a weird and strangely specific mixture of references, but that's the only way I can describe it. It's so peaceful but so deeply melancholic and longing; The nighttime is almost ours. I can't even articulate what this song makes me feel. It's too magical to listen to on a regular basis, but it holds such a special place in my heart and I wish more people connected with this song the way I do. It's a beautiful, sad, quiet night translated into a 4-minute track.

 

Come When You Call Me America

Kind of like Oh Say Can You See, this song has a unique feel to it. It's one of Lana's weirder tracks - it's light and airy but jazzy and trip-hop-esque. It reminds me of a grown-up version of something from the Nights: Journey of Dreams soundtrack (yes, as you can tell, I'm big on video game soundtracks hahaha). It sounds the way silk feels. Maybe this song doesn't exactly count as underrated because it does have somewhat of a niche appeal, but I'm bringing it up because it's very beautiful, a little surreal and definitely one of my favourites that I never ever see mentioned!

 

Hope Is A Dangerous Thing

I'm forever seeing this at the bottom of people's NFR rankings and I guess I understand why - it's sparse, a pure piano ballad, pretty long and definitely quite a downer. Still, I feel that a lot of fans under-appreciate the lyrical power of this song; it's some of Lana's best writing to date. Lana has a lot of great lyrics but Hope is her at her most complex and most raw; there's something really special about a song that's so verbose yet still so raw and open and vulnerable. I probably sound super pretentious so pls feel free to call me a dickhead if it's appropriate   but lines like "Spilling my guts with the Bowery bums is the only love I've ever known" and "Shaking my ass is the only thing that's got this black narcissist off my back" really capture the loneliness and confusion of alcohol addiction for me (I've been an alcoholic for 4 years); "Hello, it's the most famous woman you know on the iPad / Calling from beyond the grave I just want to say hi, Dad" gets a lot of clownery online, but for me it's a heartbreaking lyric that shows the duality of fame and misery, as well as how hard it is to keep in touch with family and friends when going through a depression because it's easy to feel like a dead man walking; "A gatekeeper carelessly dropping the keys on my nights off" is a lyric so beautiful and touching yet so perfectly obscure that I don't even want to go into the million different meanings I've assigned to it! There's a lot of ways to convey meaning in a song - sometimes just a dope ass instrumental can do the talking - but this song is an example of how beautiful, well thought out, poetic lyrics can really speak to an audience. And also, did she lie? Hope really is a dangerous thing!

 

Sad Girl

There are soooo many things that make this song great. Among them is Lana's "sad but won't not fuck you the fuck up" attitude, but my favourite thing is that the instruments in this song are used remarkably well. While I love NFR (honestly I really really really do), this song demonstrates exactly why it hasn't knocked Ultraviolence off the top spot for me; there's some sonic depth and a constant sense of progression going on that's lacking in quite a lot of NFR cuts. It's jazzy, bluesy and it has so much to look forward to - I'm always excited to hear that Spanish-influenced guitar kick in during the second verse, then of course there's the glorious bridge. I know Lana fans love a sing-song moment, so why do I not hear more fans talking about how much they enjoy belting out "Watch what you say to meeeeee, careful who you're talking tooo!"? It's lost on me. This song deserves way more love than it gets and I know for sure it would sound incredible live, so I'm v v v v sad she hasn't performed it before. 

 

Gramma

Another AKA song that doesn't get a lot of love - this one is always getting knocked out first or second in AKA Survivor games. Still, it's one of my favourites and I think it's really underrated because of the unique vibe it possesses: it's cheeky, bratty, fun, a little girly and definitely twisted. I know Lana's described this song as having an innocent meaning in prior interviews, but honestly? I'm not buying it! This song is undoubtedly naughty in a way that's SO wrong only Lizzy-era Lana could get away with it. Lana is (or rather was) so good at the whole ~feigning innocence roleplay~ thing. Maybe I love this song so much because I was a messed up kid - without being too TMI, this song reminds me of being a young teen and the early sexual experiences I had and how I knew it was bad but it also so wrong it's right, when I would sneak out of my own Grandma's house to do bad and stupid things, and all the feelings of excitement and wonder I had along with the feelings of fear, confusion, guilt, abuse and sadness. This song couples a playful cheery beat with ever-so-slightly sexually suggestive lyrics ("All I wanna do is play") and then some moments of darkness ("I don't wanna think I'm bad, Gramma") to create this strange, sinister atmosphere that's so representative of being essentially still a little girl taking on the big, exciting, scary, wonderful, terrible adult world - especially where men are involved. It also touches on that feeling of attention addiction: "I'm in love with everyone and I don't wanna think I'm wrong just for feelin' pretty" and "I wanna be the whole world's girl Gramma". There's a fine line between suggestive and outright controversial, and Lana, I believe, is just about on the 'suggestive' side - if anything my reading of this song could well be controversial! Still, there's some unbelievable skill in managing to write about such a topic in a way that's a little dark but still tongue-in-cheek without it coming across as mocking or exploitative. I really love this song and I honestly feel it stands out in her discography.

