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lifeisavelvetcrowbar

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Posts posted by lifeisavelvetcrowbar

  1. Posted

    So I have long believed that Lana is not only the best and most original voice of this generation, but she also possesses a spirit that makes her an incredible channel for the voices of great artists of past generations. Here are my takes about about some of the 60's artists who are sometimes mentioned as Lana's influences, or artists who's voices I feel Lana does or could channel. Also, my Yes/No verdict on whether or not I want Lana to further explore these styles and channel the voices of these artists. BTW I am born in the 90's so please excuse me if there are some gaps in my knowledge from this era! and I would love for someone who was alive through this time to chime in.

     

    Nancy Sinatra is a YES for me! Dark and bluesy like Ultraviolence. Noir like Honeymoon. Raw and gritty like Lizzy Grant and May Jailor. Twangy without going full out country. Bad bitch vibes all the way. This is the energy that radiates from Lana's soul.

     

    The Shangri-La's is a NO for me. They were super talented and I mean no disrespect to them, but I do not feel the doo-wop/60's girl group style works for Lana. The vocal harmonizing of The Shangri-La's is skillful and beautiful, but I feel it is too cute for Lana's style. I do not like the album version of Lust for Life that Max Martin butchered. It feels like she is trying on the doo-wop genre like someone tries on a costume. The Shangri-la style works a lot better on Get Free, but this still would not make a list of my favorite Lana songs even if the melody wasn't (accidentally I hope) plagiarized from Radiohead.

     

    The Beatles are a MAYBE for me. I hear their influence on Tomorrow Never Came, and that is not one of my favorite Lana songs (I mostly hate the Sean Lennon feature). The lyrics of this song are heavy but sonically this style is a little light and breezy for me. It's not heavy enough to pack a punch, and it's not soft enough to be ethereal. The melody is there but something about the production and style of this song is off. It's chill but Lana's voice almost gets lost in it. I also hear The Beatles in Beautiful People demo version. Here she nails the style and hits a home run. If Lana can write another Beatles-esque song and really carry the song, I would be very happy to hear it on an album. However, I do not want to hear another Tomorrow Never Came.

     

    The Beach Boys are a NO for me. Another example of a spectacularly talented band that I think doesn't suit Lana's style. Even though they are beachy and Lana is beachy, and Lana mentions them on the Greatest, I don't really hear a lot of Beach Boys influence in Lana's music. Like the Beatles, this music is too light and breezy for Lana. She needs a style with more emotional weight.

     

    Joan Boaz is a YES for me! Joan is a queen of ethereal folk beauty! I hear Joan's influence all over post-Ultraviolence music, especially on her acoustic and unreleased tracks like Cherry Blossom. I did not know about Joan until Lana introduced me to her, and I am so glad to discover this talented queen! Her style of singing really is so similar to Lana's. I am grateful for her music and so grateful for the inspiration that she has given to Lana.

     

    Etta James is a YES for me. I love jazzy/soulful Lana! Honeymoon is so indebted to black female jazz and soul singers like Etta James, Billie Holliday, Nina Simone and more. This style is so effortless for Lana and suits her voice so well. As Lana gets older, I would love to hear her make more mature jazz records that channel these all time greats.

     

    Velvet Underground is a YES for me. I love the grungy and sarcastic hipster poetry of Brooklyn Baby. I love it when she sings with Lou Reed's disaffection in her voice. Lana is a far better vocalist than Lou Reed. She can elevate these types of songs from a cool mood to a beautiful cool mood. 

     

    Leonard Cohen is a YES for me. Many of my all time favorite Lana songs is when she is just singing her heavy heart over an acoustic guitar or acoustic piano. Her cover of Cohen's Chelsea Hotel #2 is so achingly beautiful. She is literally the reincarnation of Cohen, she was born to channel his heartbreak poetry.

