Chemtrails Over the Country Club - Post-Release Discussion Thread + Poll

[Thunder Revenant 20,943]

3 hours ago, drugmunny said:

this album has high highs and low lows. but definitely not her worst album idk how people can continue to say that when LFL literally exists 

As someone who does not like either very much, this is mypersonal reason for saying this:

CoCC is more coherent and its "lows" aren't as low as the ones on LFL.

However that "coherent" soundscape is a pretty bleak and dull one.  The "highs" can't really compete with any of the strong cuts from other albums. I remember how I listened to the title track on spotify when it came out and the algorithm played MAC right after, which COMPLETELY overshadowed it, although it's not even one of my favourite Lana-songs.

Each of CoCC's better songs relies on basically one interesting element - the raspy vocals on White Dress, the BtD reminiscence of the title track, the sultry undertones of TJF - but all of those are barelly strong enough to carry through the whole track. Each song instantly reveals where their quality lies, but after the first chorus is over, the thrill is pretty much gone and there is'nt anything happening to keep the listeners attention/interest for the rest of the track's runtime.

LFL has some of her most fun and exciting tracks, its highs are much higher and even though the album as a whole may be incoherent as fuck, most of the songs - even the weaker one - feel fully fleshed out and carefully put together.

[maysparkle 2,419]

I’m up at night with pain and on klonopin and Chemtrails is really hitting right now… it’s such a cozy intimate album. Sounds amazing on headphones. It might not be her strongest, lyrically, but there is an atmosphere that deserves recognition. Only Lana can do that. 

[TessaDiPietro 147]

Chemtrails is definitively my favortite album to sing along too 

 

From the whispery white dress vocal to the barritone voice of wild at heart to trying to mimick the duet on breaking up slowly it's just so fun !!! I litterally cannot listen to this record without singing

[Sportscruiser 11,894]

This album is so special…. I just wish the back half was a little stronger. Turn For Free into a solo song with the damn saxophone outro the original has and add a couple stronger songs in the second half of the album and you have a folk masterpiece. The soundscape of this one is so cohesive and intimate… I don’t think it’s as good as Honeymoon is (still her album with the best production she’s ever done, hands down) but it’s up there in terms of cohesion and flow.

 

It deserved more investment, a better standard cover (my signature would have been perfect!!!) and a deeper look at the themes and aesthetic she presented with that fascinating Interview Mag video essay she did!

[Bettie Page 2,111]

This album saved my life, it also was released on my birthday 🤍 I love you Lana!!

 

[details 17,163]

dark but just a game doesn't get talked about enough as the best track from this album, those portishead verses + oasis chorus… pure 90s perfection luv 

[GeminiLanaFan 49,031]

I do prefer Blue Banisters overall as an album, but Chemtrails does have some of her best songs ever. It really is a winter album, with its highs  becoming more vibrant : White Dress, title track, TJF, Yosemite, Dark But Just a Game. 
If only she had pushed the production a bit more for some tracks (Wild at Heart, Breaking Up Slowly, Let Me Love You Like a Woman), making them more « desert rock », more guitar-driven, it would be a perfect album, one that feels a bit more « finished » IMO. 

[Bettie Page 2,111]

I'm so happy lmlylaw is getting the attention she deserves 

[drugmunny 8,880]

2 minutes ago, drippingbeaches said:

I'm so happy lmlylaw is getting the attention she deserves 

lmlylaw is like the perfect representative track of cocc as a whole it rlly is romantic and iconic in lyrics and melody, if not a headbanger. i kind of feel like it's a sister track to if you lie down with me in a way

[Venice Jesus Whore 4,471]

Imagine a world where Lana:

• Never announced any incorrect release dates for any part of the COTCC era
• Released Chemtrails as the lead single in August 2020 with the music video dropping the same day as the single
• Gave us a high quality Tulsa Jesus Freak music video 
• Put as much effort into the album and singles artwork as she did for BB
• Released the album in October 2020

[ShadesOfViolence 6,660]

11 minutes ago, Urbanney said:

Imagine a world where Lana:

• Never announced any incorrect release dates for any part of the COTCC era
• Released Chemtrails as the lead single in August 2020 with the music video dropping the same day as the single
• Gave us a high quality Tulsa Jesus Freak music video 
• Put as much effort into the album and singles artwork as she did for BB

a wet dream

[Honeyyoung 17,096]

1 hour ago, Urbanney said:

• Put as much effort into the album and singles artwork as she did for BB

umm

[DCooper 36,914]

Slant Magazine chose Chemtrails over the Country Club as the #1 best song of the year  and the album at #4, right behind Blue Banisters at #3.

