Blue Banisters - Post-Release Discussion Thread + Poll

[Vertimus 9,547]

5 hours ago, GeminiLanaFan said:

Amen! Chemtrails has some of her best songs but its lows are just too quiet and hard to connect with. Blue Banisters has much more passion to it and is more diverse and stronger overall. 

Understood. I like them both equally. 

[regattasinthewind 1,619]

Her entrance on Dealer is a career highlight 

 

 

I check it  I wreck it  I turn it around 

[DCooper 36,719]

Slant Magazine put Blue Banisters at #3 on their 50 best albums of the year list, and Chemtrails at #4, and chose Lana as the image for the whole article 

 

From their article intro:

Even major label darlings like Lana Del Rey, who have built loyal fanbases but don’t fit easily into mainstream radio playlists, have thrown out the rulebook: The already-prolific singer-songwriter dropped two new albums this year and, to be perfectly honest, we had trouble agreeing on which one was better.

 

What they said about Blue Banisters:

“Let’s keep it simple, babe/Don’t make it complicated,” Lana Del Rey purrs at the start of “Beautiful,” a track from her eighth studio album, Blue Banisters. The lyric serves as a statement of purpose, reflecting the album’s pared-down arrangements. The decision to keep the music sparse draws focus to the lyrical content, which is some of the most razor-sharp and bitingly funny of Del Rey’s career. A fascination with color, a recurring thread that’s ever-shifting in its meaning, is weaved throughout Blue Banisters. When, on “Beautiful,” Del Rey quips, “What if someone had asked/Picasso not to be sad…there would be no blue period,” we understand “blue” to represent not just a state of depression, but one that yields inspiration. Del Rey’s vocals are as cherubic and distant as ever, stuck in a daydream but exactingly so. Sure, there’s an odd bit at the end of “Living Legend” where Del Rey’s trilling is processed through a wah-wah pedal, and there are several, perhaps inevitable, instances of thematic retreads from past albums. But by stripping back the sonic density of her previous work and taking its sweet time to unfold, Blue Banisters further fleshes out Del Rey’s increasingly vivid personal world.

 

What they said about Chemtrails: 

The way Lana Del Rey connects different songs to one another, even across different albums (like Lust for Life’s “Cherry” and Norman Fucking Rockwell’s “Venice Bitch”), is peerless—perhaps rivaled only by Taylor Swift—and partly what makes her work so enveloping. On Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Del Rey delights in dropping breadcrumbs: Her discussions of jewels on the title track links with mentions of the same on a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “For Free,” and she sings fondly of her ranch near Coldwater Canyon, which “sometimes…feels like [her] only friend,” on “Tulsa Jesus Freak” and “Dance Till We Die.” These thoughtfully connected threads make the album feel as if it’s in dialogue with itself and the rest of Del Rey’s catalog. And while it doesn’t engage with our current moment or hot-button issues as urgently as Norman Fucking Rockwell does, it’s also part of a larger pop-cultural conversation—or at least, it has some hilarious and apt references to astrology, Kings of Leon, and How Green Was My Valley.

[Vertimus 9,547]

17 hours ago, DCooper said:

Slant Magazine put Blue Banisters at #3 on their 50 best albums of the year list, and Chemtrails at #4, and chose Lana as the image for the whole article 

 

From their article intro:

Even major label darlings like Lana Del Rey, who have built loyal fanbases but don’t fit easily into mainstream radio playlists, have thrown out the rulebook: The already-prolific singer-songwriter dropped two new albums this year and, to be perfectly honest, we had trouble agreeing on which one was better.

 

What they said about Blue Banisters:

“Let’s keep it simple, babe/Don’t make it complicated,” Lana Del Rey purrs at the start of “Beautiful,” a track from her eighth studio album, Blue Banisters. The lyric serves as a statement of purpose, reflecting the album’s pared-down arrangements. The decision to keep the music sparse draws focus to the lyrical content, which is some of the most razor-sharp and bitingly funny of Del Rey’s career. A fascination with color, a recurring thread that’s ever-shifting in its meaning, is weaved throughout Blue Banisters. When, on “Beautiful,” Del Rey quips, “What if someone had asked/Picasso not to be sad…there would be no blue period,” we understand “blue” to represent not just a state of depression, but one that yields inspiration. Del Rey’s vocals are as cherubic and distant as ever, stuck in a daydream but exactingly so. Sure, there’s an odd bit at the end of “Living Legend” where Del Rey’s trilling is processed through a wah-wah pedal, and there are several, perhaps inevitable, instances of thematic retreads from past albums. But by stripping back the sonic density of her previous work and taking its sweet time to unfold, Blue Banisters further fleshes out Del Rey’s increasingly vivid personal world.

