Blue Banisters - Post-Release Discussion Thread + Poll

[takeyourselftosleep 1,450]

3 minutes ago, Anita Malfatti said:

listening to blue banisters instrumentals rn, hurts me to say it but it is a bad album, lana's fisrt bad work imo; hope this one is better

there are moments of gold on the album but its definitely her worst. not to mention how sloppily her vocal stems are edited; you can literally hear when they clip her vocals mid-breath which bothers the hell out of me. and the choice to not autotune the second verse of Arcadia. I just.....LOVE lana and never say negative stuff about her but this was an objectively average album. thankfully it seems she's back on track with Ocean Blvd.

[tulsa 2,829]

2 minutes ago, selfbeyondtheory said:

there are moments of gold on the album but its definitely her worst. not to mention how sloppily her vocal stems are edited; you can literally hear when they clip her vocals mid-breath which bothers the hell out of me. and the choice to not autotune the second verse of Arcadia. I just.....LOVE lana and never say negative stuff about her but this was an objectively average album. thankfully it seems she's back on track with Ocean Blvd.

this... there's a difference between having different opinions on an album and an album being poorly produced and obviously rushed 

[ByDayAnother 1,862]

9 minutes ago, selfbeyondtheory said:

there are moments of gold on the album but its definitely her worst. not to mention how sloppily her vocal stems are edited; you can literally hear when they clip her vocals mid-breath which bothers the hell out of me. and the choice to not autotune the second verse of Arcadia. I just.....LOVE lana and never say negative stuff about her but this was an objectively average album. thankfully it seems she's back on track with Ocean Blvd.

In fairness you can hear this across albums quite clearly - I personally think it is intentional, and I’ve grown to love it. You really get the sense that you’re listening to what were real moments - her singing into a microphone, someone out there signing her song for us, not this disembodied voice (though that can have its magic too). I legitimately think that the slightly off-key vocals on Arcadia are intentional in a good way, and I don’t even like that song particularly.

 

mind you, I think this is why I love Blue Banisters - it’s so sketchy and playful and unself-conscious.

[Im a ghost now 9,426]

Lana said on the RS interview that she didn't want anyone to listen to Blue Banisters so maybe we should all stop.

[Crimson and Clover 22,117]

15 minutes ago, Anita Malfatti said:

listening to blue banisters instrumentals rn, hurts me to say it but it is a bad album, lana's fisrt bad work imo; hope this one is better

pls this is so random and uncalled for  tbf, I did listen to the instrumentals just now and I might actually disagree (even as a person who generally dislikes BB). Other than a few songs like Arcadia, Beautiful, VFR, and the leaked tracks, the instrumentals are pretty interesting and full. 
 

I actually find most of TUOB’s production (so far) and instrumental a mix of NFR and BB, maybe even better than the two. Either way, I believe her when she said that Tunnel is “better than the last one” so we shouldn’t be worried

[Pink Flamingo 16,174]

1 minute ago, Im a ghost now said:

Lana said on the RS interview that she didn't want anyone to listen to Blue Banisters so maybe we should all stop.

Exactly, since she said that I'm just pretending that album never existed and I'm happier since then 

[13beachess 7,512]

4 minutes ago, Im a ghost now said:

Lana said on the RS interview that she didn't want anyone to listen to Blue Banisters so maybe we should all stop.

 

the fact that she really did say that makes me sad.🥺
I listen to BB a lot and I actually love it more and more as time passes...

[takeyourselftosleep 1,450]

9 minutes ago, ByDayAnother said:

in fairness you can hear this across albums quite clearly - I personally think it is intentional, and I’ve grown to love it. You really get the sense that you’re listening to what were real moments - her signing into a microphone, someone out there signing her song for us, not this disembodied voice (though that can have its magic too.)

 

mind you, I think this is why I love Blue Bansoeters - it’s so sketchy and playful and unself-conscious.

 

I don't entirely disagree, but I would argue the imperfections need to be contextualised (for example, if the album was about her imperfections, to give a cliche example) otherwise I think we're reading way too much into it assuming the sloppy sound engineering is intentional. For people that don't know what I mean, listen to the breath after the words "my daddy had one too" at 3:24 in text book; they've clearly clipped her breath half way through and its so jarring. the album is fullllll of this stuff. (Edit: and as someone who makes my own music, it's soooo easy to fix these little issues and I cannot fathom how they were overlooked.)

 

However I do agree with you in that I can imbue the album with meaning (that wasn't intended) that makes me like it more, eg. the imperfections reflect where she was at.

 

Anyway there are some gems on the album so I don't wanna be a hater...just making the point that its by far her worst.

[Orville Peck 22,814]

the treatment blue banisters deserves 

[Im a ghost now 9,426]

2 minutes ago, 13beachess said:

 

the fact that she really did say that makes me sad.🥺
I listen to BB a lot and I actually love it more and more as time passes...

 

Spoiler

Me too  It was more of a joke in the vein of "we should stop talking about it all the time" but it's ok, the posts are being moved to another thread as we speak

 

[Anita Malfatti 2,978]

I can't stand her singing out of tune in most of BB songs. But, for me, BB is like LfL: the ordinary/forgettable work that precedes a masterpiece!! so it's absolutely fine

[ByDayAnother 1,862]

5 minutes ago, selfbeyondtheory said:

 

I don't entirely disagree, but I would argue the imperfections need to be contextualised (for example, if the album was about her imperfections, to give a cliche example) otherwise I think we're reading way too much into it assuming the sloppy sound engineering is intentional. For people that don't know what I mean, listen to the breath after the words "my daddy had one too" at 3:24 in text book; they've clearly clipped her breath half way through and its so jarring. the album is fullllll of this stuff.

