Lust For Life - Post-Release Discussion Thread + Poll

[t0mthem0m 47]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWzIPSpgOr-qQUT1eJm18ndjZdUbblniWXU7iM0/?taken-by=lanaisababe&hl=en

 

[Coney Island King 26,087]

Can we just talk about the opening strings to 13 Beaches. Its honestly the sound of fucking heaven.

[TRENCH 15,450]

Her best album to be honseat, she sounds free, like not strained to one specific theme or aesthetics. She's all over the place and doing it cohesively. Never expected her to go back to hip hop beats, noneless spreading it trough the whole album in bits and pieces in non hip hop songs.

In my Feelings is the new Art Deco and Brooklyn Baby. Also it makes me wanna be a stripper lawd

Heroin is fucking amazing. The second half of the song is a full on trip to the 70s. UV is shooked. And those "come on" Lizzy Grant coos omfg

[longtimeman 8,998]

...

Well, I was too slow to post before you deleted it, but the Crowley reference is pretty clearly putting him alongside the other 'false prophets' that people follow without thinking for themselves.

[Veinsineon 77,066]

I know it's her Magnum anus didn't you hear summercummer

thats why its not her magnum opus. the trap tried outdoing UV but failed miserably and i'm still out here promoting it!

    

[missdelreyxo 3,786]

I've listened about 4 times this afternoon, and the record is phenomenal. Favourites so far:

13 Beaches

Cherry

When the World Was At War

Beautiful People

Heroin

Get Free

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS THESE ARE MY FAVES TOO

[cherryblossoms 10,420]

I have no idea what she's saying in GBA's bridge but FUCK

[PaintTheSkyBlack 678]

I just listened for the first time at the stroke of midnight, driving around downtown Minneapolis and I AM FUCKIN BLOWN AWAY. The album did, indeed, fuck my ENTIrE shit up. I hope Lana forgives us all for being such brats this whole time because she truly outdid herself with this one. I know we say it all the time, but we really don't deserve her lol. This album has a much clearer and more decipherable storyline than any of her previous albums. It's obvious but it also still leaves room for speculation and nuance. The ultra 60s shangri-las vibes from LFL and Get Free are excellent bookends. Get Free sonically imbibes LFL but the lyrics show the growth she's gone through since the beginning of the album. Ugh, perfect. And Change seriously sounds like a Lennon song. That's a huge compliment coming from someone who would probably literally eat John Lennon's shit (me). I cried so hard when I listened to it. And Sean and Lana sound so good together in Tomorrow Never Came. That was truly two worlds colliding for me, like a fuckin dream. I can't get over it. There are so many folky, hippie era moments, from the sassy hard-hitting political bits to the folky singer-songwriter bits. I wasn't expecting the album to be such a thorough tribute to the 60s and 70s. It's retro future for sure, but in a way more thoughtful and involved way than I anticipated. Also, we got EVERY kind of Lana vocal on here. We are so spoiled oh my god. I have officially PERISHED    I can't wait to spend every spare moment of my life absorbing this album over the coming days. 

[summercummer 377]

thats why its not her magnum opus. the trap tried outdoing UV but failed miserably and i'm still out here promoting it!

    

 

 

 

hey punk wanna fight     

[BluVelvUnderground 1,754]

Well, I was too slow to post before you deleted it, but the Crowley reference is pretty clearly putting him alongside the other 'false prophets' that people follow without thinking for themselves.

Haha. I erased it because I feared nobody would have known who Crowley was. Whats your interpretation of the pre-chorus involving the rainbow symbolism?

[Belladonna 2,406]

I'm starting to love White Mustang.

[Veinsineon 77,066]

hey punk wanna fight     

 

[reputation 6,321]

This album is better than UV haahah. Y'all kiss that album's ass. LFL is 10x better lyrically, sonically and way better in variety

[cherriesinthespring 5,486]

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS THESE ARE MY FAVES TOO

Wow SAME

[Make me your Dream Life 88,075]

I'm starting to love White Mustang.

