Born to Die - Post-Release Discussion Thread + Poll

[jvcx 3,644]

Listening to the album like  if only she still served high quality music 

[Thunder Revenant 20,943]

On 1/8/2021 at 11:22 AM, Clampigirl said:

Last night, I read something about that Carmen is another word for drugs? Some people argued for it because of the lines “they all like Carmen, she gives them butterflies”, “her mind’s like a diamond”. Thoughts? I always imagined Carmen to be a girl, a personification of Lana’s teenage years during her alcohol abuse.

Lana fans are obsessed with everything being a drug metaphor.

[Beautiful Loser 48,808]

56 minutes ago, Electric Body said:

Lana fans are obsessed with everything being a drug metaphor.

That's what I was thinking too lol

[Fireffie 3,668]

I was wondering... since next year it's going to be the 10th anniversary, do you think that we even have a small chance that they'll release something special? I would love to have for example a bonus LP with the demos or maybe an alternative cover. What would you guys want?? 

[Beautiful Loser 48,808]

I don't know what I would like! But it would definitely be time for her to release songs that were intended to be on BTD, like that unreleased album she mentioned a few years ago!

I was also thinking of making some kind of project here with everyone on LB and present it to Lana in some way, but we'll see!

[kallumlavigne 6,066]

19 minutes ago, Fireffie said:

I was wondering... since next year it's going to be the 10th anniversary, do you think that we even have a small chance that they'll release something special? I would love to have for example a bonus LP with the demos or maybe an alternative cover. What would you guys want?? 

 

I'd love for them to do this, it was a big album of the time so it deserves and anniversary edition

[DCooper 36,914]

I had such a glorious walk listening to this album last night. It's so good and sets up Lana's journey as an artist so well. The production is a lot more over-the-top than the rest of her work and she leans into a bit of a caricature at times, but it's all very deliberate and clever. 

 

It's funny (sad) that this wasn't well received by a lot of critics despite being such a knockout debut. I don't even think it's that this album was ahead of its time. I think regardless of when this was released the music industry wouldn't have been ready for Lana. It was her "debut album" but as we know from all her leaked materials she already had an insane amount of fully realized tracks where she explored the darkest and strangest parts of her mind. She blends pop music, dark themes, and evocative imagery so well here and no one knew what to do with her. Critics saying that she must have been a product of the industry because she came out fully formed already is so dumb, as if an artist can't take the time to create something special before releasing it to the world?

 

I've always liked This Is What Makes Us Girls but I've never given it enough credit as the narrative ending to the record, I guess because I always listen to the album with the bonus tracks so it doesn't feel like the conclusion, but now I see that it really is. It's like she's saying goodbye to that more immature persona she inhabits throughout the album and knows it's time to move on to new growth. Even though the song jumps back to a younger Lana, I feel like that experience of leaving those friends behind is a reflection of where she's at by the end of the album and is ready to go through a similar process with herself and the life she's been living.

 

Then comes Paradise, which almost seems like a death and rebirth of the Lana we got to know in Born To Die, leading us seamlessly into Ultraviolence where she's reached a new level of her confidence and maturity and there's no turning back from there. I know there are people that want Lana to return to Born To Die's level of production but I personally am not one of them and I can't really imagine her doing so at this point. I feel like Born To Die was meant to be an isolated sound and experience in some ways, which makes sense given the title and concept of the whole album. Her character here is always walking a fine line between fun and danger, always on the edge and fantasizing about death, even desperately asking for it, but that's not a sustainable mindset. By the end of Born to Die, and especially Paradise, she's put that person behind her and she's grown into a new phase of her life and her artistry. Of course she's continued to explore dark themes her entire career, but she's left behind the teenaged mentality that she explores in Born To Die, and leaving this style in the past only further strengthens both this album and her entire storytelling journey to me.

 

[bloodydriver 4,582]

Happy 9th Birthday! 

 

I remember the first Lana song I listened to was Radio, and I instantly fell in love. The lyrics immediately spoke to me, and let me know that things may one day get better (even if they never become the best). To be honest, I don’t know where I’d be today if it wasn’t for that song or the album. I don’t know where I’d be today if I never discovered Lana. ❤️ 

[electra 20,644]

this album changed my life in ways i could have never understood as a fourteen year year old. i can’t believe this year will be ten years since the debut of video games. this album is so iconic on a pop culture level and iconic to me on a personal level. an alt pop masterpiece. 

