"Norman Fucking Rockwell" & "Chemtrails Over The Country Club" Album Recording/Writing Timeline + Creative Process Discussion

[Chemtrail 2,884]

On 6/19/2023 at 12:07 PM, Crazy Husband Stealer said:

I don’t hate this album nearly as much as I used to anymore but I hate the musical direction for future albums that it initiated. It was definitely an interesting change of sound and aesthetics for her looking back and earned her a lot of acclaim (unfortunately overshadowed by QFTC).

 

I still believe that Lana could and should really surprise us with an entirely new (or maybe old) production. Her unreleased catalogue is getting so hyped and if she used that hype to go back to the soundscape of Queen of Disaster, MMITPM, Dangerous Girl, Driving in Cars… now that could make her a massive trendsetter again. No one is currently doing that type of music right now but TikTok would EAT THAT SHIT UP.

 

It's obviously never gonna happen cause she is kinda too old to be making that type of music but a gay can dream…

This idea is horrendous.

[Crazy Husband Thief 3,791]

4 hours ago, Chemtrail said:

This idea is horrendous.

Why am I not surprised someone whose name references her second worst album would say that?

[lanaismamom 11,203]

4 hours ago, Chemtrail said:

This idea is horrendous.

lol yeah not a single bad take get left behind!

[ivory almond 10,575]

do we have a bb discussion thread
cause if we dont, why tf not

#BlueBanistersStan4Life

[Rust Dress 37,633]

1 minute ago, ivory almond said:

do we have a bb discussion thread
cause if we dont, why tf not

#BlueBanistersStan4Life

 

please no

[lanaismamom 11,203]

4 minutes ago, ivory almond said:

do we have a bb discussion thread
cause if we dont, why tf not

#BlueBanistersStan4Life

there is nothing to discuss just a rock candy sweet concept and outtakes
im really intro to make this thread into after lfl albums discussion
anyways here are my essays for bb and cocc

 

Spoiler

On the day of the release of the album "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" Lana, in an interview with Al Horner for The Times, revealed that her next album is already partially written, will have a similar sound to "Norman Fucking Rockwell!", will be called "White Hot Forever" (lines from the song "Tulsa Jesus Freak") and will be released in about 12-13 months (September-October 2020) as a surprise release (but in November 2019 an insider reported that the seventh album will not be called "White Hot Forever"). Among the inspirations for the album, Lana noted the signs of the zodiac and the issue of double standards for women in the music industry. And in May, Lana announced the title of the upcoming record, "Chemtrails Over the Country Club," with a release date of Sept. 5, 2020.

 

But the album was not released in September, due to a delay in vinyl production, whose production factories were shut down due to a coronavirus infection. Finally, Lana announced an official release date of January 2021, and the album had its world premiere on March 19, 2021.

 

We know very little about Lana's creative process in 2020, but what we do know is that the sessions for the album were completed by the fall of 2020, and that half of the song ideas on the album are songs made before the "Chemtrails Over the Country Club" sessions. For example, "Let Me Love You Like a Woman" is a reworked song from the 2013 track "Pink Champagne," "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" is actually the "Wanderlust" track from the sessions for the album "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" (on the CDs the track is still titled "Wanderlust "), the chorus melody of "Dark but Just a Game" is taken from the song "Bird World", which will later be reworked into the track "Norman fucking Rockwell", "Yosemite" is the original 2016 track from the "Lust for Life" sessions, in one interview Jack Antonoff told that during sessions for "Norman Fucking Rockwell! they created 3 types of songs: "Norman" songs, "quiet" songs and "bombastic" songs. The "quiet" ones were later reused for "Chemtrails Over the Country Club" (f.e. "Not All Who Wonder Are Lost" and other unknown). The album's original tracklist was as follows:

 

1. "Chem Trails Over the Country Club."
2. "Let Me Luv You Like a Woman."
3. "It's Dark but Just a Game";
4. -
5. "White Hot Forever."
6. "Waitress" (original song title "White Dress");
7. "Dance Till We Die";
8. "Loved You Then and Now";
9. -
10. "Wild Wild at Heart ♡";
11. "For Free";

 

At number eight is "Loved You Then and Now," one of the two outtakes from the album. The fate of number eight was long uncertain, as in October 2020, Lana announced that she had a track from 2017 called "Dealer" (the second outtake) that she would like to release. But in the end, her favorite track from the "Lust for Life" sessions, "Yoesmite," ended up at number eight.

