Sportscruiser

Just re-listened to this small almost-masterpiece and I agree with the users who labeled this album as introspective. It’s clear that being on the road clearly fueled some inspiration for the making of this record. Yes some songs were made during the NFR sessions but some of them were made afterwards and they serve a specific thematic purpose throughout the entire thing: how the burden of fame started to take a toll on Lana and serve rn as a catalyst to the dreams of living a simpler, more reclusive life. Sadly, the pandemic halted the entire project: it would’ve been nice to see a proper rollout; even beyond that, I wish Lana had capitalized on the concept of the bored and aloof housewife she teased for that video Charlie made for Interviewmag. After NFR’s exploration of the collapse of the American Dream, it would have been nice to see Lana exploring an aesthetic and overall aching theme of a rich housewife who longs for something else even if she, by choice, chose to live that kind of life. Can you imagine if she had expanded on that? I can already imagine the Petra Collins visuals for the album artwork. All of this with blonde Lana! Ugh, sometimes I wish I was her creative manager.

We have snippets of those??

Why are you always so abrasive when you’re defending your opinions? Pop culture is in a very particular wavelength where everything is meant to be consumed as fast as possible: songs are chopped up and sped to fit minute-sized videos and fancaps and also to suit the latest trends until the the next ones come along. It comes with no surprise that most people that dwell in the internet and are more likely to be exposed to Lana’s music aren’t quite inclined to listen to longer songs like Kintsugi and Fingertips when they’re the same people who propelled easier-to-digest songs like Boy’s a Liar Pt.2 to mainstream success. Longer, more introspective songs that have no interest in catering to the mainstream’s sensibilities and trends have always been a constant in music, ranging from artists like Björk and Tori Amos to Jeff Buckley and Radiohead among so many others, most of whom are clear influences and inspirations to Lana. It’s ok to not like them but to use spotify stats as a determining factor as to why an artist like Lana - who spent her entire career fighting to have the right to swim against the tide to the beating of her own drum - is being less successful is pointless. Every time people questioned why she was doing things a certain way instead of more obvious alternatives, she proved time and time again that following her gut and honoring her whims is exactly why she’s one of the most respected and celebrated artists working today.

Kintsugi and Fingertips are essential in Lana’s discography. The foggy examinations of grief, loss, memory and trauma with such delicate instrumentation as the sonic foundation are just lyrical pearls that deserve to go down in the songwriting history books. No one’s doing it like her.

I love Chemtrails and always will! One of my faves.

This is so Joni Mitchell in the most Lana way possible. I’m actually lowkey obsessed with it.

Pawn Shop Blues

Why can’t she have an official account managed by her team or something

I feel like we have this conversation once every two days Anyways, I’m so glad someone mentioned Grandfather as an exemple of great Lana production. Even my mom, who finds Lana kind of boring and dreary, absolutely loves Grandfather. It’s ethereal, majestic and it feels epic. For LDRX I’d kill for either grunge or shoegaze as the next genre for her to tackle.

Actually I don’t, @lanaismamom. I don’t know/remember which chat member you are honestly and it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. What I was trying to say is that is truly mindboggling the acrobatics some of you do to distill such hatred towards a Lana record, to a point where you say absolutist things like “NFR is objectively bad/basic/boring” while always failing to provide any nuance to the discussion. I would love to have a conversation with a NFR hater that doesn’t think it’s edgy to dismiss the project altogether as if there’s nothing in the record worth commending. One of my best friends doesn’t quite like Honeymoon (my fave Lana album) and we’ve had plenty of convos about why it doesn’t click for her so I assume it’s possible to talk among Lana fans about our/their unpopular opinions.

I would say the same but all the NFR hate comments mesh together for me. The redundancy of it all.

People really like to throw the word objectively around like it’s nothing.

This album is monumental.

This post was a rollercoaster.

This concert was everything. What an honor to be her fan.

Love this album. I’m obsessed with Lightning… truly In Your Eyes’ little sis

Kim Petras hasn’t done anything remotely interesting since the Halloween EP. Catering to the masses is costing the edge she had. I really don’t like this song but Nicki did the best she could with it.

American Whore 1. Cartwheel 2. Mother 3. Come Into My Bedroom 4. American Whore 5. Teenage Diary of a Girl 6. Princess/Divisive 7. Fucked Up My Story 8. Sidepiece at 33 9. God’s a Charlatan (I don’t care if this is the official lyric or not, it eats) 10. Not About Someone To Love Me Anymore

Her debut album is strong enough to set her apart from most of debut only artists, I think.

Oh I’m very much aware of her activism and importance in the music industry but I still think making other people audition for you is a bit too much; I have a big problem with diva-ish celebrities not named Mariah Carey.

I love the lighting and the color palettes but the rest… Also, that interview makes Joan Baez look like a total asshole. Not her acting like she’s Simon Cowell and people have to audition for her

I’d argue Ocean contains more NFR melodies/samples (A&W circles back to NFR title track, Fingertips/Bartender, Let The Light In/Love Song, etc) and references (Sweet tracing back to The Greatest’s line of “doing nothing at all”, etc). Chemtrails and NFR have similar production values but their themes are inherently different: NFR has a more widespread, bird’s eye view of the world in which Lana is sometimes a mere spectator/narrator of everything around her (much like she was already being in the back half of LFL) while Chemtrails turns inward and leans heavily on the Midwest country-folk aesthetic and sonic sensibilities. NFR is grandiose and majestic while Chemtrails is shy, timid and more introspective. It’s too easy to dismiss the latter as a collection of B-sides when in reality there’s a clear purpose and thematic approach in Chemtrails that an album like, say, Blue Banisters doesn’t quite possess - that purpose is to me strong enough to distinguish itself from what she accomplished with NFR which is why it’s always been strange to me that so many fans insist on both sounding the same. I just for the life of me can’t see it. Its also diminishing of Chemtrails importance in her discography. Chemtrails traces the very first impulses in Lana’s of-late tendencies in delving deep into her past (White Dress alone is a testament to that) while also manifesting a very anti-fame/desire to escape everything mantra that NFR quite simply didn’t even touch. Regardless of when each track was recorded and/or written, both albums feel very distinct to me - as practically all Lana albums are in my opinion. Blue Banisters is my least favorite precisely because it’s the one Lana album that is decidedly more fragmented and unfocused, deliberately so. With Ocean she’s made it obvious that she wanted to touch every single one of her last eras as far as sonority goes which could make for an abrasive and chaotic experience but that ultimately succeeds because of the specific songwriting and lyrical concept.

This is abhorrent.

NFR is indie rock with surf rock elements here and there. It’s quite cohesive and sunny-sounding throughout. Chemtrails leans heavily on indie folk and its sonority suggests a more autumnal aesthetic. That the GP still manages to affirm these two albums sound the exact same is completely mind boggling to me. Their themes are different and the soundscapes diverge to different genres (although sharing similar sensibilities) but people took Jack Antonoff producing both albums and WAH sampling HTD and ran with it.