[Vanilla Icy 29,602]

give it up for carmen everybody 

[Trash Magic 28,370]

A lot of times I think whoa there’s no way it has been X years since X was released but Born to Die definitely feels 9 years old to me if not older!

 

Don’t find myself ever listening to the album tracks other than Radio and maybe Without You. Of course all the singles stand the test of time (Dark Paradise not included. National Anthem substituted for the eerie and more sparsely produced Demo #2). 

It’s always so weird to me when time passes and I turn the age my favourite artists were when they released some of their most pivotal works. 9 years on she was 2 years older than I am now. It’s weird there always seems to be a huge disconnect when you are a young teen listener enamoured with a twenty-something singer there seems to be some kind of vast, mystic disparity between you both, where it seems they are light years away from you in age but still not “old”. Then before you know it you grow up and realise just how young they were and what an accomplishment and how truly extraordinary the things they achieved were at that age. ?

[PatentLeatherDoOver 25,782]

For me and many others, Born To Die will forever be one of the most game-changing records of we past few decades.
 

As an upcoming artist, Lana managed to produce a perfectly cinematic amalgam of existential hedonism, darkly idyllic Americana, the obsessive sense of invincibility that follows youth, and jarring emotional vulnerability.
 

Executing any of these aspects successfully is a feat of itself, and she managed to encompass all of them with her own stylistic flair in a way that was both cohesive and captivating. Born To Die is forever that bitch. 

[electra 20,644]

i think this album has a strange place in my heart because it kind of feels like it hasn’t aged well but it kind of feels like it has? like when i listen to the music it’s all fantastic. even the worst songs on born to die or the ones that lost their shine are still immaculate songs, but i feel like i’ve internally run this album to the ground. i’m actually going to try listening to this album less in the hopes it’ll be better when i go back.

 

i remember at one point i realised i hadn’t listened to video games in awhile and i cried when i first listened to it again lmaooo. but saying all of this, when the paradise tour leaked it felt like rediscovering this whole era. the dark paradise live studio was so beautiful, it really took me back. i think that’s why i can’t ever say this album hasn’t truly aged well. it’s just an album that’s supported me so much throughout my life that i recognise her all too well.

[ChaoticLipster 24,618]

The album that saved my life literally ..forever in my heart ♥️ 

[FredRed 4,836]

Happy Birthday Born to Die. Crazy that I became a huge fan at my age. I have had the good fortune to see Lana 5 times and start my own YouTube channel. Lanaboards has been been a big part of it. Love to you all. I had no idea it would be such a crazy journey. I am most pleased that BTD is continually being discovered by new audiences.

[Idol Of Roses 673]

Blue Jeans and National Anthem perhaps remain my two most favourite Lana songs of all time.

[GeminiLanaFan 49,030]

Blue Jeans is the first Lana song that caught my heart. I wasn’t a huge fan of BTD at first (some songs struck more than others like the title track, OTTR, Dark Paradise, Diet Mountain Dew, Without You), but after watching the MV, I fell in love with National Anthem and went back to the whole album. I loved the contrast of the strings with the beats, the 60s Americana infusion in the present, the naive idealism of loving someone bad for you. Though it’s not my fave from her, it is so iconic and I return to it a couple of times per year, and I still love the songs and the genius lyrics (the chorus of This Is What Makes Us Girls is brutally honest).

[Platinum Greenwich 13,845]

the vocal acrobatics on OTTR remain superior #LeakOTTRDemo

[hlxon 2,445]

EVERYONE SAY THANK YOU BORN TO DIE AND LET US MOVE ON

 

Get it off the setlists 

[prettywhenimhigh 49,329]

even though I don't listen to the full album that much nowadays, born to die has a special place in my heart and it will stay there until I die

9 years ago... can't believe this. can't believe I was only 15 when this was released and that I love lana now even more than before... time flies and I'm glad my life is so much better than it was 9 years ago, when BTD and unreleaseds were my escapism