 

What they said about Chemtrails: 

The way Lana Del Rey connects different songs to one another, even across different albums (like Lust for Life’s “Cherry” and Norman Fucking Rockwell’s “Venice Bitch”), is peerless—perhaps rivaled only by Taylor Swift—and partly what makes her work so enveloping. On Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Del Rey delights in dropping breadcrumbs: Her discussions of jewels on the title track links with mentions of the same on a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “For Free,” and she sings fondly of her ranch near Coldwater Canyon, which “sometimes…feels like [her] only friend,” on “Tulsa Jesus Freak” and “Dance Till We Die.” These thoughtfully connected threads make the album feel as if it’s in dialogue with itself and the rest of Del Rey’s catalog. And while it doesn’t engage with our current moment or hot-button issues as urgently as Norman Fucking Rockwell does, it’s also part of a larger pop-cultural conversation—or at least, it has some hilarious and apt references to astrology, Kings of Leon, and How Green Was My Valley.

Wonderful. Thanks for sharing. 

[bluechemtrails 26,508]

19 hours ago, DCooper said:

Slant Magazine put Blue Banisters at #3 on their 50 best albums of the year list, and Chemtrails at #4, and chose Lana as the image for the whole article 

 

From their article intro:

Even major label darlings like Lana Del Rey, who have built loyal fanbases but don’t fit easily into mainstream radio playlists, have thrown out the rulebook: The already-prolific singer-songwriter dropped two new albums this year and, to be perfectly honest, we had trouble agreeing on which one was better.

 

What they said about Blue Banisters:

“Let’s keep it simple, babe/Don’t make it complicated,” Lana Del Rey purrs at the start of “Beautiful,” a track from her eighth studio album, Blue Banisters. The lyric serves as a statement of purpose, reflecting the album’s pared-down arrangements. The decision to keep the music sparse draws focus to the lyrical content, which is some of the most razor-sharp and bitingly funny of Del Rey’s career. A fascination with color, a recurring thread that’s ever-shifting in its meaning, is weaved throughout Blue Banisters. When, on “Beautiful,” Del Rey quips, “What if someone had asked/Picasso not to be sad…there would be no blue period,” we understand “blue” to represent not just a state of depression, but one that yields inspiration. Del Rey’s vocals are as cherubic and distant as ever, stuck in a daydream but exactingly so. Sure, there’s an odd bit at the end of “Living Legend” where Del Rey’s trilling is processed through a wah-wah pedal, and there are several, perhaps inevitable, instances of thematic retreads from past albums. But by stripping back the sonic density of her previous work and taking its sweet time to unfold, Blue Banisters further fleshes out Del Rey’s increasingly vivid personal world.

 

What they said about Chemtrails: 

The way Lana Del Rey connects different songs to one another, even across different albums (like Lust for Life’s “Cherry” and Norman Fucking Rockwell’s “Venice Bitch”), is peerless—perhaps rivaled only by Taylor Swift—and partly what makes her work so enveloping. On Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Del Rey delights in dropping breadcrumbs: Her discussions of jewels on the title track links with mentions of the same on a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “For Free,” and she sings fondly of her ranch near Coldwater Canyon, which “sometimes…feels like [her] only friend,” on “Tulsa Jesus Freak” and “Dance Till We Die.” These thoughtfully connected threads make the album feel as if it’s in dialogue with itself and the rest of Del Rey’s catalog. And while it doesn’t engage with our current moment or hot-button issues as urgently as Norman Fucking Rockwell does, it’s also part of a larger pop-cultural conversation—or at least, it has some hilarious and apt references to astrology, Kings of Leon, and How Green Was My Valley.

They have a good taste, also #1 and #2 are in my top five this year. Both are nominated for the Best Alternative Album Grammys, so maybe Lana wasn't accepted in that category

 

 

[PatentLeatherDoOver 25,780]

I know this gets pretty subjective, but I feel like Lana typically has one song per record that really acts as the album’s mission statement, tying the themes of the record together. 
 