     

    Joni Mitchel is a NO for me but hear me out! This one I feel very conflicted about. Joni Mitchel is one of the most talented songwriters in American history. She is perhaps the artist that influenced the sound of NFR more than any other artist. I feel that Joni's lyricism and melody is very intellectual, but I prefer Lana when she sounds a little more passionate and filled with raw emotion. Also, Lana is not as good at political music or social critique as Joni. I do love NFR so much and am grateful for the inspiration that Joni gave to Lana. I wouldn't change a thing about NFR except for those damn bells on How to Disappear, but I think I have heard enough of the Joni sound for now and would like to hear Lana explore other influences, even if she stays roughly in the beachy folk space. I also think that Fiona Apple is able to channel Joni a little bit more than Lana.

     

    Giorgio Moroder is a YES for me! Maybe he is more considered a 70's artist but he was still active through the 60's, so I will include him. My life would be complete if we could get a Lana Del Rey disco album! I am not talking some cheap EDM-pop album, I mean a timeless disco-diva album filled with virtuosic instrumentation, a full orchestra,  and giant choruses that will light up dance floors for decades to come. If not a full disco album, then maybe a fusion that is half disco and half explosive energy jazz and soul songs. I want to hear Lana belting, hitting the highest notes in her vocal range, and showing off the full range of her vocal abilities. I want Giorgio Moroder, I want Donna Summers, and I want ABBA! And I want ultra glam photoshoots and big budget videos one final time before Lana relaxes back into her flannels to sing folk and blues and jazz for the next 50 years. Lana please give us the disco album!!

     

     

     

    Here is a playlist of 60's songs that are sort of a mood board for voices and energies that I would like to hear Lana channel:

     

    • Tommy James & The Shondells - Crimson & Clover (Venice Bitch spiritual successor!)
    • Dick Dale - Miserlou (Hawaiian glam metal teas?)
    • The Band - The Weight (Lana get back together with Dan Auerbach and make a bluesy folk rock album that isn't about abusive relationships challenge!) 
    • Otis Redding - (Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay (beautiful California singer/songwriter blues vibes. UV meets NFR)
    • Nico - These Days (this song is SO Lana. NFR meets LFL. I would love for Lana to get in the studio with both Jack and Emile for an extended time, and give us something that sounds like this)
    • Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang (can Lana cover this so that I can add the MP3 into Ultraviolence?)
    • Simon & Garfunkle - The Sound of Silence
    • Nick Drake - River Man (May Jailor teas with better guitar playing)
    • Ben E. King - Stand By Me (Heartwarming and overflowing with positive energy like Lana's Love. Lana's disco album needs a song like this)
    • Lorraine Ellison - Stay With Me (Channeling this energy for a BIG jazz/soul song on Lana's disco album)
    • Frank Sinatra - It Was a Very Good Year (Honeymoon vibes) 
    7

  2. Posted

    "var twoMonthsFromNow = new Date(Date.now());

          twoMonthsFromNow.setMonth(twoMonthsFromNow.getMonth() + 2);"

     

    This could have been added earlier this month (July 4 maybe?) so that the website changes from "pre-order COTCC" to "COTCC now available!" or something?

     

    "if i remember my intro to coding class well, i believe this code is saying when "two months from now" expires, it gets replaced with "new Date" "

     

     

     

     

     

    So the first line of code creates a new Date variable "twoMonthsFromNow" equal to the current date.

    The second line overwrites this variable as the month of the current date plus two months.

     

    So if you load the webpage today, this code will execute and the varaible "twoMonthsFomNow" would first be set to July 24 2020, then finally it would be set to equal September. If you opened the website again on August first, these line of code would execute again and this time the variable would end up equalling October.

     

    I have no idea why the website needs to keep track of the month that is two months from the current date, but that is what the code does.

