Purpose Is good, and so are Would You, 100 and Liquor but I'm kinda happy she scrapped all of these other tracks. They're so generic and the raggae inspired melodies and beats ugh
Purpose Is good, and so are Would You, 100 and Liquor but I'm kinda happy she scrapped all of these other tracks. They're so generic and the raggae inspired melodies and beats ugh
I don't think this is a coincidence... You start asking for a song no one heard before and suddenly it pop ups and leak? Some of us were begging for songs for years and some never leaked...
I mean... Who are you? And how you knew that one was going to leak?
Cause I'm sure you knew...
Okay, I know no one's going to read this, but whatever.
I was thinking more about her post (which I know has been covered a million times already) and I had some thoughts.
I feel like, in her own very messy and absolutely racially insensitive (though not intentional) way, Lana was really trying to convey her anger for the way that she's been treated by the media, specifically the first couple of years of her career. Yes, NFR was very well received (and LFL to a slightly similar extent) but that’s not counting all of the years of shit she went through at the start. Yes, every artist she mentioned has gone through shit and I don’t want to get into the compare/contrast argument right now. Of course her experiences are not the same as racism and it’s not to say that she is the only one who has gotten criticism by any stretch of the imagination, but I just feel like there was a specific way she was treated that was not the same as any of the other artists she mentioned. People were mean and cruel and kind of merciless about how much they hated her, in a very unapologetic way. This is not only from critics or fans, but a lot of the industry in general. People did not take her seriously. Music publications, people on social media, bloggers, people in the industry like Kim Gordon (who told her to go kill herself)—everyone kind of piled up on her. Both conservatives (who seem to always hate “today’s music”) as well as liberals didn’t like her and weren’t shy about saying exactly why. Every single thing—her looks, her name change, her father’s supposed role in “buying her a career” (not really how it works), her music video monologues, her interview quotes, and especially above all her lyrics—everything was scrutinized. I imagine this was probably doubly hurtful when thinking about how much of her soul she poured into her songs. She wasn’t singing about nice fun pop songs. She was singing about some of the worst moments of her life, horrible abusive relationships, documenting them in songs and she was either made fun of and/or told that she was making it all up. And yes, I realize the fiction/fact element of her work has always been up for debate and I can understand people not fully knowing if what she’s singing about is “real” in that sense, but like even when she told The Guardian about how depressed she was, I vividly remember the vast majority of the comments continuing to make fun of her. And no one was really sticking up for her (besides us fans and actually Kristen Wiig on SNL). No one really called out the obvious misogynistic tone that a lot of the criticisms came from.
This brings me to LFL. Or really, right after the Honeymoon era. People were talking about her songs getting slower and slower and more depressed and I think Lana herself probably knew that she needed to switch things up a bit. (Her label might have also suggested or maybe even demanded it, as Ultraviolence and Honeymoon were not selling like BTD/Paradise).
LFL for me is a turning point in her career. For a lot of reasons. For one: Trump and the 2016 election. We already how that changed her live shows (no more American flags), but obviously it changed some of the music too. Listening to the demos for LFL, it’s clear the song (and possibly the entire record) started off in a much darker place. The “lust for life” she had sounded almost ironic or like she was being sarcastic. Cut to the finished product and it’s obviously coming from a more hopeful angle. I imagine some of this comes from her knowing that, in the mist of the 2017 American political scene with Trump’s chaos, it was possibly the wrong time to put out a down/depressing record. I also believe Lana was being genuine in wanting to give her fans more hope.
That being said, looking at the reception LFL got, critics suddenly seemed more on board with her. She was getting more praise in the industry. Stevie Nicks and Courtney Love interviewed her (along with other musicians like Grimes), and it just seemed like in general people were more receptive to her work. But what’s telling is that Lana started to talk during this time period about wanting to fit in more. She wasn’t getting tattoos, she was thinking of getting some of them removed (I think because she mentioned how it would make her stand out or something like that) and she was also vocal about editing her lyrics, both in recordings as well as in live performances (like cutting the “he hit me” line in UV).
This brings me to NFR. It’s her most critically acclaimed work for sure, but in some ways it feels like the least “Lana” record (at least compared to “vintage Born to Die” era Lana). It’s definitely more singer/songwriter. Rereading the Ann Powers article Lana hated, I found it interesting how much the writer compared Lana to Joni Mitchell—which is annoying not just because every female singer/songwriter seems to get compared to her if they have even a trace of the Laurel Canyon sound, but also because they are clearly very different artists.
And, I admit this is maybe farfetched, but maybe the reason Lana got so upset with the article (besides the trauma line she mentioned) was how much she was being compared to an artist she’s never really tried to imitate.
And this leads to the Instagram post, which I think is a long time coming. People have been upset with Lana seeming to say she paved the way for songs about abuse (which I don’t think she ever said she did, at least not directly) but I think it’s fairly obvious her music played, at least, a big part in the sort of shift in popular music—the more downtempo music, the more downcast lyrics. It would have honestly I think been better if Lana had maybe mentioned soundclound rappers/singers or songs like that 1-800 Who Can Relate (whoo!) song. But even pop has gotten darker as a whole. When Lana came on the scene, it was all about I don’t need a man/I’m fine on my own (I’m talking specifically about female pop singers). Now Ariana Grande can have a song about cheating (Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored) and there doesn’t seem to be controversy at all. Even if that song’s more playful, it’s also kind of hints at the bad thoughts you shouldn’t have but you have anyway. (I'm not saying Lana is solely responsible for a song like this, but I think her music contributed for allowing that sort of mood, again in comparison to the 2011 pop music scene.)
I think Lana’s anger has come from feeling she has had a major influence on today’s music without ever really getting the true acknowledgement (as well as the apology) she deserves. I also think she is perhaps frustrated with feeling like she has had to edit her lyrics and music content in order to fit in a little more/be more accepted and less hated. And I think this is where the “women like me in feminism” comes into play. Instead of the awkward pole dance comparison to FKA Twigs, she could have asked how come FKA can write an album documenting an abusive relationship and get acclaim from critics, but when she does it in UV (or really a lot of her songs pre-LFL) she gets told she’s bad for feminism? And maybe it actually was an attempt at a genuine question. Like, what’s the difference? How come that 1-800 song can be a big hit and it gets taken seriously, but Lana discussing her own depression (in song or interviews) gets seen as something to get made fun of?
To me, the post(s) were her stating that she is going to start writing in a less restrained/more free way again—or maybe already has in Chemtrails. I think she wants to get back to songs about relationships and life that are more nuanced. It’s clear from LFL that the way she specifically has talked about relationships has changed (she’s now more fed up, the men are more losers than before). And obviously it’s good that she’s evolved just like most artists do, but I think she has maybe been feeling artistically restrained and wants to get back to a more uninhibited place without having to deal with all the bullshit again.
Sorry this is long but I wanted to write it.
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