 

 

However I do agree with you in that I can imbue the album with meaning (that wasn't intended) that makes me like it more, eg. the imperfections reflect where she was at.

 

Anyway there are some gems on the album so I don't wanna be a hater...just making the point that its by far her worst.

 LFL is my personal worst, but even then like you say there are always tracks that I love across albums. My favourite Lana album changes sometimes in fact, although I’d say I Chemtrails might be my most consistent one - I virtually only ever listen to it all the way through.

 

(and though I love cherry blossom and thunder, I will absolutely concede that the fact that they use YouTube rips is unforgivable lol)

[13beachess 7,512]

I know this is off-topic, but... what if BB got the AKA treatment..... imagine if Lana un-released it  

(I hope she won't get any ideas now, since she's allegedly lurking on LB... hi Lana if you're ever seeing this, pls don't do it lol 💀)

[BartenderDeco 19,402]

i’m just glad i can stream thunder correctly so i’m all good with that album 

[#FreeCandyNecklace 555]

On 3/9/2023 at 1:55 PM, clementines said:

After going thru my Liked Songs playlist on Spotify BB is objectively my favorite Lana album and recently my most played...This happened without me noticing frl and seeing all the hate towards BB is just 

 

ALSO- "Blue Banisters was more of an explanatory album, more of defensive album, which is why I didn't promote it, period, at all. I didn't want anyone to listen to it. I just wanted it to be there in case anyone was ever curious for any information." This just makes me love it more.

I don't really get the hate either. BB is definitely imperfect but it's hardly the raging flop that some people are making it out to be! I'm not getting the obsessive relentless complaining about BB to be honest...I have a good friend who was a bit of a Lana skeptic before BB, and BB is what really made him appreciate Lana more and start to really understand her.

[mssainttropez 13,409]

If any of y’all dislike BB (which is an opinion I get) and are constantly dragging it, I hope you know BB is one of king@Jojo’s favorite albums  

[lanaismamom 11,169]

5 hours ago, Im a ghost now said:

Lana said on the RS interview that she didn't want anyone to listen to Blue Banisters so maybe we should all stop.

idk if that was a joke but if it wasnt-

this is.... not really what she meant i guess? i think she didnt want to promote it among non-fan people, cuz they dont know the context of that and we fans do, and it for sure doesnt mean we shouldnt listen to it now, actually u can listen what ever u want, and u already heard songs so that doesnt make sense at all now

 

oh wait it was a joke i saw! but i just saw people telling it in all seriousness that didnt make much sense with that

[Yeezus 58]

i love this album, beautiful

[#FreeCandyNecklace 555]

On 3/10/2023 at 6:37 PM, ByDayAnother said:

In fairness you can hear this across albums quite clearly - I personally think it is intentional, and I’ve grown to love it. You really get the sense that you’re listening to what were real moments - her singing into a microphone, someone out there signing her song for us, not this disembodied voice (though that can have its magic too). I legitimately think that the slightly off-key vocals on Arcadia are intentional in a good way, and I don’t even like that song particularly.

 

mind you, I think this is why I love Blue Banisters - it’s so sketchy and playful and unself-conscious.

This is why I love BB, too - and I think TB, WW, and BB are all kind of pre-cursors/less fully realized versions of what she's doing on DYKTTATUOB. I really don't think we could have had DYKTTATUOB without her experimenting on BB. Also, admittedly, I'm new to LB and I wasn't fully clued in with all of the old leaks being included, so getting to hear those songs for the first time was fun.

 

I also think the slightly "off key" Arcadia vocals are totally intentional and I love how they sound. It adds an emotional texture that wouldn't be there if it had been Auto-Tuned to be on key.

[Vertimus 8,943]

1 hour ago, #FreeCandyNecklace said:

This is why I love BB, too - and I think TB, WW, and BB are all kind of pre-cursors/less fully realized versions of what she's doing on DYKTTATUOB. I really don't think we could have had DYKTTATUOB without her experimenting on BB. Also, admittedly, I'm new to LB and I wasn't fully clued in with all of the old leaks being included, so getting to hear those songs for the first time was fun.

 

I also think the slightly "off key" Arcadia vocals are totally intentional and I love how they sound. It adds an emotional texture that wouldn't be there if it had been Auto-Tuned to be on key.

I think there's a lot of sketchiness in Lana's vocals and music, going back to BTD. Sometimes, her music comes across more like American folk art than professionally-produced music, especially in terms of her vocals, and I hear that again on some of the OC tracks. 

 

Lana has a lovely voice, and it is one of the two things that most draws me to her (especially her 'siren' voice), but she can 'sing' the same way Debbie Harry and Stevie Nicks can 'sing': in the studio, with all the technology, her voice is great, but live, at least in stadiums or large halls, she struggles. She doesn't have that Whitney Houston, Beyonce, Linda Ronstadt, Anne Wilson, Shirley Bassey, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Nico, Tina Turner  kind of voice that can shatter glass at 50 yards.