In Blue Banisters, I feel like Wildflower Wildfire represents this. Blue Banisters (the album) is a cohesive, diaristic work chronicling her pain, criticisms, and where she’s headed emotionally. It’s both a clarifying response to those criticizing her and an outlet for what acts as a sonic autobiography of sorts. 
 

I think WFWF represents this perfectly. She opens the song with, “Here’s the deal/‘Cause I know you want to talk about it.” Immediately, the intention of the track is clearly stated: to confess and set her record straight as she originally claimed the album would do. She does so by recalling events one would deem traumatic in explicit detail with little room for interpretation and then reflects on it: “I’ll do my best never to turn into something that burns…It’s you from whom I learn.” 
 

Ranging from the pointed remarks to critics in BBS to the vulnerable admissions Text Book, the themes in WFWF underpin the foundations of virtually every song in the record. 
 

Similarly, I’d argue that hope and Get Free are also major contenders as manifestos (pun intended) for their respective albums, and they honestly share stylistic and thematic similarities to WFWF as well. Rant over, sorry lol

[Vertimus 9,547]

My Song of the Year, by any artist: 'If You Lie Down With Me.'

 

And 'Violets For Roses' is the only major contender. 

[sjatib 5,168]

9 hours ago, PatentLeatherDoOver said:

I know this gets pretty subjective, but I feel like Lana typically has one song per record that really acts as the album’s mission statement, tying the themes of the record together. 
 

In Blue Banisters, I feel like Wildflower Wildfire represents this. Blue Banisters (the album) is a cohesive, diaristic work chronicling her pain, criticisms, and where she’s headed emotionally. It’s both a clarifying response to those criticizing her and an outlet for what acts as a sonic autobiography of sorts. 
 

I think WFWF represents this perfectly. She opens the song with, “Here’s the deal/‘Cause I know you want to talk about it.” Immediately, the intention of the track is clearly stated: to confess and set her record straight as she originally claimed the album would do. She does so by recalling events one would deem traumatic in explicit detail with little room for interpretation and then reflects on it: “I’ll do my best never to turn into something that burns…It’s you from whom I learn.” 
 

Ranging from the pointed remarks to critics in BBS to the vulnerable admissions Text Book, the themes in WFWF underpin the foundations of virtually every song in the record. 
 

Similarly, I’d argue that hope and Get Free are also major contenders as manifestos (pun intended) for their respective albums, and they honestly share stylistic and thematic similarities to WFWF as well. Rant over, sorry lol

 

Quite a valid point.

 

I've been thinking that BBS could as well serve as a precise way to sum up the album.

 

"And what I've never said

wether's price on my head 

it's got nothing to do with them

it's my karmic linneage

 

So I'm not friends with my mother

but I still love my dad

untraditional lover

can you handle that?",

 

those  happen to be the most representative lyrics of the album, and the sound of the song also sums up the new aesthethical approach she came with on Blue Bannisters.

 

WFWF is one of my favourite songs ever from her though, maybe top 3.

[rightofjupiter 16,493]

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/2021-readers-poll-results/

 

lots of lana repped here! loved seeing sweet carolina, BBS, BB (and COCC title track) show up on the fav 2021 songs list.

[alittleparty 2,282]

4 minutes ago, rightofjupiter said:

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/2021-readers-poll-results/

 

lots of lana repped here! loved seeing sweet carolina, BBS, BB (and COCC title track) show up on the fav 2021 songs list.

 

[Fart Deco 12,714]

11 hours ago, PatentLeatherDoOver said:

I know this gets pretty subjective, but I feel like Lana typically has one song per record that really acts as the album’s mission statement, tying the themes of the record together. 
 

In Blue Banisters, I feel like Wildflower Wildfire represents this. Blue Banisters (the album) is a cohesive, diaristic work chronicling her pain, criticisms, and where she’s headed emotionally. It’s both a clarifying response to those criticizing her and an outlet for what acts as a sonic autobiography of sorts. 
 