 

In Wendy, More Mountains, There Is Nothing To Be Sorry About

As a fanbase we tend to neglect a lot of Lana's more singer-songwriter-y type stuff, but these songs right here...... goddamn. She has a TONNE of folksy gems, but these are some of my favourites and I never EVER hear them mentioned. More Mountains is bleak and existential; In Wendy is sweet and a little blue; There Is Nothing To Be Sorry About is legitimately devastating and I genuinely can't listen to it without crying. "Remember me the way I was six months ago"... nahhhh man I just    A lot of Lana fans actually haven't heard these songs; this is your sign to GO AND LISTEN TO THEM! I think the only reason these songs are so underrated is because so many people completely forget about them, but wow, they take my breath away.

 

Ok sorry for the huge post LOL I have a lot of feelings ok

"you're in the art, i light the fire" - i thought this was the lyric at first and now i can't move past it bc to me it's like her man (who writes, i.e. "you write, i tour") views her as his muse; he's in the arts, but she lights his fire of inspiration

 

"watcha been up to my baby, haven't seen much of you lately" in HTD - for some reason my brain just naturally forms the lyrics that way hahaha i feel like it goes better

I absolutely love this!!!!!

love is perhaps LONA DELERY'S worst single ever

 

 

blows my mind that it was even released as a single and not treated like the boring filler track it was destined to be 

I'm an Ariana fan but wow she sounds terrible on this track.... her enunciation (or lack thereof) just gets more and more ridiculous and nonsensical with every song 

 

Lana looks gorgeous but also a little awkward and out of place

 

• That very first bass drop in the second chorus of Video Games... so unexpected but so impactful 

   

• The guitar in the second pre-chorus of Happiness is a Butterfly is unbelievable, add so much to a song??

 

The gospel-style backing vocals (the "ooooh"s) in the Ultraviolence bridge

 

The sax/trumpet (I can't tell the difference hahaha) that comes in the bridge of Art Deco, uuuugh that takes that song from a 6 to a 10 for me

 

For some reason I always get chills at "Kanye West is blind and gone/Life on Mars ain't just a song" in The Greatest

 

I always look forward to "You talk to the walls when the party gets bored of you" in Norman Fucking Rockwell, probably because I dated a guy exactly like that lmao

 

When that first chorus hits in Black Beauty it's so so special

 

At around 5:48 in Venice Bitch when the sort of fast electric guitar (I'm not sure how else to describe it) comes in for a moment and builds up anticipation for that glorious moment at 6:04 when Lana's vocals come back and she's singing "aaaah, aaaaahhhh!" in a wild, almost shouty way       I love it SO MUCH it's so uncharacteristic of her to be so raw and almost out-of-tune but it sounds incredible, sad, angry and passionate all at once.     I'm obsessed with that part of the song.

 

"It's not one of those phases I'm going through, or just a song, it's not one of them, I'm on my own, on my own, on my own again" in The Blackest Day... so raw and honest

 

I honestly believe one of the most sincerely cool moments in Lana's entire discography is the part of Brooklyn Baby where she sings "If you don't get it then forget it, 'cuz I don't have to fuuuuuckin' explaaaaaaain iiiiiit" - tell them sis!!! She captures the spirit of not giving a fuck so well!!

 

Holy Terrain is okay, but it doesn't feel sorta.... exclusively Twigs??? If that makes sense

 

Still like it tho!!

Norman fucking Rockwell - 22

NFR is summer at its best tho.

I’d say WHF is winter (probably December 2020 release).