    3

  4. Posted

    How exactly is NFR safe? Because she isn't still singing about Carmen street walking and doing party favors when she's now 35 years old? If anything, repeating the themes and sounds on BTD forever would be the safe thing for her to do, since she would never need to get as emotionally vulnerable as she is on NFR. Being vulnerable and real is never safe or easy. She swears because she has a foul mouth and that's how she expresses herself, it doesn't detract from the album. Yes, NFR is more subdued and intimate lyrically and sonically, but being large and grand is not always synonymous with quality. I don't know how people can say NFR is lyrically weak when Happiness is a Butterfly, The Greatest, Mariners, Venice Bitch are right there. Or how you can say that some of the more stripped backed songs aren't absolute stunners, like Love Song, Happiness and Hope. Lana is not pandering to critics, this is just where Lana is at in her life.  She wants the lyrics and melody and instrumental composition to shine through without every song needing the support of some giant production. Out of all of the thousands of people who release stripped back singer/songwriter type albums, critics fell in love with NFR because it is actually a masterpiece.

    8

  6. Posted

    Here is my dream track listing for a stripped back and acoustic unreleased compilation album. It could easily be multiple disks long and include as many as 40 tracks. She could include many of her leaked and un-leaked tracks, plus a handful of covers, plus alternate and acoustic versions of album tracks.

     

    1. Fine China

    2. Roses Bloom For You

    3. Love (acoustic guitar version)

    4. Yosemite

    5. Wild One

    6. Say Yes to Heaven

    8. Dark Paradise (demo version but with less drums)

    8. Thunder

    9. Mermaid Hotel

    10. Backfire

    11.  Kill Kill

    12. Velvet Crowbar 

    13. Flipside 

    14. Methamphetamines

    15. Lust For Life (demo version #2)

    16. Beautiful People (demo version)

    17. Wait for Life

    18. Born to Die (acoustic guitar version)

    19. Pawnshop Blues

    20. Chelsea Hotel #2

    20. Cherry Blossom 

    21. How to Disappear (acoustic piano version)

    6

  7. Posted

    Future would fit her well on the darker or sadder songs. I could have imagined him on songs like 13 Beaches, Heroin, BPBP(the demo) and those types of song or some of the Ultraviolence songs.

     

    Even Lana, The Weeknd and Future together would be a nice fit for a sad or darker song.

     

    I could see Future and Lana working well together, but she would need to go into his world, because he would probably not be capable of coming into her world. He sometimes shows versatility on his own songs, but whenever he gives a guest verse he just raps a few lazy lines about doing drugs and having sex and he usually feels completely disjointed from the rest of the song unless he is working with one of his friends like Young Thug. Future wouldn't treat it as a duet or a creative collaboration, he would just treat it as a guest verse. If Future were to fit into any of Lana's records, I would actually say it would be Honeymoon. Some of those deep slow jams where Lana lets her songwriting wander recalls the slower and more tranquilized sounding Future songs where he sings more than he raps, specifically on the album HNDRXX. I could see him on Art Deco.

    4

  8. Posted

    Someone was asking a few pages back about the pop art font on the cover of NFR! It is in the style of Roy Lichtenstein who along with Andy Warhol was one of founders of the pop art in the 1960's. Lana's lyrics are packed with references to American artists of all mediums from the 50's-70's. I think this font was a sly way of visually referencing another iconic 60's artist without using her lyrics. 

    I actually could maybe imagine Lana doing a Slim Aarons tribute on the cover of COCC, first because it would continue the tradition she started with NFR! of making visual references to American artists on her album covers, and second because she referenced him in Hope and she likes to create continuity between her eras by working some lyrics or motifs from past albums into each new album. The only reason why I think she would not choose to do a Slim Aarons style cover is because an image of a country club with chem trails in the sky would be by far the most expected and obvious cover choice. Lana never likes being literal or obvious with her album covers, she just picks a cover that captures the mood of the album. We may be just as likely to get a picture of Lana in the middle of a city as Lana in a literal country club.

    5

  9. Posted

    My first post although I have been a Lana fan since 2011. First I want to say, the fake lyrics this era are really good! Especially the lyrics of Hidden in the Hills, it really sounds like Lana's words but without being a parody of Lana-isms. It kind of has me hoping the lyrics aren't fake because there is something sinister about those lyrics and I would really love an album with a bite to it.

