urgirl

i like NFR, i did and i do.  it's good, it's cute, it's accessible, it has brief glimpses of meaning and lucidity regarding an extremely disorienting modern world.  it is Lana, for sure.  no one else could have made this album.  to be fair tho, to me, it's very clear that Lana lacked inspiration going into this album - something she freely admitted.  Lana herself talked about having writer's block, being inspired by Jacking Off's chord progressions and writing melodies, etc etc.  That is something that I think definitely comes through in NFR.  Being so invested in her earlier work which was so imbued with potency and necessity, like Lana saying "i had to make these albums" - NFR is not that.  it's good, yes.  but it's dull-er than her previous work.  it lacks the umph of her first three albums.  it doesnt have that je ne sais quoi that Lana's early work had heavy in spades.
 
so can we be honest... is this really her best work?  i see all the people claiming this as her "magnum opus" or "masterpiece" which is like... did you not listen to Honeymoon?  Ultraviolence?  NFR doesn't even make sense without the context of Lana's past work.  If NFR was her first album, it would've gotten panned af.  the only reason people are paying so much attention to it is because we know what Lana has done and is capable of.  NFR is her most basic album.  and i'm not even saying that as a bad thing, i just really think it is.  and that's a whole vibe or whatever.  it feels like she's dumbing herself down for a broader audience.  it feels like she's trying to assimilate into celeb culture and whatever.  which is fine.  it's her art, it's her life.  and i like it.  i still listen occasionally.  but masterpiece?  i think that time is past.
 
maybe i am being too subjective, but idk.  With her first three albums, i felt something so strong.  a sense of urgency, desperation, stifled power, hopelessness as art, hopelessness as the essence of freedom, truth, iconography, apathy as self-protection, caring as a personal failure that was yet so necessary and unavoidable, SOMETHING powerful and mysterious and important that couldn't be fully described.  NFR feels like taking all that and stripping of it of substance and regurgitating it as pure aesthetic bc she knows that's what worked for her in the past.
 
when Lana was Lizzy, she wasn't successful or known.  She didn't have accolades or a huge following or worldwide fame and recognition.  but she had spirit and drive, she KNEW what she was doing was good and meaningful and mattered.  and we can all hear and feel that in her unreleased music.  i remember listening to her unreleased stuff after Born to Die came out and being like "damn this bitch is a for real star and a musical genius, she has such potency and magic, she is so much more for believing in herself without any recognition."  it was a whole thing.
 
NFR is like, when you get everything you ever wanted and lose what made you get it in the first place.  that's what it feels like to me.  which is a whole vibe.  it might be her most depressing album because of that, which is powerful in its own way.  it feels like Lana losing herself.  being burnt out.  i appreciate NFR, i really do.  and i think there's meaning in seeing how it fits into her body of work.  but i think it only packs a kick because of its relation to her past work, because we see the growth and change Lana has gone through.  and that, to me, means it cant possibly be her best, most potent, "masterpiece" or "magnum opus".  i love her art, and i love her as an artist.  but not as much anymore.  i think she lost something, and i think NFR is proof of that.  i think the accolades and critical raving about NFR is proof of that.  she's not an underground underdog rock star heroine enigma.  she's a pop star.  a regular person.  good for her, if that's what she wants.  but she doesnt have the power i felt in her first three albums.  the experiences she went through before she was a bonafide star are more potent than whatever's happening now.  maybe that's proof of what i always saw as her original point ----- you may get everything you want, and it'll still be hollow because what the world sees as success is bullshit, what society idolizes is trash, and what really matters gets ignored and forgotten.

Born to Die - Carmen
Paradise - Body Electric
Ultraviolence - Sad Girl or Shades Of Cool
Honeymoon - Terrence Loves You
Lust For Life - Change
Norman Fucking Rockwell - Mariners Apartment Complex 

BIRD WORLD > IVORY CRICKET

The Greatest has a horrible, stupid outro. There, I said it.

I still think that NFR is tied with LFL for weakest title track, lyrically at least
 
 

none

Love gave me herpes.

I want another album full of Honeymoons and Terrence Loves Yous

I always associate Velvet Crowbar with TOSTB and Playground

Because of You

Kinda Outta Luck

Tired of Singing the Blues

Backfire

It'll be so weird seeing Billie Eilish win a Grammy before Lana. I like her but it makes me sad.

something is very wrong

Honeymoon being her only album not on any decade-end lists yet
 

First show selfies of the night! She's without her signature eyeliner, but looks just as gorgeous -

She looks too beautiful. It immediately reminded me 2012. Wow

Lyrically speaking, I think LFL is her best, it showed a lot of maturity in the way she writes songs.
 
Hope deserves more. I truly believe it's her most complex song to date.
 
And unless she comes with something better, Honeymoon will remain as the album that strikes the best concept.

Another backstage photo from around an hour ago - she's so pretty!

 
 
 
The crowd has also thickened up a ton x

they are singing so high and timidly in that cover

maybe it's cliche but it would be nice to get another Once Upon A Dream type song with that dark fairy tale feeling

i'd so much rather her do that

The Greatest is growing on me, but only because I like the way she sings in the chorus. I don't care much for the meaning, no matter how legendary and modern she thinks it is. It's going to age like milk. 
Yet still it's the only song from the album I feel like listening to sometimes. 

.

Choose your fighter
 
 

I am thinking that this song was inspired sonically by Knocking On Heaven's Door.. I noticed some months ago that the chord progression was the same and after listening to the bridge of wild one with the "oooh oooh" it reminded me of this
if you listen the introA big reach tho hehe