I loved it from the start, but I feel like I overhyped it and it kinda went downhill. Gave it another few listens bc, and the weight to the drop of the song is just the right amount for like a sexy sway..... such a coaster but yeah it's amazing 

[latothemoon 11,846]

Stevie and Sean added so much to the those songs. The other collabs were unnecessary no offense

[longtimeman 8,998]

Haha. I erased it because I feared nobody would have known who Crowley was. Whats your interpretation of the pre-chorus involving the rainbow symbolism?

I honestly don't know, but I tend to favour more surface level interpretations of her songs than esoteric ones, even when she's referencing the occult.

[rumandrit 292]

Is it the end of an era?

Is it the end of America?

 

No!

It's only the beginning

If we hold on to HOPE

 

BARACK OBAMA MIXTAPE COLLAB CONFIRMED

[Anthem 1,558]

Ok, super long post-first-listen messy analysnot.

I just got done with my first full listen and its great! So much variety in the songs and she really experimented a lot in ways that were really neat. This sounds like a natural progression from Born to Die to be honest.

 

The one sad thing is, when I recap her albums and her progression in my head, knowing that she is capable of such modern, experimental music kind of highlights how monotone and slow Honeymoon is, particularly because the albums are side by side in her discography. It almost sounds like she had been slowly declining and then popped back up with something fresh and Lana. I say this as someone who loves Honeymoon, but sitting next to this album and in the context of her career it seems like a low point.

 

As much as I do like LFL and objectively see it as an amazing album, it didn't captivate me on first listen the way I had hoped. A few songs I had high hopes for let me down, and I was pleasantly surprised by others.

 

Film songs > BTD > P > UV > LFL > HM 

 

Keeping in mind that I think of them as having very narrow margins, that while HM is last I don't think it is significantly less quality. 

 

Song rankings, mostly on preference. I’ve only listened to some of these once so this isn’t a super thorough analysis….

 

1. Cherry 

Sexy and amazing. The melody is hypnotic, the lyrics are captivating and so Lana. I will be looking for a clean version, because while the cussing is not so distracting that it changes my option of it as top song, but it is just unnecessary. The ad lib part towards the end is masterful and she took a lot of time to really sculpt the atmosphere here.

2. Change

Beautiful ballad with, again, beautiful lyrics. Proof that if a song is good enough then an artist does not need a ton of production. I particularly love the way she sings the line "I feel it coming in me". I'm a sucker for dark ballads and this one happens to connect with some of my personal life, which is why it is so high on my rankings.

3. Love

The hopeful message and direct address to her fans is unprecedented and refreshing from Lana. Even if this song didn’t represent how she feels now, I think it’s a hopeful glance to the future. The production is simply amazing in this song, and the video is beautiful.

4. Tomorrow Never Came

I had zero interest in this song from the lyrics we knew from interviews and the snippet. The song itself blew me away and I was surprised at how much I liked Sean’s voice and how much he sounds like John. The lyrics are the highlight and she did a good job sculpting a melody that really fit them. I think the feature actually added something to the song and may showed two sides of the same wall.

5. Heroin

I thought this song started off strange with the references to Topanga and the life rocked me lines are uneccesary, but the moon line is surprisingly catchy and it built up. I think I got overwhelmed at the line near the end about getting on an airplane and finally changing – it was so unexpected and in the context of the album it is quite frankly one of the best moments of the album. I think some of the lyrics are a little off and I wish she wouldn’t randomly throw the word “shit” around and had put a little more thought into it. EDIT: Upon further listening, this is obviously about Barrie. She mentions heroin a lot in UV and she is talking about flying away to a "foreign land" and he is from the UK soo..

 

6. Summer Bummer

This one really grew on me! Lana’s verse is some of her best lyrics on the album. I like the rapping parts too and some of the effects and production techniques they used really made this pop. I did like the alternate version quite a bit more, but both are great. I like that she has something a little more uptempo as I think the record really needs it around the time this song comes in. 