     

    Anyway, I have been thinking about the title "Chemtrails Over the Country Club", and I thought I would share some interpretations and connotations that might reveal something about the sound or themes of the album. Maybe some of these are a stretch but here goes.

     

    • Flight is a symbol of freedom, and we know that Lana was previously taking pilot lessons. In the opening verse of "Hope...", Lana sings about disliking the social pressures of being expected to behave in a certain upper class and feminine way. A country club is an embodiment of that culture that makes her feel suffocated, and she looks up in the sky to see chemtrails and wishes that she could fly away. Lana also just went through a breakup, metaphorically taking flight and leaving her relationship behind. Thematically this album will deal with concepts of freedom and liberation. For Lana, freedom may be closely related to romance. Lana suggests in many songs that she struggles with finding personal fulfillment or contentment when she is not in love. To be single is to be free, but in Lana's case, to be in love is also a form of freedom from her own void. I am expecting an album that at times conveys deep infatuation (al Love Song, Video Games), and also deep introspection as Lana discusses what "freedom" means to her at this stage of her life (ala Change, Hope is a Dangerous Thing).
       
    • The name also seems satirical. It seems to mock social elites, people who are affluent enough to belong to a country club, and ignorant and paranoid enough to believe in chemtrails or other government conspiracy theories. We know that Lana has become progressively more political, and hates president Trump and his voters. This album title to me suggests that she may be trying to get inside the heads of these types of people. There is a sense of anxiety in the title, as if the subjects of Lana's satire feel that their white country club suburbia is being invaded by outsiders and threatened by a changing world and culture. This same type of discomfort with a rapidly changing world can be felt on The Greatest. Lana may be expanding on that theme by exploring the phyche of people who are mentally still living in 1950's suburbia but physically living in a world of social media and fear mongering politicians and government conspiracies, etc.
       
    • Even if the above point is a misinterpretation, the word "country club" is strongly associated with the upper class. Lana's early music was fixated on the lifestyles and culture of the upper class. Satirically or not, she idolized the rich. Lana's relationship with money has changed a lot and like the more she gets the less she cares about it. I don't believe that this album will have the same perspective on the 1% as BTD or pre-BTD songs, but it is basically guaranteed that Lana will put the spotlight on them one more time on this album.
       
    • Finally the word "chem" can be a slang term for drugs, specifically methamphetamines, which Lana has sung about in the past and even has a song titled after. The image of a pristine blue sky polluted by chemtrails reminds me of the way that Lana suggests that her body has been polluted when she sings "drugs are in my veins, I'm running out of time". Flight can also be an allusion to being high, like when Lana sings "I'm flying to the moon again, dreaming about Heroine". Also, one symptom of methamphetamine use is extreme paranoia and belief in Government conspiracy theories, such as believing in chemtrails. I am expecting this album to deal with drug use, either explicitly or implicitly, and have an overall more trippy sound than any of her past albums.
       
    • I am expecting an album of strong juxtapositions. The production will be a tug-of-war between lush-beauty (the country club) and harsh psychedelia (the chemtrails). There will be gorgeous piano ballads, there will be psychadelic songs like Venice Bitch and West Coast or maybe a more electronic psychedelia like Heroine, and perhaps there will even be orchestral string arrangements that recall BTD.  The album will be extremely passionate and sensual, but there will be an underlying current of anxiety throughout the entire album that reflects both Lana's personal anxieties, and also larger social anxieties about class, race, coronavirus, president Trump, etc. In the same way that FIILY takes an abrupt turn, Chemtrails will be full of twists and turns lyrically and sonically. One second Lana is in love, the next she is contemplating death. One second Lana is enjoying being in the country club, the next she is staring at the chemtrails. 

    Let me know if you agree or disagree with any of this, or if I am just putting way too much thought into this.

    19
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