 

 

oh you think so?? i feel a lil bit of summer vibes from NFR, but i mostly feel like it's kind of a september album if that makes sense?? like the transition from summer to fall

I think I relate to Hope more and more every time I listen to it. I loved it when it first came out, but I overdid it (like all Lana songs when they come out) and I haven’t listened much since the spring. I decided to give it a listen yesterday and it’s been on repeat for me since. I’m not sure how much personal stories are allowed here, so I’ll keep it brief but this song means so much to me. I’m a closeted lesbian and my family is v homophobic. They pushed me to marry a man, even tho I am not out to them or really anyone, I feel like they know and so now I’m married to man which isn’t what I want, but I do have hope that one day things will be better. Obviously not what Lana was referring to, but I feel on some level I understand what she means about having hope even tho it’s a dangerous thing.

 

 

though for different reasons i relate to the song so much too!! sending you lots of love, i'm so deeply sorry for the situation you're in right now. every time i see your profile on here i'll send a little love into the atmosphere for you and hope it reaches you <3

if NFR is a fall album, WHF has to be its summer counterpart! lots of rock and roll but blended with intense, echoing, steamy sounds akin to HM (i.e.: Freak, Salvatore) and a consistent atmosphere throughout ugh gimme a sexy summertime album pls lana

Ultraviolence is raw sounding, but it didn't sound unpolished? A lot of tracks on NFR have either this demo-like quality or just sound like they were recored with a cheap microphone (The title track, Cinnamon, HTD, California, The greatest) I mean I love most of these songs, but the production is extremely lackluster to me.

 

 

I feel this!! Some songs border on painful to listen to on higher volumes, as if in the track itself all instruments / layers are being played at exactly the same volume so the entire track comes out very loud and almost scratchy sounding. Idk if that makes sense.

 

still love the album tho 

My signed copy arrived in the mail today!

I'm a little disappointed I didn't get a heart, though   

 

 

I feel your pain, I ordered 3 signed items and not a single one has a heart 

just out of interest, how would you guys feel if she did a different setlist for each leg of the tour?? would you be glad she's mixing it up or peeved cause one leg may have had a better setlist than yours?? 

It really frustrates me when she's like "oh the band haven't practiced that song much yet " like 10 times every tour, like god it's their job to practice new songs for live shows

omg exactly like.... what else are they here for sis i'm sure she could say "jump" and they'd say "palm trees in black and white" "how high"

Because that's the idea behind that verse. He pretends he's here for her, but he really isn't.

 

She meets him and tells him about her problems, she appreciates the way he takes her serious and listens to what she has to say. But he's not REALLY going to be there if she needs him, he just comforts her and acts as if he would help her through her struggle. They probably once were that close but by now, their friendship has started to fade. And that's how he disappears from her life - step by step.

 

holy.... shit..... you're actually right wtf like zero sarcasm this has actually changed everything in my brain towards this song?? you know when people say "thanks I hate it" wellll THANKS I LOVE IT wtf omg

Idk what it’d change it to but I kinda hate that the first song on the fucking album opens with the line “goddamn manchild, you fucked me so good that I almost said I love you.” As a whole NFR (the song) is fine enough but that line has made me cringe since she first teased it on insta. I’d also change TNBAR’s lyrics to the original lyrics from the older version

 

 

well it is Norman FUCKING Rockwell after all   but agreed on TNBAR ugh i find the new lyrics so awkward

does anybody else have a few odd lyrics they wish they could alter on NFR??? i mean i know lana is the artist and i'm merely the listener    but there's a few little things i really wish i could alter

 

like in HTD: "you just crack another beer and pretend that you're still here" - the song is all about escapism and disappearing, so wouldn't it make more sense for the lyrics to be "you just crack another beer and pretend that you're not here"?

 

and in FIILY, i know it's super picky but: "i used to shoot up my veins in the arm, and shit's even brighter you're gone" i'd prefer if it was worded as "i used to shoot up my veins in the arm, it's brighter now that you're gone" idk it's not important lmao

 

oh and Bartender: "but sometimes girls just want to have fun"; in the verse prior she's already talking about girls having fun, there's nothing to dispute, so why the "but"??? surely it would make more sense as "cause sometimes girls just want to have fun" idk i'm being mad extra hahaha 

1 Video Games

is anyone else strangely obsessed with looking at pre-fame pics and videos of lana/lizzy?? feels like peering thru the looking glass