PARADISEMOTEL

i know billboard isnt really supposed to be hard hitting critical analysis, but my god the fact that someone got paid to write an article that is the equivalent of a lanaboards members post in this thread 
 
music journalism is dead

The way even Judas Interlude is working today for some reason.

She said it herself on ig, the reviews aren't supposed to be good! This is NFR, if NFR had imperfections and cracks because THAT'S HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN (tm) the girls who get it, get it and the girls who don't, DON'T. The first half of the album is her spilling her guts out about her fear of dying alone, being forgotten, losing her family, losing at love, finding herself to be the AMERICAN WHORE at 33 over wacky piano ballads and trippy interludes. She knew this was going to be too much for the basic BITCHES of Slant magazine or whatever... so as a result, the closing act of the album has her embracing her confidence, feeling sexy, addressing concerns that she was manufactured by a team, and finally reminds them that she knows they hate her. 
 
Anyway, all this to say an 80 on MC is excellent critical acclaim iktr 

ROCKEFELLA MY UMBRELLA GOD I LOVE U BABY

Now that I’ve listened to it a lot of times, I think my opinion is mostly formed. Def one of my fav Lana albums, I love most of these songs. My favs are Fingertips, A&W, Kintsugi, The Grants, Title Track, Candy Necklace, Paris Texas, Let the Light In, Margaret, Peppers, Taco Truck x VB. So many fun and beautiful tracks, great production and vocals throughout. However, there are some things I really do not like about the album, starting off with Judah Smith. I’m sorry but I am not religious and I am just not down at all with giving this self righteous cishetero white man egomaniac a platform! That is so gross omg. Like why are you screaming are you OK Judah? Skip skip skip skip skip skip. A thousand times skip. I want to unlisten to this atrocious track and remove it from existence forever. The instrumental is nice though. In general I’m not in love with the religious themes on this album. Also, many heavy handed and cringe lyrics. “I’m not that smart but I have things to say”, “that’s why they call me Lanita”, “if you want some basic bitch go down to the Beverly Center to find her”. Major pick me vibes. I enjoy the kind of baroque fairy tail lullaby vibe that a lot of these songs have to an extent, but at times it all gets a little bit too syrupy for me. Like Sweet and Grandfather, I would have saved these tracks for when the Mouse comes calling and needs a song for a movie soundtrack. Or for that Broadway musical she was supposedly working on years ago. These songs are just overly sentimental and cutesy, Grandfather straight up sounds like Jesus camp music to me.  
 
So my skips are Judah, Sweet, and Grandfather. And despite some major bumps on the road, I think the album is an overall a home run. Really hope her Metacritic stays above an 80, and I feel she could have had Metacritic 90 if she had just removed a few of the cringe moments. But that’s always how it goes with Lana, we have to take the beauty with a side of chaos and cringe.

Jon batiste gave us a haunted UV 2.0 preview and I'm grateful 

starting to think Sweet might be the underrated one of this album  it’s so good I hate Drew Erickson for this sm 

not everyone can appreciate excellence

the piano on judah smith interlude is so dark and beautiful

Tbh haven’t been on here much lately so I haven’t read anyone’s thoughts about it, but seen a lot of people hating Judah’s interlude on twitter and lowkey…? I’m kinda enjoying it.
 
Ignoring whatever he might preach about (i know nothing about him and don’t really care to learn) His voice with the instrumentation behind it is so haunting, and is honestly such a great bridge between a&w and candy necklace. Could definitely be much shorter though, lana laughing is cute but doesn’t really fit the vibe to me idk, also i can only listen to someone talking for so long - should’ve been 2:30 tops 
 
Jon’s interlude is basically just a glorified outro to candy necklace, but it’s pretty, and i like that it’s a separate track so i don’t have to listen to it every time i listen to candy necklace 

Jack’s part of Margaret sounds like it was recorded on a potato 

Major taste 

A&W - JS - CN - JB  is probably my favorite run currently 

i honestly really liked the interludes. they add so much to the album’s atmosphere. i especially loved the jon batiste interlude

it hasn’t dethroned honeymoon but definitely nfr

I wish it was, I went onto genius and saw it was Margaret but… we can just say it’s chuck right

