I was so shocked when I found out that 'If I Die Young' and 'Cry Kill Die' were considered for 'Honeymoon'. They sound more like 'Lust for Life' to me.
Here, we discuss about the writing/recording sessions, production, lyrics, collaborators, outtakes, visuals, themes and the behind of scenes of making of albums "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" and "Chemtrails Over The Country Club".
Already starting in 2017, Lana's creative process began to take a slightly different direction, completely changing with the meeting of Jack Antonoff - one of the main producers of the next five years, and now we will try to tell you how Lana's creative process went with the new producer.
A complete sound change in early 2018 is preceded by a six-month period in Lana's work, during which she had a writer's block and had few new ideas coming to her until late 2017, and because of that her creative journey had several paths to follow:
1. The release of a follow-up album to "Lust for Life, which was to include an original version of the song "Best American Record", "Silverlake" and other "Lust for Life" outtakes. Those plans were canceled after a Jack Antonoff meeting in very early 2018;
2. To continue working on the sixth album (which would later become "Norman Fucking Rockwell!") with Rick Nowels. So, during this period several songs were made: "Bartender" (which would later become part of the sixth album) and unknown sessions through the end of 2017, during which a number of unknown tracks were made, one of them - "Get Dark", that was recorded in September 2017.
But in January 2018, Lana contacted Jack, and he suggested we "meet, sit down, and just start doing something." Before meeting him, Lana expected him to have some ready-made beat ideas she could use, for Jack's production history is mostly pop-oriented, but Lana would later reveal, ". he spent hours playing chords, and he plays the piano so well that some of the things that he writes, like just melodically, really - it's kind of a classic - and in my case it ended up being more folk-oriented.", "...and in the first week I had two songs that I thought were probably the two best songs that I'd ever written." Here she's probably referring to "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it" and "Love Song," which were ready the day Lana and Jack first met (January 29, 2018) *Lana told Vogue Korea in an interview that the process of writing "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it" took her 3 years*.
For the next year and a half, Lana continued to work on the music exclusively with Jack, describing their process as "(Jack) played me five chords in a row, which ended up becoming a new song each time". Unfortunately, we are almost unaware of the timeline of Lana's creative process on her sixth album, "Norman Fucking Rockwell!", except for the dates of work on the released tracks, which are presented below:
- "Venice bitch" (the first version was done in February 2018 [the same version used at the end of the track "Taco Truck x VB"]; the final version was done on June 26, 2018);
- "Norman fucking Rockwell" (the track was reworked from the "Bird World" song, which was made January 29, 2018; final version made June 27, 2018);
- "Happiness is a butterfly" (originally titled "Happiness"; first version was made in March 2018; final version made June 30, 2018);
- "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it" (originally called "Sylvia" and "Sylvia Plath"; first version made January 29, 2018; final version made August 4, 2018);
- "Love Song" (first version made January 29, 2018; final version made August 6, 2018);
- "Mariners apartment complex" (originally titled "I'm Your Man"; first version made February 2018; final version made August 31, 2018);
- "Cinnamon Girl" (originally titled "Cinnamon"; first version made October 2018; final version made December 18, 2018);
- "California" (track is a reworking of a song from 2017; final version made January 18, 2019);
- "How to disappear" (first version made in October 2018; final version made January 20, 2019);
- "The greatest" (first version made in 2018/2019; final version made February 13, 2019);
Undisclosed dates:
- "Bartender" (the track was made in 2017 with Rick Nowles; for the first time, Lana revealed the track's existence on January 28, 2018, and said it "does not yet belong on an upcoming record"; the track played on Lana's sister Chuck Grant [Chuck Grant]'s Instagram Stories on May 10, 2018);
- "The Next Best American Record" (a reworked version of the track "Best American Record"; it is unknown when Lana reworked the track and when it became part of her sixth album);
RMF Classic Radio on November 3, 2018 once again confirmed what Lana had said on September 18, 2018, that the album was to be released in late March and that there would be 11 tracks on it (which ones are unknown). Also, in December 2018, MTV UK reported that the album would be released on March 29, 2019, and in December, Lana reported that the album was completely finished and also liked an article stating a March release date for the album.
Up to March 29th, various information from different sources kept coming in, either denying or confirming the album's release in March. But when March 29th came, the album was not released for unknown reasons.
Over the next 5 months, Lana makes two new songs for the record (Doin' Time [April 2019] and Fuck it I love you [July 2019]), and the world premiere of Lana's sixth studio album Norman Fucking Rockwell! took place on August 30, 2019, and songs made during sessions for the album but not included are:
- "Not All Who Wonder Are Lost" (originally titled "Wanderlust"; the track was made during the sessions for "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" but the original version was released on the next album, "Chemtrails Over the Country Club");
- "Valley of the Dolls" (concept demo, was made February 14, 2017 during sessions with The Last Shadow Puppets; later sent as a track idea along with some other unknown tracks for revision to Jack Antonoff; the track was never revised by him);
- "LA Who Am I" (snippet; the track was likely made just for fun, and is a reworked version of the track "LA Who Am I to Love You" from 2016);
- "Talking like an Answering Machine" (the song was first listed on Buma/Sterma and there were rumors that the song was not made until 2018; the chances that the song is real and refers to Lana are higher than that the song is unreal);
- "Bombastic" Outtakes (told by Jack Antonoff during an interview that tracks with an "explosive" sound were made during the sessions for the album that remain unleaked);
- Rick Nowels Outtakes (it was revealed that there are songs made by Rick Nowels for the sixth studio album that remain unleaked).
- "Jimmy" part from "A&W" (In an interview for Rolling Stones, Jack Antonoff talked about the process of making "Jimmy" and "that they had created a while back" suggesting that it was made during the NFR sessions).
Is it true that Queen of Disaster is being taken down from TouTube too? 👀
(I know it never means anything and it happens all the time without any official release, but still)
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