Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters (Discussion)

[smokeandhush 992]

Seriously the “its so boring” or “its so sad” commentary is SO old. If you get it then you get it, if you don’t you don’t. 

[HIM820 1,594]

41 minutes ago, smokeandhush said:

Seriously the “its so boring” or “its so sad” commentary is SO old. If you get it then you get it, if you don’t you don’t. 

I really don’t think people understand how she’s grown as an artist to this specific point and how she’s evolved. They’re so stuck with that part of her where she’d use grandiose metaphors to add commentary to the famous, drug addiction, depression, cheating, love, etc. They were great for what she was trying to achieve at the time. 
 

But now, at least to me, she is writing from a place of understanding, like she’s telling us about something she’s lived. I notice this too because her albums have progressively come into modern times with the subject matter. Years ago I could have never expected a song to include a lyric with iPhone in it. 

[Guest]

Text Book: I liked it but not my fav

Blue Bannisters: bores me to death

Arcadia: I hate the chorus, so annoying

Interlude; Good but so hip hop i'm confused by it

Black bathing suit: love the chorus, but near the ending it's messy to me, also i can hear the microphone with the P, S sounds etc like you can tell there's a microphone whereas other songs from everyone, every artist, u are not aware of a microphone, idk if i make sense. Im used to this type of stuff with Lana tho, in her lust for life album some songs had so much echo and the instrumental would be higher than her voice. Always weird **** like this with Lana

If you lie down with me; I love the jazzy 20's sound at the end, but i was bored thruout the song, it's not bad i'm just indifferent

Beautiful: Boring, same old thing, like Arcadia or Blue banister etc, it bores me, it sounds like something a singer would sing at a café and u hear it while u eat ur dinner and u give no damn about it, it's just basic café music

Violets for roses: Same ****

Dealer: Confused, who is singing in the beginning? I love this one though, big 80s vibes to me. But also John Lennon, kinda like his 'Mother' song. I wonder if she listened to his few albums and took inspo for this. I like it, it's a vibe. The "i dont wanna live" part was powerful

Thunder: Again I can hear the microphone when she sings some words, I hate that, what is that? I'm not in love with the song, but at least it's different from just piano. She sang "I I I I" and it started being low quality???? Sounds like the volume was too high or something. Am I the only one hearing this? This is low quality production

Wildflower wildfire:  the chorus got me like wooooo i like it, then i started daydreaming again cus the verses are boring. 

Nectar of the gods: i dont like it, it's boring, the magic from her is gone, i can't connect to it 

Living legend: The verse interested me, but the chorus got me daydreaming again, so I know it bored me. But the verses are so good, but i wish it went somewhere else with the chorus

Cherry blossom: Same **** again, i'm tired of it

Sweet Carolina: Thought it could be a cover of the original song Sweet Caroline. Omg when she sings louder, the sound sounds saturated??? Do u guys have that? Anyways this song is cute, will I listen to it again? Not sure

 

My rating: 5/10. Should give less for bad production, it's crazy to me to be Lana ****ing Del Rey and the microphone is cheap, the production is bad when she sings loudly i can hear some shshshshshs sound, Im not a production expert or anything but I hear it, the sound is too high for its capacity so it creates that sound. And i can hear the microphone with the P or S sounds, that's so unprofessional. Some songs were okay, and had potential, but overall just same piano boring **** she's been doing recently. I'm harsh and I'm the biggest Lana fan in the world, I love her music so so so much, one of my fav artist of all time to me, but what she's been doing recently I cannot connect to it. It's just so mediocre, I don't hate it, I don't love it, at best I am indifferent. 

[Agunimon 20,160]

Half of COCC is good to me. Half of this album is good to me. Wish shed come with one album combining the best parts of both!

[StrawberryBlond 13,260]

While Lana always creates great albums, this is probably her...least best, in my eyes. This is clearly like a sister album to COTCC but not quite as good. She's really leaning into the whole "alternative singer/songwriter inspired by 70's writing" vibe for a while now and it comes off a bit pretentious by this point. I think the best tracks come in consecutive bursts - tracks 2, 3 and 4, then 6, 7 and 8 and then 11, 12 and 13, which is very unusual. I'm glad to find that her previously released promo singles have really grown on me. But there were some tracks I thought I'd like from the titles that let me down. Dealer might be her worst ever track, it's so jarring and doesn't feel like it belongs on the album at all. As much as I love the interlude, I don't know what it was doing here either. Black Bathing Suit's chorus is great but its surroundings not as much and Sweet Carolina seemed just too specific and personal to put on an album heard by the world. Beautiful is an absolutely stunning revelation, though, my favourite track on the album and one of the few Lana songs I can really relate to and I'm surprised no one else seems to be talking about it. I hope she gets back some more of her magic next time. She needs to take a break from releasing for a while. She's released 3 albums in little over 4 years and I think it's making her a bit too samey and stuck in the same vein of album concepts. She needs to take a rest, regenerate and do something a bit different. But understand that this is still better than a good 95% of other artists I listen to.

[slayo 7,663]

5 hours ago, Aetheryte said:

Half of COCC is good to me. Half of this album is good to me. Wish shed come with one album combining the best parts of both!

what would your tracklist be for combining both good halves?

[HausOfHarlow 369]

6 minutes ago, slayo said:

what would your tracklist be for combining both good halves?

