Embach

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). Thank you for the information @lanaismamom

I love the outtakes like Architecture and Yosemite and I'm very sure that Poetry In Motion and Everything I Do and Silverlake sound amazing too but I wouldn't replace any song from LFL. I love all the songs so much although I have hard time connecting with Groupie Love. But I really can't imagine the tracklist being different. It all makes sense for me. All the songs there have some kind of point (I posted about it in LFL's post-release thread). I mean I understand people who hate hip hop songs like the Rocky songs but still

I think that NFR is an amazing masterpiece but I'm not like blaming you that you prefer and love something else instead of NFR. The thing is that Jack's production is not your cup of tea and I accept that. Although the "slander" tiny bit hurt me

Definitely under 100 because BOZ said that Lana never created over 100 songs during an era but LFL era sessions have the biggest amount of songs though. I realised that we need Mighty Mike outtakes because he was the additional producer for 13 Beaches and Heroin!

It was probably one of his 😍🚀❤ hype strategies

We need Mark Ronson and Dan Heath outtakes/demos!!!!! Absolutely timeless masterpiece, my all-time favorite album forever and ever!!!!!

I found a color version of it but I don't know if it's helpful!

It was Ben (or Ed) and he said it in an Insta story. Around when Blue Banisters was released? Or before? It was 100% in 2021 though! He could've said in an interview during BTD's 10th birthday too, I'm starting to overthink now

I think that the lyric from Crazy For You - "Well, I've been dreaming about you but I've been singing with him, I feel bad about it" - sums that situation perfectly up

Late June 2014 (on 24th if I'm not wrong) Lana said to the media that they have broken up and that way Barrie found out that they had broken up 💀

Hey @Unknown You're always welcomed here and you can always come here to talk more about the outtakes and recording process from different eras! 🪐

Yeah but Valley Of The Dolls is from The Last Shadow Puppets album, like California. Because Zach Dawes produced it.

I think that early she started writing songs which started to question everything: Lust For Life demo - questions about her fame Heroin - questions about her life and life in general Get Free - questions about her future 13 Beaches - questions about relationships/fame Architecture - questions about her ex/past Later she wrote kind of songs that are more anxious and doubtful and also wanting to be hopeful: Cherry, Change, War, Tomorrow, White Mustang, In My Feelings, Coachella, Lust For Life, Summer Bummer, Beautiful People/Problems. Then there are songs that outside look positive but inside are sad: Love (just accepting things they way they are), Groupie Love (trying to live with fame), God Bless America (trying to live alone). Of course this is my interpretation. But this is the way I have always seen the album.

Ok, let me handle it. I'm certain that my following unoopular opinion/theory is (very) controversial AND LONG! The so-called "witchy dreamy spacey cosmic folky psychedelic ambient" original concept is a myth. I don't think that the "witchiness" was even the goal for the album. I have also thought that Lana wasn't really certain either what she wanted for the album. Once in 2015 she talked about her thoughts on the new album "like a New York record, less dreamy and more upbeat". Then in 2016 (at the Pre-Grammy Gala?) she said that the upcoming album will have a similar aesthetic with Honeymoon, although in February 2017 Insta livestream she said that LFL will have a retro-futuristic aesthetic. But the album has also Woodstock/1960s-70s hippie aesthetics which are also seen on the album cover which was shot already in June/July 2016 (the hippie-peace inspired looks were also seen in the Festival Tour 2016). Also at first she made some Shangri-Las inspired songs, then after Donald Trump's victory in November 2016, she started to make more politically oriented songs. Also to think that in 2016 she made electro-pop version of Say Yes To Heaven. Then she also was in relationship with G-Eazy in Spring 2017 which in result she started to make more songs. In an interview with a radio in early 2017, she (and later in an another interview Rick Nowels) also said that the album will be mix of everything, that will have different genres. It's either two options: • she was unsure what to do with the album • it was intentional and I believe this theory more, because you can see that the album's sound has mix from the sound of her old eras (baroque pop, dream pop, hip-hop, trap, trip hop) and the sound of her upcoming/newer sound (folk, acoustic ballads, folktronica, Americana) which are seen in NFR, COTCC and so on. The collaborations were 100% intentional because Abel and Rocky were important people in the start of her breakthrough and Nicks/Lennon are kind of her idols, so she wanted to show people where is she heading to. That's why she later dedicated to the fans because she was saying goodbye to her "old-self", her old sound. I feel like that was kind of her point the whole time.

Lana songs aren't really that scary for me but if there's a song (and video) that has creepy vibes then it's probably the 2007 live version of Brite Lites. The loud horror-like guitar and the red low quality video makes it look like it's from the dark web which went viral in the late 2000s and people started making creepypastas of it. Not gonna lie, I love it actually, even if the guitar sounds weird

I don't know if any of you care about this or have seen this but I think it's a fitting thread to post this. It's the composite screen of Lust For Life title track with its 129 mixes/stems. Her mixers Kieron Menzies and Dean Reid shared this photo in an interview where they discussed about LFL album in general.

We might have Hope Is A Dangerous Thing demo from Honeymoon era and/or Lust For Life era because I remember in an interview from December 2018, Lana said that she had written Hope for 3 years.

I'm pretty sure? He was the one who played the synths too.

Is it possible that some of the LFL era outtakes were reworked in NFR era too? I remember Honeymouns said that Lana sent Jack some LFL era concept demos. I kinda think that Happiness Is A Butterfly demo is from LFL era. Because Rick was the co-writer of the song. It could also be from the Bartender sessions too.

It's most likely included in my almost-10-pages long analysis of Lust For Life album I wrote, it's from late 2020/early 2021. If I find it and I have done some corrections, I think I'll post it separetely somewhere (maybe I'll make a blog for it? We'll see). And yes, I'm crazy for that, since Seotember 2020, I spent like every day analysing the album. I still do it sometimes...

In the trailer she hinted the collaborations when she was "cooking" (Abel's XO sign and Sean Ono Lennon's label logo). I think the trailer's monologue corresponds to the album more than the visuals and I feel like the monologue was point of the trailer. (few years ago I made a whole list of references from the trailer that mentioned the album, if I find it, I'll write them down here)

I honestly think that we already have the full RBFY (the one minute version she shared on Instagram). It was meant to be just an intro, I can't really imagine it being longer.

Didn't BOZ say that some time she changed the album's name to a lead single or something? And changed the tracklist also. Arcadia was the lead single of the album though. It was in June 2021 when she met Drew Erickson and they started making new songs. I think it's a random "nickname" for the song. I haven't seen it registred like that. It's same kind of nickname like Love Song was In Your Car ect.

When Coachella was released, I loved it so much (I still love it, one of my favorites, I'm probably the only fan of the song) and the whole time I listened to the song, there were like hate comments everywhere. I do find the song kind of "unusual" but it doesn't mean it's bad. I'd like to add some strings to the song though

Yeah I agree, I think if it had the "alleged" slow sound like the LFL demo and such, it would've had lukewarm reception like COTCC had (although I adore COTCC and it didn't deserve the hate) from the fans and GP. (Although when LFL album was released its reception was great from fans and GP until it started receiving hate from fans in 2018?) My unpopular opinion is that the Lust For Life album we have, is flawless and perfect but that's of course matter of taste and choices. Without the so-called changes and the final product of the current Lust For Life, we definitely wouldn't have NFR and all the albums what followed it.