I got so interested in this thread that I went way back and really sinked my teeth in everybody’s opinions.
I’ve stated before that I personally disagree with a good chunk of your posts (respectfully so!) but I can’t deny they’re always intriguing and interesting to read. This one in particular kinda voiced what I thought about Blue Banisters (the track) when I heard it for the first time. I have no issue with the direction Lana is taking in her songwriting. It’s ultimately her decision and I support it as a fan but I feel like in between LFL and NFR she found herself in the middle of a crossroad and whatever direction she would pursue would have a price to be paid: she could either stay in the lane she carved from BTD to Honeymoon (elusive, more vague storytelling and an abundant use of metaphors and symbolic imagery) but risk not being taken seriously as en evolving musician and songwriter OR she would deepen her storytelling by bringing up more personal and intimate details into her writing and lose her mysticism and mystery during the process. I think it’s clear which path she chose and it’s even clearer the price she paid for it.
I take NFR (my favorite album of hers alongside Honeymoon) as the perfect middle point between both directions. In that album she managed to convey more intricate lyricism but used it to paint a broader, bigger picture - take songs like The Greatest or Bartender: full of concise and direct references and feelings that relate to her pessimistic views on everything that surrounds her; it felt like her persona as LDR was crumbling down as she tried to get a grasp on the surrounding reality that itself was also falling apart almost in an apocalyptical kind of way. That she managed to combine such a personal, antics-free posture with her known tendency to approach certain subjects with mystery and enough vagueness that made her songs more universal (a good example of this being How To Disappear - an excellent take on male toxicity and how bottling up one’s feelings eventually manifests in violence, emotional impotence and makes people disappear into themselves) is exactly what makes NFR such a potent album in my opinion. She preserved her persona but made it more accessible without risking the entirety of its mysticism and allure. A very very delicate line to tread on but she did it beautifully and that’s probably why NFR appealed to such a wide range of people, from her diehard stans to newfound fans and even people who use to be indifferent/critical of her.
COCC is a strange beast. It doesn’t quite expand on a lot of things she approached on NFR but instead it looks inward; I feel like it’s an album about isolation and emotional inertia. It doesn’t sound as bombastic and fiery as NFR and it’s a lot more discreet and timid. Even in that album there was still some mystery to her more diaristic songs: in WD her vocal delivery really transports the song to an aching realization she was probably happier and freer in the past and by opening up the album with such a strong lyrical and vocal contrast really makes the song sound very intriguing and alluring. I could say the same thing about COCC itself and perhaps even WAH, NAWWAL and BUS. However, tracks like DTWD, DBJAG and TJF were a lot more specific to certain events, certain people, certain occurrences. Couple that with her increasingly polarizing social media presence and her entire mystique is gone. You no longer ask who is she or what does she mean by whatever she says in her songs. At this point you know exactly what she’s referring to and can even pinpoint in a calendar the time stamps in which she met Sean and later broke up with him and the same can be said about Clay.
She has insisted regularly that the previous claims throughout her career that would suggest she feigned emotional authenticity and romanticized abuse and violence in relationships really took a toll on her. Ironically enough, the widespread acclaim of NFR must also have contributed to the opposite of vindication and led her to realize she was never going to be accepted as a fragile, submissive woman - the industry wants a hardened, more emotionally self-sufficient version of herself. You would think this could cause her to return to her old BTD/UV/HM days but that’s practically impossible at this point: with QFTC and everything that happened ever since, she completely shed her persona to pieces and her desire to further dive in to her past won’t restore any type of mysticism or unpredictability; that’s why we get such specific, almost diary-like entries in her songwriting these days: it feels like this her way to reclaim her narrative even though that will inevitably make her change a lot as an artist.
I love her songwriting in general but I can’t possibly pretend I relate to tracks like BB or TB as a whole; the power of Lana for me was the fact that even from very different life experiences she managed to draw universal feelings (many of them ugly and scary) that you could easily and deeply relate to. It’s not like she didn’t lose that ability completely (WW still wrecks me to this day and I relate to a good portion of it) and she doesn’t necessarily have to do it but she’s of course risking losing a part of her fanbase. Does she care though?
I’ll wait until BB is released. I have a feeling the album has something up its sleeve that we’re not quite ready for. It might be a determinant career step for her in a few ways though. Let’s see where she goes from here.
Btw apologies for the long ass testament and I’m sorry if my English isn’t the best. I hope y’all have a great Sunday!
I may be completely wrong on this one but I find it strange to think LMLYLAM was written in the same era as anything on UV… the lyricism is so post-LFL. Am I missing something here?