 

7. 13 Beaches

I adore the intro, this is classic cinema and everything I am into and love from Lana. Not sure what relation this is to a horror movie though. It only ranked so far down because it just didn’t really “stick”, but I have a feeling as I listen to this one more its going to become one of my favorites. I think the structure is pretty neat and the lyrics are alright. As a LA resident I was happy to understand the Ventura line with more context (and wow!).

 

8. Lust For Life

I’m not the hugest fan of the song but it is solid enough. The lyrics are full of Lana-isms to its detriment, but I do like The Weeknd’s parts. I feel like knowing the greater context of the album and Lana’s state of mind, the chorus now almost feels desperate, as though if she didn’t have that spark of hope then things would fall apart in a very real way.

 

9. Coachella

I never thought this would be higher than dead last but, again, the album gives it new meaning. The duality of the past and the present is actually interesting to think about in our modern climate, and it was almost prophecy that she talked about this duality in the trailer and then ended up writing this song. It makes a lot more sense as to why she wanted to include it. I’m not over the famous rich white woman hipster lyrics (the second verse is so pointless) but it is what it is and that kind of is her life. 

 

10. White Mustang

I was oddly touched by the first verse and almost cried when I first heard it and I don’t know why. I think she just captured a feeling so perfectly. The verse melody is okay but it gets extremely tiresome very fast, I wish she had done something different for the second and fourth verses. My eyes glaze over during the chorus and I kind of wonder what the fuck the song is even about and why I am listening to it, which ends when the verses start. I understand the annoying title repetition for the chorus for UV and BB because it was actually significant, but this song is too much. Everything after the second chorus is forgettable, even though I think her voice and the effects are beautiful.

 

11. God Bless America

I was most excited and subsequently let down by this song. The intro and verses do not match the pre and chorus at all, and I vastly prefer the dark, tense mood of the pre chorus. It just kind of sounds like a mess, she should have come up with a darker mood for the verses. The outro was surprisingly good though, the guitar part was put here and somehow it worked.

 

12. Beautiful People

Obviously beautiful lyrics and a really cool message for a song, but I can’t follow it enough to derive the meaning from the song and had to rely on what I knew from reading on the boards to “get” it. Stevie’s voice was surprisingly unpleasant to listen to even though I like some of her other work. I think it needs more listens.

 

13. Groupie Love

I love the production but I just find the song topic and lyrics to be just so weird and unrelatable. Another forgettable “Lana”ish song like White Mustang.

 

14. In My Feelings

I like the aggression because that is rare with Lana and a nice fresh approach, but I’m just not liking the clunky melody or the lyrics.

 

15. World At War

Not feeling the melodys here at all and the lyrics don’t do it for me either. I don’t get why she thought this was too dark for the album?

 

16. Get Free

Kind of forgettable, again with the lyrics and melody. Her voice sounds odd for the chorus.

 

** Would have ranked Architecture #3 on this list and shifted the rest down one. 

 

Beautiful ballad that tells a clear story. The production is perfection and the lyrics are vague and weird just enough in places to be interesting. “Tell me how it treats you now” is so accusatory. I don’t know how she made a song that, in content, I could never relate to, yet I am so moved by the feeling of loss. The glass in the bridge and  the “I-I told yous” at the end are amazing little touches that make the song. The bridge part is a little odd and meandering, but the rest of the song carries it.

 

I think this will change a lot as I listen more, I’ve been listening as I wrote this and I’ve already gotten hung up on Heroin so that will rise for sure and I think a lot of the bottom half just needs more plays.

 

With this said, my overall perception of the album on just one listen is that it is experimental, shiny, and checks all the boxes for being amazing, but it just didn’t “stick” for me personally and is the first Lana album to do so. I think my tastes are changing, and while I love her and always will, I think I’m opening up to the fact that her music may not be my 100% favorite or preferred. This is a random tangent, but I am a little sad over it since Lana has been my uncontested favorite artist for the past 5 years but, as the album talks about, people change.

[cherriesinthespring 5,486]

Ultraviolence was found DEAD

 

 

 

I'm just kidding, but really lfl is in the running for my number 1 spot. Need more time to listen and process though