 

By the time "Chemtrails Overthe Country Club" was released, the next, eighth record "Blue Banisters" was already in the middle of development. The first mention of songs from that album was in March 2020, when Lana posted 2 voice memos - "Grenadine quarantine 2" and "If this is the end ...I want a boyfriend", which would later prove to be the voice memos for the song "Black Bathing Suit", which has these lines (the track is not an outtake from the "Chemtrails Over the Country Club" album, as it was completed later than the tracks for "Chemtrails Over the Country Club"). And the second time was in November 2020 (and the tracks "Text Book" and "Blue Banisters" were recorded in October 2020) when Lana announced that she was in the process of working on two albums, where the second was a canceled cover album (Pacific Blue) that was due out for Christmas 2020.

 

The day after the release of Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Lana announced the title of her upcoming record, Rock Candy Sweet, with a June 1, 2021 release date. On April 27, Lana said the album will be titled "Blue Banisters" with a release date of July 4, 2021. Regarding the titles, Lana said in March, "Spending so much time in a close circle of country music friends, I could see one of the title choices coming from that. I also have a second title that I like and that sums up 18 months of my life."

 

The album's early tracklist was different and remains unknown, but what is known is that it included the original 2013 version of the track "Fine China," the 2012 track "Mike," a released version of the track "I Can Fly," the new track "Watercolor Eyes," which would later be released as the soundtrack to the TV series "Euphoria" and the track "Loved You Then and Now," renamed "Rock Candy Sweet." They were subsequently replaced with other previously unreleased tracks after Lana revised the album's tracklist in May-July 2021 *interesting fact: the track "Valley of the Dolls" was under consideration for reworking during the Blue Banisters sessions, which never happened*. As such, the album was released on October 22, 2021.

 

Some interesting facts:
- Lana was creating "Blue Banisters" at the same time as a slew of other projects that ended up being cancelled. These projects are the cancelled collab album with Nikki Lane, which was being worked on from late 2020-mid 2021 (in 2022 an insider said the project was cancelled), a cover album called "Pacific Blue" which was supposed to be released on Christmas Day 2020 (in 2022 an insider said the project was canceled), an album of country covers and an album of folk covers, and a second book of poetry called Behind the Iron Gates - Insights from an Institution, which was scheduled for release in 2022-2023. but was canceled due to the theft in October 2022, and according to Lana it was material that "you could never remember, it had to be recorded within 5 seconds or you would forget it forever and never be able to repeat it again."

 

[Embach 22,098]

It would be cool if BTD-Paradise, Banisters and Ocean Blvd had their own threads too but at the same time...RIP LDR Album Process Discussion 

[ivory almond 10,575]

4 minutes ago, lanaismamom said:

The album's early tracklist was different and remains unknown,

we really need a spill on everything this tracklist contained

[Orville Peck 22,910]

41 minutes ago, Crazy Husband Stealer said:

Why am I not surprised someone whose name references her second best album would say that?

 

[Chemtrail 2,884]

53 minutes ago, Crazy Husband Stealer said:

Why am I not surprised someone whose name references her second worst album would say that?

I signed up around that time and never changed it lol

[lanaismamom 11,203]

Jimmy was part of the original NFR album concept where she was in Laurel Canyon and in this song specifically going to the club
from Mix with the Masters with Jack Antonoff of producing AW

[Embach 22,098]

That was actually known information though:

On 6/19/2023 at 11:00 AM, Embach said:

- "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).

 

So assume that Jimmy is part of Bird/Burnt World demo?

[lanaismamom 11,203]

10 minutes ago, Embach said:

That was actually known information though:

 

So assume that Jimmy is part of Bird/Burnt World demo?

yeah we knew that but we didnt know about concept thing, and i also doubt that the album was ever called bird world tbh

[YourGirl666 12,075]

I guess we got a new Tropico in here  if anyone's willing to spill/leak some more, no one'd really complain. Let's go dark on you baby  #LeakPoetryInMotion2023

[Embach 22,098]

Lol it was one of those days when in mid June we were so bored that we started creating album process discussion threads for each album 

[Embach 22,098]

today i realised how much i need happiness is a butterfly rick nowels version