Red Dress

I very much believe in the grand-interconnectedness of all things Lana too. I think it has so much back & forth and interweaving and an overall grand plan.

Dammit it's like you've already read my mind re. my cracking the LDR code, lol.

I sense an MLM pitch coming in on the wind...

Oh I think it's all part of something even bigger and more "complete"....

Urgh Fantano...best part of him ran down the inside of his mama's leg...

I think it's because it feels overdone, inorganic and doesn't feel like a natural inclusion. It's a big shift from mentioning guys who were douchebags or who things didn't work out with in a song about heartbreak, to having QFTC where she called out the way that other females in the music industry were treated/viewed, getting backlash, then it's all "here I am with all my ladyfriends, here's some videos of me and my LA gurls playing around for NFR vids...here's a photo of us on COCC...and let me tell you a million times about how I'm really happy to have so many female friends in my life!" It feels weird and "curated" rather than a natural progression. Like either who she was previously was a bad person or not real...or this new incarnation is as fake as the past one and we should just accept that all of her art is as fake as it is drawn from real life. I probably haven't explained what I mean properly, because it's early Sunday AM and my caffeine hasn't kicked in yet so I'm having to keep going back to edit typos lol, but while I understand that musicians evolve in their style as much as their personal lives and of course maturity, being a bit older and having followed many, many artists throughout their careers, I've kind of gotten used to what I see are totally curated evolutions (like Madonna) and genuine artistic progressions (Blue October, MCR, Dylan, etc). This feels maybe not necessarily fake, but definitely forced.

Literally just thinking THIS. I'm listening to BTD right now and reminiscing about those mega impactful opening lyrics: "Feet don't fail me now, take me to the finish line" "Blue jeans, white shirt, walked into the room you know you made my eyes burn" Those openers were SO fucking iconic and THAT is the sort of thing that I've felt was missing from her more recent projects. The dramatic tension. And I sort of felt it again in the beginning of 'Text Book', both the vocal and the lyric delivery; but that's why I think the song is a sort of dig at all of us who want her to continue to deliver textbook Lana songs. She's proving she can still have that impact, even if it is sonically different. NGL that's EXACTLY what I want from her.

Agreed, I hate them But I think it's intentional on her part because in previous eras we'd get the names of guys who she was in relationships with sprinkled throughout her songs - usually bad or screwed up relationships. Now though it feels like she's trying to shed that dramatic "fatalism" vibe that WE all love, because of the amount of backlash she got from critics. It's as if she's trying to project an image of her having more wholesome friendships and being more female-friendly; kinda like "See, I'm not just 'the other woman' or some homewrecking bitch, some of my best friends are women!" and whether or not it rings hollow with fans, or if it truly is a change in how she now lives her life, it feels like a curated move designed to change how she's viewed/judged by critics. Like she's trying to intentionally separate who she is - lyrically, sonically, reputationally - from her previous eras.

That had me thinking all kinds of stuff like 'Blue Banisters' was in relation to being beaten. Ribs being banisters and when they fade to green and grey like bruises do. Prob just been spending too much time looking into every little thing since these 3 were released, but after people commented on how the original pic made her look bruised and blue, this could just be her taking the piss out of us all for being so obsessive about every detail.

I actually get serious Linda Henning vibes from it TBH, but I don't think even Lana would wanna be tapping into that whole debacle; witchy vibes are one thing, lizard reptilian overlords is another, lol.

I really love your comments and insights and generous optimism on here...just thought I'd let you know. Mwah! x

Um...yes as it turns out, lol. "She asked me where they're from I said, "A place I don't remember" Oh, Oklahoma"

I swear she really does pay attention to us. 'Text Book' is all this and so much more of what we've been asking for. It's like she called it 'Text Book' because it's in the oeuvre of all those old-school moody, dramatic tracks that we pine for. Kind of like she's paying homage to that style whilst having a little dig at us for wanting textbook Lana tracks. Especially with it being a year since QFFT. And I'm totally here for it (never mind the Patti dig on WW, lol.)