What they said about the track:

On the title track to Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Lana Del Rey settles down near Brentwood, an affluent Los Angeles suburb, where she begins to feel torn between pedestrian normalcy and the pop-star stratosphere. In her restlessness, she seeks thrills in street racing and finds meaning in astrology; likewise, the song’s production gradually grows more ethereal and mesmerizing. Often in pop songs, unconventional turns of phrase represent awkward efforts to fit lyrics to a rhyme scheme; here, though, Del Rey’s experiments with syntax deepen the song’s themes. (What does it mean, exactly to live “under…country clubs”?) She applies the writerly instincts she honed in her poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, to bridge pop aphorisms (“It’s never too late, baby/So don’t give up”) with diaristic specificity. Like “Text Book,” the opening track of Blue Banisters, the other album she released this year, “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” clarifies how Del Rey wants to be seen: as both a grounded person and an otherworldly talent.

[sjatib 5,172]

5 minutes ago, DCooper said:

Slant Magazine chose Chemtrails over the Country Club as the #1 best song of the year  and the album at #4, right behind Blue Banisters at #3.

What they said about the track:

On the title track to Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Lana Del Rey settles down near Brentwood, an affluent Los Angeles suburb, where she begins to feel torn between pedestrian normalcy and the pop-star stratosphere. In her restlessness, she seeks thrills in street racing and finds meaning in astrology; likewise, the song’s production gradually grows more ethereal and mesmerizing. Often in pop songs, unconventional turns of phrase represent awkward efforts to fit lyrics to a rhyme scheme; here, though, Del Rey’s experiments with syntax deepen the song’s themes. (What does it mean, exactly to live “under…country clubs”?) She applies the writerly instincts she honed in her poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, to bridge pop aphorisms (“It’s never too late, baby/So don’t give up”) with diaristic specificity. Like “Text Book,” the opening track of Blue Banisters, the other album she released this year, “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” clarifies how Del Rey wants to be seen: as both a grounded person and an otherworldly talent.

 

This is amazing. I dont feel entitled to give a take about which would be the best song released this year, but Chemtrails is for sure amongst the ones that I will always hold dear.

[prettywhenimhigh 49,329]

sUBURBIA THE BRENTWOOD MARKET WHAT TO DO NEXT BABY WHAT OF IT WHITE PICKET CHEMTRAILS OVER THE COOOOUUUNTRY CLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUB

[DCooper 36,914]

1 minute ago, prettywhenimhigh said:

sUBURBIA THE BRENTWOOD MARKET WHAT TO DO NEXT BABY WHAT OF IT WHITE PICKET CHEMTRAILS OVER THE COOOOUUUNTRY CLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUB

 

Exactly 

[alittleparty 2,282]

11 hours ago, Urbanney said:

Imagine a world where Lana:

• Never announced any incorrect release dates for any part of the COTCC era
• Released Chemtrails as the lead single in August 2020 with the music video dropping the same day as the single
• Gave us a high quality Tulsa Jesus Freak music video 
• Put as much effort into the album and singles artwork as she did for BB
• Released the album in October 2020

I've also wondered how differently Chemtrails would've been perceived if there had been no Rock Candy Sweet announcement. Loved the chaos energy, but there was never a moment to luxuriate in the album without that tension of a newer, possibly hotter one waiting one swipe away.

 

An album like this needs to be taken home and bonded with like a newborn, free from distractions. It's been awesome to re-bond with it post-BB now that there is no pressure. 

[Fingertips 72,034]

I was driving today in the snow, and Yosemite came on. It's so fitting for the winter. There are some songs that fit a particular season or moment in time, and Yosemite, Let Me Love You Like a Woman, Chemtrails are perfect for snowfall 

[GeminiLanaFan 49,031]

I’ve been relistening to the Chemtrails title track a lot lately and it’s so funny how my year is ending the same way it began, with the same song on loop…

Def a winter track and one of her best. 

[drugmunny 8,880]

i remember listening to the chemtrails title track over and over when it first came out locked in this hotel i lived in for like 4 months while doing hw, 

then literally washing my dishes listening to white dress for the first time when the album leaked and freaking out and listening to wild at heart making my bed crying

 

then i did the same exact thing basically a few months later with BB. life is funny