Lana is truly THE artist of our generation. In fact, I think she’s one of the greatest of all time
 
OB is the most fascinating body of work she’s ever released. The fact that she goes SO deeply into every aspect of her past, touches on uncomfortable feelings with candour (the line about being “super suicidal” in Candy Necklace anyone?), and also makes a cohesive link back to tracks/eras from her entire career, including the Lizzy Grant days, is MINDBLOWING
 
My favourites
 
⭐️ Candy necklace surprisingly catchy and also quite eerie especially as it ended. I wasn’t a fan of JB’s solo vocals at the end which is the only part I didn’t enjoy. Contextually it’s very rich and I’m going to listen to it and analyse the themes and subtext properly later 
 
⭐️ Kintsugi I lost a family member recently and this hit me HARD. But it’s so comforting at the same time. There were some bits I was confused about though - what’s with “There's somethin' about the clutch of the wrist / He thought mine was his to carve into his mouth” ? To me it almost sounded like SA/physical abuse (linking back to A&W) but that wouldn’t really fit with the context of the song so idk. Also the line “by the third of March I was cracked open”, does anyone know what this refers to?
 
⭐️ Let the light in this is lowkey so sexy?? (I’m going to be crass and ask: are these two fucking fr?) It’s lyrically very lizzyesque
 
⭐️ Fishtails also sexy?? The description on genius said it’s about Lana and Chuck though and I’m like… well I certainly HOPE not. I know they kissed but :/ I love the auto tune, it’s an interesting new technique from Lana. Also I love the callback to Jump “palm trees in black and white, I love to see them sway” vs “palm trees in black and white, last thing I saw before I died”
 
⭐️ Peppers ok I’d never heard of TG before and from the name thought it was a dude and I was MAD. Like I don’t want to hear some guy singing on what’s allegedly a sexy song. I was so relieved it wasn’t lmao. I just wish Lana had joined in a bit more on the chorus
 
⭐️ TT x VB I actually preferred the leaked snippet of TT. Even though it was lq it sounded really gritty and dirty, and the final version was just a bit TOO polished. Also I feel like the bit with Margaret speaking in the middle could’ve literally been anything else. Like get Alana or Chuck to say something.. that would’ve been cool. Idk it just seemed pointless thanks Jack. HOWEVER this version of VB is the only one I’ll accept from now on. It’s so hot and grimy. “Not tonight lake placid” ICONIC
 
Fingertips is also a favourite but I need a whole separate post for that because it’s so complex
 
I skipped through the interludes as well because I just couldn’t be bothered with them. JA shouted too much and JB’s one was just creepy. I might go back and give them another listen at some point but I’m not a fan 
 
 
 

I used to think my preaching was mostly about You
but I'm gonna to tell you the truth
I've discovered my preaching is mostly about me

it's weird because I got an SA vibe from that line in kintsugi but I couldn't piece together what it meant in context 

first of all this album is AMAZING. i need to spend more time with all the songs but on first listen my faves are candy necklace, A&W, fingertips, paris, texas, peppers and taco truck 

my attempt at a ranking:
 
1. Paris, Texas (that piano... )
2. Grandfather 
3. Let the Light In
4. Taco Truck
5. Margaret
6. Ocean Blvd
7. Candy Necklace
8. Kintsugi
9. Judah Smith Interlude 
10. The Grants
11. A&W 
12. Sweet
13. Jon Batiste Interlude
14. Fingertips
15. Peppers
16. Fishtail (it's a grower for me, this will probably change)

Rockafella...
My umbrella...
God I love you baby
Fortune teller...
 

let the light in gives me the same vibe as tomorrow never came which is one of my favorites from lfl, i didn’t expect to like it this much 

going to get crucified as a minority but peppers was one of my least favorites if not my least favorite.. I liked the lyrics (aside from hands on your knees) but the production/chorus was not it for me…that said stream candy necklace

God there's something so eerie about the piano on this album