"My father never stepped in When his wife would rage at me..."

The way you manifested it....

Wow...after listening to what was just dropped, lyrically...this genuinely aged WELL, lol.

"I'm tired of feeling like I'm fucking crazy"

Fillet mignon

Queen

Reminds of when Guns 'n Roses released 'Use Your Illusion I' AND 'UYI II' together and they were different albums reflecting the band's growth (with different levels of production on different songs, but they work as a duo and fans are still to this day arguing about whether 'UYI I' or UYI II' is better. If we get that kind of release, it COULD be epic, but only if it's not just making two albums because there are a bunch of songs that she doesn't want to drop, even if they're weak and really just better as B-Sides.

I went and listened to LFL for the first time in ages again today. I'd forgotten just how many great songs there are on there (13 Beaches, Heroin, Change) but it's just weird as an album. Totally lacking in cohesiveness. It opens with retro 60's vibes, ends with retro 60's vibes and then in between has elements of BTD, HM and some weird-ass crap that I hate (Coachella). But I fell back in love with a lot of the songs all over again. I realised at the end though, it was like the whole album was her way of tying up one era, then singing about changing, wanting to move out of the black, into the blue (which we've seen in all songs since) before going out with the sounds of an ocean that kind of teases the NFL vibes (MAC etc). She told us she was changing in that album and she did. I only hope that the lyrics from DBJAG on COCC "I'm not going to change" might be heralding her choosing to screw off wanting to be more commercially acceptable and sort of returning to a more dramatically dark, if only thematically, vibe of previous eras (without having to use old lyrics, topics or even musical excerpts.)

Also want that 'Ben' demo cleaned up, still with pouring rain in there somewhere and some added 'UV' era guitar...then going into next song which is 'Your Girl' and then 'Caught You Boy' and 'Back To The Basics' only stripped of their initial poppy sound and given a nice dramatic, cinematic sweeping sound like 'West Coast' or '13 Beaches'. Country/western sounding version of 'Afraid' would be sweet too: "I'm America's sweetheart, tryna get away....I've had it up to here, with y'all coming after me...I'm getting out of Santa Monica, fucking off LA, never coming back, no matter what you do or say." The falsetto in that echoes 'Waitress', it just needs a different beat and something hazy making it feel like a dream. I know I probably sound like I'm high right now, but fuck it, I want dreamy, hazy, lyrically playful, dark, guitars and drama! These are all just examples of how I think the transition back to being more 'produced' and fatalistic and vampy could be done so it didn't jarr too much with previous two albums. You should never come between a woman and her dream and a man who never knew his place* *JACK!!

Just listened to the snippet again and finally remembered what it reminded me of: Some Things Last A Long Time That sort of thing would be a perfect compromise/bridge between the folk-ness of COCC and the more 'produced' feel of previous eras. I wouldn't be mad at there being a slightly more pared down vibe if it came in the vibe of the unreleased version of 'Yayo'. Also, thinking of how 'Wait For Life' managed to combine a country guitar opening, with piano and then swelled to a dreamy hazy vibe that isn't too far away from 'White Dress', it could be a similar format that allows for both fragility and big production vibes, with country guitar AND still echoing the piano present in 'NFR' & 'COCC'. Those three songs in my mind would be a great template on which to project a similar vibe for 'BB' that would fit nicely along that snippet we heard recently. Even 'Fine China' type stuff would be a nice sound that isn't too far from what we've had from previous 2 albums, keeping a country-esque feel while being more dramatic and 'twinkly' than what some of us are afraid we're going to get. So yeah, I'm manifesting THIS vibe.

Going full-bore, all-American, cowboys and angels and bikers and Twin Peaks-esue diners...with the 'cover' being 'Achy Breaky Heart' slowed down a ton and all distorted.