It's pretty much enough for me I was afraid we'd have a 10 songs - 30 minutes type of situation, but 37-38 mins is pretty decent ngl.
So the OG (?) track listing is:
Ancient Dreams In a Modern Land
Venus Fly Trap
Purge the Poison
Man's World
New America
Pandora's Box
Pink Convertible ( )
I Love You But I Love Me More
Highly Emotional People
Flowers
Goodbye
I wonder if, now we know Pink Convertible is mastered, she could drop it as a promotional single to further promote the album or whatever. Would be a good idea to snatch it on digital retailers as a exclusive bonus though.
Lyrics from NA shared by Eclipse:
I really like the way she wrote abt racism into these lines. It has sass w/ a little bit of sarcasm. This is shaping up to be a really great song, both lyric and production-wise
The way we're all gonna come on here tomorrow with an iron fist and make delusional countdowns followed by a cat fight over the whole June 1st debacle which will take up 20 pages that Elle will have to move to the random lana discussion thread while handing out warning points is a premonition we all know will happen
Love Again single cover. It's... interesting? I actually think the picture itself is kind of a serve, but what did they do to her logo snsnsns?
Music video to be announced tomorrow, apparently produced by the same company that did the Physical video. BlackoutZone says it's a serve and she's not wearing that makeup in most of it.
Okay, enough of all this fake "insider" information that's been getting everyone's knickers in a knot...now it's time for some 'Real Tea - Outsider Edition 2021'
Guys, Gals, Nonbinary pals, let me introduce you to my 'Grand Uniting Theory Of The Great Interconnectedness Of All Things LDR' in which I will attempt to persuade all of you that we have all been mere pawns in a real life social experiment, the weirdness of which surpasses anything David Lynch himself could come up with!
Y'all have been sitting here wondering whether or not July 4th is going to be a real release date, when in reality, it doesn't actually matter. What really matters is what that date represents: America in all her red, white & blue splendour. Because 'Red White And Blue' is actually the key to cracking the Lana Del Rey code.
We all know that Lana frequently references these three colours in so many of her songs, but there's more to it than that: these are how she has colour coded her album releases from BTD onwards.
BTD is a 'Red, White And Blue' coloured album. It is dripping in American iconography/references and the photos/stills from it frequently feature Stars & Stripes flags.
UV is a 'White' album. From the tee-shirt that she's wearing on the cover to the multiple references throughout, it screams white.
HM is a 'Blue' album. Again from the visuals and also from multiple references
LFL is a 'Red' album. It is a red hot, cherry, wine and jam-packed rouge coloured, if confusing album.
Remember, all albums feature her mentioning r, w & b throughout, so don't be distracted by the micro, think thematically macro for this. Anyway, next we have:
NFR. Another 'Red, White And Blue' album. Again with multiple references to America and another Stars & Stripes flag on the cover, this time it's a slightly different, almost oppositional version of Americana - the title itself being a tongue-in-cheek reference to Rockwell's wholesome, trad interpretation of an American era gone by. (And BAR defo belonged on a r/w.b album)
COCC is another 'White' album. The first single being 'White Dress' and the white cover and many other references/images of pearls and chemtrails etc.
BB therefore is going to be another 'Blue' album. Or rather the album that BB is going to be on (it doesn't matter either way, we're worrying about the wrong details here folks) is another 'Blue' album.
Which means that LDR9 (whether it's already in production, has been made or whatever) is going to be another 'Red' album. That might possibly be something that plays into the RCS imagery that many have supposed. Maybe it WILL be more confrontational lyrically too, which is a very red coloured concept. But all this still allows for the possibility of a double 'Red & Blue' album for those who are holding out hope for a glorious twofer.
But then that leaves us wondering what comes next. Well, I think that it could be one of two things. LDR10 will either be another 'Red, White And Blue' album that will see her first proper release and (what I believe will be) her last album bookended with 'Red, White & Blue' coloured albums. And I do think that LDR10 will be her actual 'Swan Song'. The number is nice and round and it would giver her just the right amount of time to then retire off to a Kate Bush-esque self-imposed sequestering, where she is able to have and raise a child. Whether or not she will get married first will remain to be seen, but in 'This Is How To Disappear' she talked of the cats and the kid in the yard. She already has the cats in place, she just needs to disappear in order to have and raise little Clementine in a blissfully remote location, away from the public.
Or the final album LDR10 could take a different direction which may already have been hinted at somewhat. We've already covered how she frequently uses the colours r, w & b in her songs. But what's the other colour she mentions all the time?