I think WFWF represents this perfectly. She opens the song with, “Here’s the deal/‘Cause I know you want to talk about it.” Immediately, the intention of the track is clearly stated: to confess and set her record straight as she originally claimed the album would do. She does so by recalling events one would deem traumatic in explicit detail with little room for interpretation and then reflects on it: “I’ll do my best never to turn into something that burns…It’s you from whom I learn.” 
 

Ranging from the pointed remarks to critics in BBS to the vulnerable admissions Text Book, the themes in WFWF underpin the foundations of virtually every song in the record. 
 

Similarly, I’d argue that hope and Get Free are also major contenders as manifestos (pun intended) for their respective albums, and they honestly share stylistic and thematic similarities to WFWF as well. Rant over, sorry lol

Probably my fave on BB, should’ve been the opener imo… imagine opening the album with “Here’s the deal/‘Cause I know you want to talk about it.” 

[rightofjupiter 16,493]

13 hours ago, PatentLeatherDoOver said:

I know this gets pretty subjective, but I feel like Lana typically has one song per record that really acts as the album’s mission statement, tying the themes of the record together. 
 

In Blue Banisters, I feel like Wildflower Wildfire represents this. Blue Banisters (the album) is a cohesive, diaristic work chronicling her pain, criticisms, and where she’s headed emotionally. It’s both a clarifying response to those criticizing her and an outlet for what acts as a sonic autobiography of sorts. 
 

I think WFWF represents this perfectly. She opens the song with, “Here’s the deal/‘Cause I know you want to talk about it.” Immediately, the intention of the track is clearly stated: to confess and set her record straight as she originally claimed the album would do. She does so by recalling events one would deem traumatic in explicit detail with little room for interpretation and then reflects on it: “I’ll do my best never to turn into something that burns…It’s you from whom I learn.” 
 

Ranging from the pointed remarks to critics in BBS to the vulnerable admissions Text Book, the themes in WFWF underpin the foundations of virtually every song in the record. 
 

Similarly, I’d argue that hope and Get Free are also major contenders as manifestos (pun intended) for their respective albums, and they honestly share stylistic and thematic similarities to WFWF as well. Rant over, sorry lol

 

i def agree with your analysis here, but i think a strong case can also be made for BB (song) as the album's mission statement, as it grapples so much with lana contemplating her own legacy and agency as a woman and artist. it also highlights the importance of her move towards centering friendships as a major source of her inspiration and intimacy rather than solely the men in her life (as many pre-NFR albums seemed to suggest). but as her variety speech showed, WFWF was obvs a hugely important song for her to write and ushered in a new era of her writing about her life laid bare.

 

i def think the TB, BB, and WFWF made a lot of sense to release early together bc as a trinity they really announce the themes of the album with exacting precision.

[Make me your Dream Life 87,459]

no one's sorta made this metaphor bc it's kinda like anyway. her heart is like paper, bc it's sensitive, but also bc of the press. 

blue banisters seems like a coming back to the truer self and preserving it when a lot of people project onto you. 

and how the banisters act as a boundary at the same time to protect her heart and self. 

[5Rick 2,925]

https://www.nme.com/big-reads/nme-best-albums-of-the-year-2021-3114833

Well, Lana is basically listed on every relevant end-of-the-year chart/list... AS SHE SHOULD 

Sis really said I'm gonna save music industry this year 

love her SO MUCH 

[lustforlife 19,008]

4 hours ago, Vertimus said:

My Song of the Year, by any artist: 'If You Lie Down With Me.'

 

And 'Violets For Roses' is the only major contender. 

Thats why u are my husband 

[Taco Truck x VB 3,595]

listening to BB right now on shuffle and it really is the perfect collection of ballads and bluesy bops (Dealer, BBS etc). 

[Vertimus 9,547]

If you're not looking for extremes, I think it's her most pleasing album, in terms of tone. 

