Is Lasso the NL x LDR album? Finding out the TRUTH

[That Venice Bitch]

According to Lana in the past four years or so, she has been simultaneously working on a variety of albums that haven't come to fruition.

 

After the release of NFR (October 2019) she announced Pacific Blue, a covers album that she said would feature covers of songs by the Beach Boys, Elvis, and Chris Isaak. Since announcing that album in 2019, she has sporadically teased it over the years. It is generally inferred that this album - as Pacific Blue - didn't come to fruition, and she changed the concept to be an album full of "American standards and classics", those words directly inferring a collection of "folk" covers. She announced the "American standards" bit in November 2020. She would be quiet about the covers album throughout the rollout of Chemtrails over the Country Club until her March 2021 interview with MOJO. In the interview with MOJO, she further referred to the folk covers album as a one of two albums she had developed - the other being a separate country covers album.

After the release of Chemtrails over the Country Club, Nikki Lane remarked that she and Del Rey had written multiple songs together and that we could "expect to see the fruit of that". A few days later while performing with Nikki, Lana remarked “looking forward also to our country record that we’re putting out later.”

Until September 2021, we wouldn't hear about any of these records due to the rollout of Blue Banisters. That month is when she revealed that she was still working on her "covers album" a couple days out of the week. The next month on an Instagram live, she said she was considering combining her covers album with her country album.

Again, she would be silent about any of these records until August 2022, when she posted on her story "hope you guys like country". The rollout of Ocean Blvd probably got in the way of these records again. Now she's officially announced the country-based album Lasso, which may take any, all, or no form of any of the previously-mentioned records.

 

Laying it all out:

At face value, without any deeper thought, this basically lays out the potential existence of six unreleased records. That being said, it's obvious that some of these projects overlapped and took extremely fluid forms. It also seems that Del Rey even confused some of the publications she spoke with, or was outright unclear when speaking about the albums herself. But what is the truth!??!?

 

The six alluded-to albums:

"Pacific Blue" covers album

"American standards and classics" folk covers album

"A cover album of country songs" (described by MOJO)

"Other folk songs" album (described by MOJO)

"The fruit" of writing sessions with Nikki Lane / "our country record" as described by Lana

"Lasso" - remarked to be a "country album"

 

My thoughts:

Pacific Blue became the American standards and classics folk covers album, which is the same "other folk songs" album that MOJO was referring to.

I have no idea what her cover album of country songs is, though she articulated she wanted to combine her covers album with her country album. It's not clear if she was referring to her country covers or her folk covers album, though it is more likely to be the country covers.

Del Rey's writing sessions/country record with Nikki Lane AND her country covers album may ACTUALLY be Lasso.

 

In conclusion, I think these are now TWO albums:

Pacific Blue / American Standards and Classics / Other Folk Songs

AND

Country Covers Album / Nikki Lane Collab Album / Lasso

 

Thoughts???

 

Sources:

Spoiler

https://www.statesman.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/04/05/austin-lana-del-rey-nikki-lane-sams-town-point-gruene-hall/7093875002/

https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/lana-del-rey-speaks-i-really-was-that-girl-who-was-pure-of-soul/

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-10-03/lana-del-rey-hollywood-bowl-norman-rockwell

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/nikki-lane-lana-del-rey-country-album-1148617/

 

[The Stargirl Pinky]

[Dark Angel]

was summertime (the gershwin version) intended for american standards and classics?

[TrashMagiq]

sorta kinda

[That Venice Bitch]

1 minute ago, Surf Noir said:

was summertime (the gershwin version) intended for american standards and classics?

It was speculated to be the lead single. I think we assumed that, but never had confirmation one way or the other.

[taco truck]

But what about Henry, Come On? That makes me think it isn’t a covers album. 

[That Venice Bitch]

Just now, taco truck said:

But what about Henry, Come On? That makes me think it isn’t a covers album. 

 

6 minutes ago, That Venice Bitch said:

The next month on an Instagram live, she reportedly said she was considering combining her covers album (which one????!!!!) with her country album.