Black. LDR10 could be her 'Black Album'. Not exactly in the same vein as Metallica (lol) but it could be her moment where she finally lets loose and goes 'Fuck You!' to everyone who ever doubted her, criticised her or snubbed her. Maybe it'll be that revenge album we've all heard and speculated about so much. Who knows. I do think that either the final album being either a last 'Red, White And Blue' album or her 'Black' album finale are what the cards hold for us, if the LDR Code is pointing us in the right direction. And we've all been calling her albums 'eras' in their singular form up until now, but what if the era's were 2 separate movements, each spearheaded with an 'American' r, wh & b vibe album, with 3 subsequent colour-themed albums under them for each era. It makes sense being as she loves 3's. Her albums often have triumvirates of songs (like, there were 3 Lolita referenced songs on BTD - a book that itself holds a mirror up to America, via the eyes of both its emigre author and emigre antihero) - even a lot of her songs have 3 movements (verse, pre-chorus, chorus) But TBH she really just loves numbers and playing with them in general. She sees meaning in them and likes how the play into her overall 'master plan'.
And I believe she's had all this planned out for a while now...showing us all sides to her, all her influences, all her musical tastes etc. Those first albums were big production, then from NFR onward the next ones are less cinematic, more introspective. The eras are a mirror of each other...mirroring being a trick the mistress herself uses in so many of her songs. And 'Burnt Norton' being an excerpt from 'Four Quartets' - a metaphysical poem by T.S. Eliot - also feels like her sending a message about her plans & schemes:
"Time present and time past, are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present, all time is unredeemable."
To me this just speaks to the grand plan she has in place: the echoes/mirroring of sampling from previous eras, the foreshadowing, and the frequent use of repeated imagery. After UV dropped, critics were already panning her for what they saw as overused cliqued references; but if my theory makes sense these repeated references act like solid touchstones in a maelstrom of other ordered chaos that allows for a sense of continuity outside of coloured album grouping, number preferences and mirroring.
I honestly think that most of her known career has been gamified. From the terrible vocal of that 1st SNL performance (which got her way more attention than a normal good performance would) to all the "leaked" songs that then never made it onto albums (which I actually think she leaked herself) to her 'QFTC' which stirred up a ton of attention, and now with the "selphies" era which again everyone is talking about. She knows what she's doing. Even the release of a song called 'Text Book' - which has old BTD/UV/HM vibes - is a total dig at those of us who keep saying how we want her to make more 'Lana-esque' songs again. Like "Okay, so you liked me better back then, well here you go stans!"
And I think perhaps this all came into being in her mind after her original AKA album wasn't well received and she decided to use some media savvy tricks to not only create a persona that has captivated and confused everyone for a decade now, but also send repeated "fuck yous" to the media and music press and critics in so many songs in almost all of her albums. I feel we're all at the mercy of a genius who has been wreaking her "revenge" from day one and has reeled the haters in bit by bit, with her gradual shift in tonality, lyricism and structure. Starting off big, then gradually bringing us all around to the sound of AKA (with songs like PSB) it's like she's taken us by the nose and dragged us all around to the point where both we AND the critics/music industry are praising her for a sound she was already embodying right from day one. She done played us good y'all!
It's a fantastic "How do you like me now?" moment that she foreshadowed way back in the day. Think about it. She was singing about how do you like me now I'm on the radio, on a song that came from her first proper commercial album to get a big(ish) release to the GP. She's already talking up how she's going to be viewed differently as she gets more hype, attention and airplay...at a time when she hadn't been in a place to see the good reception that BTD et al actually got. How does that work?
"She laughs, like God, her mind's like a diamond"
I mean when I put it all like that I know it sounds incredibly Machiavellian, but as a student of philosophy she'll be well versed in what that truly means. "Anyone can start again, not by love by from revenge, through the fire we're born again, peace by vengeance brings the end." <--- if this isn't a hint at what was to come I don't know what is. She wants to burn out not fade away and she's been hinting at that with all the talk of burning that goes on in all her albums. (Which might just lend more credence to the idea of her final LDR10 album being her 'Black' album after all.) That campy, witchy promo she did for LDR is like her overall approach to creating her entire vision which she has been set on since day one, just with a bit of tinkering as to what era consisted of/what coloured albums she put each song on.
I mean it's dark sure...but it's just a game y'all.
Anyway, thank you for coming to my TED talk. You're welcome. As with all great theories, mine will rely upon its being being tested and possibly disproved by the rest of you. Now discuss, my fellow delulus, discuss! You asked for some tea...now consider it well and truly served.
FIN.
Turns out I can't type as fast as I'd like with my nails this long and my meds not yet fully on board.
Pale Moonlight liked a post in a topic by Glitter Boy in MARINA (and The Diamonds)