[bluechemtrails 26,508]

20 hours ago, 5Rick said:

https://www.nme.com/big-reads/nme-best-albums-of-the-year-2021-3114833

Well, Lana is basically listed on every relevant end-of-the-year chart/list... AS SHE SHOULD 

Sis really said I'm gonna save music industry this year 

love her SO MUCH 

only one of a few, she's missing for example on the Rolling Stone or Pitchfork lists

compare

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/341271-japanese-breakfast-jubilee/critic-lists/

 

a lot of end-of-the-year lists are missing, so it's a little bit early to judge, but I think the record of NFR from 2019 will sadly not be reached

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2019/

[Skuj 226]

On 12/8/2021 at 1:39 PM, DCooper said:

Slant Magazine put Blue Banisters at #3 on their 50 best albums of the year list, and Chemtrails at #4, and chose Lana as the image for the whole article 

 

From their article intro:

Even major label darlings like Lana Del Rey, who have built loyal fanbases but don’t fit easily into mainstream radio playlists, have thrown out the rulebook: The already-prolific singer-songwriter dropped two new albums this year and, to be perfectly honest, we had trouble agreeing on which one was better.

 

What they said about Blue Banisters:

“Let’s keep it simple, babe/Don’t make it complicated,” Lana Del Rey purrs at the start of “Beautiful,” a track from her eighth studio album, Blue Banisters. The lyric serves as a statement of purpose, reflecting the album’s pared-down arrangements. The decision to keep the music sparse draws focus to the lyrical content, which is some of the most razor-sharp and bitingly funny of Del Rey’s career. A fascination with color, a recurring thread that’s ever-shifting in its meaning, is weaved throughout Blue Banisters. When, on “Beautiful,” Del Rey quips, “What if someone had asked/Picasso not to be sad…there would be no blue period,” we understand “blue” to represent not just a state of depression, but one that yields inspiration. Del Rey’s vocals are as cherubic and distant as ever, stuck in a daydream but exactingly so. Sure, there’s an odd bit at the end of “Living Legend” where Del Rey’s trilling is processed through a wah-wah pedal, and there are several, perhaps inevitable, instances of thematic retreads from past albums. But by stripping back the sonic density of her previous work and taking its sweet time to unfold, Blue Banisters further fleshes out Del Rey’s increasingly vivid personal world.

 

What they said about Chemtrails: 

The way Lana Del Rey connects different songs to one another, even across different albums (like Lust for Life’s “Cherry” and Norman Fucking Rockwell’s “Venice Bitch”), is peerless—perhaps rivaled only by Taylor Swift—and partly what makes her work so enveloping. On Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Del Rey delights in dropping breadcrumbs: Her discussions of jewels on the title track links with mentions of the same on a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “For Free,” and she sings fondly of her ranch near Coldwater Canyon, which “sometimes…feels like [her] only friend,” on “Tulsa Jesus Freak” and “Dance Till We Die.” These thoughtfully connected threads make the album feel as if it’s in dialogue with itself and the rest of Del Rey’s catalog. And while it doesn’t engage with our current moment or hot-button issues as urgently as Norman Fucking Rockwell does, it’s also part of a larger pop-cultural conversation—or at least, it has some hilarious and apt references to astrology, Kings of Leon, and How Green Was My Valley.

 

Slant just gained a fan. 

[Skuj 226]

On 12/9/2021 at 10:01 PM, PatentLeatherDoOver said:

I know this gets pretty subjective, but I feel like Lana typically has one song per record that really acts as the album’s mission statement, tying the themes of the record together. 
 

In Blue Banisters, I feel like Wildflower Wildfire represents this. Blue Banisters (the album) is a cohesive, diaristic work chronicling her pain, criticisms, and where she’s headed emotionally. It’s both a clarifying response to those criticizing her and an outlet for what acts as a sonic autobiography of sorts. 
 

I think WFWF represents this perfectly. She opens the song with, “Here’s the deal/‘Cause I know you want to talk about it.” Immediately, the intention of the track is clearly stated: to confess and set her record straight as she originally claimed the album would do. She does so by recalling events one would deem traumatic in explicit detail with little room for interpretation and then reflects on it: “I’ll do my best never to turn into something that burns…It’s you from whom I learn.” 
 

Ranging from the pointed remarks to critics in BBS to the vulnerable admissions Text Book, the themes in WFWF underpin the foundations of virtually every song in the record. 
 

Similarly, I’d argue that hope and Get Free are also major contenders as manifestos (pun intended) for their respective albums, and they honestly share stylistic and thematic similarities to WFWF as well. Rant over, sorry lol

 

I like this.

 

I like it a lot. 

On 12/10/2021 at 8:20 AM, Vertimus said:

My Song of the Year, by any artist: 'If You Lie Down With Me.'

 

Yes.