 

^^^^

[Psychedelic Pussy]

Just drop Lasso & then follow it up with a covers album or vice versa. I don’t want an album that’s half covers & half new songs. Or an album that’s full of cringey country collabs!

[shadesofblue]

I think Lasso's gonna blend all these. Maybe she'll grab songs from each of these projects, like a collection of the last 4 years. It would make sense having Country Roads (a cover) and Henry Come On (original song). idk about the Nikki part, I think most likely she'll add at least one song with her. 

Kinda hope the Nikki collab is a Nikki album with Lana featured and not LDR10

[taco truck]

7 minutes ago, That Venice Bitch said:

 

 

^^^^

Omg I hope that’s not the case I don’t want to wait 7 months for an album that’s half covers

[rightofjupiter]

I just hope to god we actually get this album in “September” and it doesn’t stay in the limbo of abandoned/paused projects

[honey dew]

You know how she uses "record" to mean a song and album interchangeably? Maybe she just talking about one song with Nikki

[cherrytropico]

10 minutes ago, Psychedelic Pussy said:

Just drop Lasso & then follow it up with a covers album or vice versa. I don’t want an album that’s half covers & half new songs. Or an album that’s full of cringey country collabs!

right wtf there’s no reason to combine them. in that case i’d barely consider lasso ‘ldr10’ if half of it is covers

but imagine how well fed we’d be if she released lasso in september and then american standards and classics in november 

[gucciovermybody]

no

its not

[IanadeIrey]

I think this is right. In that same Blue Banisters livestream she talked about maybe doing something called “Country and Western” which would have been “country plus Cali” in her words — to me, this suggests she was going to combine literally all of the covers into one album (Pacific Blue  / other folk songs / country covers). 
 

I’m thinking Lasso is a collection of *original* country songs written with Jack Antonoff, Nikki Lane, and Luke Laird — with the one customary cover (akin to Paradise, Ultraviolence, Honeymoon, NFR, and Chemtrails), and I think that cover is Stand By Your Man. 

[details]

i think lasso indeed evolved from this nikki lane album thing, it was never supposed to be a duet album right? i think it was just songs they wrote together not necessarily recorded together 

[The Grants]

i mean yeah but

[That Venice Bitch]

34 minutes ago, IanadeIrey said:

I think this is right. In that same Blue Banisters livestream she talked about maybe doing something called “Country and Western” which would have been “country plus Cali” in her words — to me, this suggests she was going to combine literally all of the covers into one album (Pacific Blue  / other folk songs / country covers).

She was specifically referring to covers when she said that right?

 

Thanks for pointing this out btw! It reminded me how she has more recently referred to having only one covers album. Calling it the covers album and not using a plural albums when discussing it.

 

So perhaps the covers all became one album, and then Lasso became its own thing, assuming it may have lots of writing credits/features from Nikki Lane?

Still kinda weird tho because she did say she wanted to combine her covers album and her country album, but I guess we will just have to wait and find out!

[IanadeIrey]

10 minutes ago, That Venice Bitch said:

She was specifically referring to covers when she said that right?

 

Thanks for pointing this out btw! It reminded me how she has more recently referred to having only one covers album. Calling it the covers album and not using a plural albums when discussing it.

 

So perhaps the covers all became one album, and then Lasso became its own thing, assuming it may have lots of writing credits/features from Nikki Lane?

Still kinda weird tho because she did say she wanted to combine her covers album and her country album, but I guess we will just have to wait and find out!

Yes, specifically the covers album, as she talked about this idea right after saying “the covers album is still in existence”. It is still a bit convoluted like you say, though, so time will tell indeed lol. BUT I think everything you’re inferring is the case, at least from my same observations and interpretation of what information we have. 
 

Thanks for piecing this all together because it definitely helps sort the projects and clarifies what kind of songs will be on Lasso!  

[MrFameKills]

Nikki Lane has been arrested for questioning