Not OP but I see where their coming from. See below for my "perfect" 2021 Lana Del Rey album. 

 

1. Blue Banisters 

2. Chemtrails over the Country Club 

3. Tulsa Jesus Freak

4. Black Bathing Suit

5. Wild at Heart

6. If You Lie Down With Me

7. Dark But Just a Game

8. Violets for Roses

9. Thunder

10. Yosemite

11. Living Legend

12. Breaking Up Slowly (ft. Nikki Lane) (so rude of her to not include the feature mention lol)

13. Wildflower Wildfire

14. Cherry Blossom

15. Dance Till We Die 

16. Summertime (Gershwin Version) (since I like(d) the idea of LDR albums ending with a cover) 

 

[NYC Monster 260]

7 hours ago, HIM820 said:

I really don’t think people understand how she’s grown as an artist to this specific point and how she’s evolved. They’re so stuck with that part of her where she’d use grandiose metaphors to add commentary to the famous, drug addiction, depression, cheating, love, etc. They were great for what she was trying to achieve at the time. 
 

But now, at least to me, she is writing from a place of understanding, like she’s telling us about something she’s lived. I notice this too because her albums have progressively come into modern times with the subject matter. Years ago I could have never expected a song to include a lyric with iPhone in it. 

So people aren't allowed to have an opinion? Jesus, this forum should be renamed LanaDaily with the amount of bias I see towards her on a constant daily basis. She's a great artist sure but not everything she touches turns to gold, I loved her discography from literally AKA Lizzy Grant to NFR, even her immense catalog of unreleased music is incredible, but with COCC and now Blue Bannisters, it just sounds like the same song over and over again with a few exceptions. I sometimes feel like because she's Lana, some people literally force themselves to like whatever she puts out because they're afraid to "go against her" and then when people don't like it, they're automatically labeled as "not understanding her" and "never satisfied with her". 

A lot of Lana's older music could be considered boring as well but I've liked it all, still. COCC has some good songs, so does Blue Bannisters, but overall they just felt lackluster compared to her previous albums. 
 

[LilyLark 9,694]

8 hours ago, Glamourpuss said:

It feels a little bit like Chemtrails Over the Country Club but really watered down. I much prefer Chemtrails because I liked the whole vibe she was going for and even the most basic ones have something special about them. The new album kind of feels like it has the same relaxed vibe with similar lyrical content but it comes across to me like she's just sat in a park and wrote what she's observed without any metaphors or clever poetry (except Wildflower Wildfire) and stuck to a melody she came up with on the spot, which makes it feel so flat and soulless to me. I am hoping the songs grow on me but I'm just not vibing with it at all, which I'm okay with because I'm still happy with the previous two albums and listen to them both almost daily. 

This. I was sort of disappointed with COCC when it first came out but it grew on me. It's a very cohesive album with some great song writing. This isn't bad...but it feels far less cohesive and the song-writing seems not as strong. She has a gift for poetic words, but lovely, poetic words don't necessarily make a good song. That said there are still some excellent tracks.

[LeJudas 6,490]

Nvm I love it 😍

[Reid LePage 4,773]

8 hours ago, smokeandhush said:

Seriously the “its so boring” or “its so sad” commentary is SO old. If you get it then you get it, if you don’t you don’t. 

 

[Agunimon 20,160]

3 hours ago, slayo said:

what would your tracklist be for combining both good halves?

From Chemtrails, I would choose:
- White Dress
- Chemtrails Over the Country Club
- Let Me Love You Like a Woman
- Wild at Heart
- Dark But Just a Game
- Yosemite

From Blue Banisters, I would choose:
- Text Book
- Arcadia
- Interlude - The Trio
- If You Lie Down With Me
- Thunder
- Nectar of the Gods
- Living Legends

[HIM820 1,594]

2 hours ago, Malibu Gaga said:

So people aren't allowed to have an opinion? Jesus, this forum should be renamed LanaDaily with the amount of bias I see towards her on a constant daily basis. She's a great artist sure but not everything she touches turns to gold, I loved her discography from literally AKA Lizzy Grant to NFR, even her immense catalog of unreleased music is incredible, but with COCC and now Blue Bannisters, it just sounds like the same song over and over again with a few exceptions. I sometimes feel like because she's Lana, some people literally force themselves to like whatever she puts out because they're afraid to "go against her" and then when people don't like it, they're automatically labeled as "not understanding her" and "never satisfied with her". 

A lot of Lana's older music could be considered boring as well but I've liked it all, still. COCC has some good songs, so does Blue Bannisters, but overall they just felt lackluster compared to her previous albums. 
 

Of course you can have an opinion. I don’t like some songs on Blue Bannisters, just like every album she has released before it. That’s normal. It gets difficult when we want to compare 8 albums in, because things just change. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to. But when the general consensus is her songwriting is becoming more real, visceral, and present with each album, then there really isn’t much more to say. Just don’t like it. A lot of things I don’t like in this world come from a place of not understanding it which I’m fine admitting. I don’t want to understand it, and if it’s not hurting myself or someone else I won’t worry too much about it. It’s also not meant to be a dig. For example you say that “it just sounds like the same song over and over again” which I’ve been hearing about Lana for a long time, or to a broader degree, those comments are usually made about non pop or alternative albums. It’s just not meant for that type of appeal, which is okay too. But the growth shes made since her debut to now is immense, and why critically the album is liked. The songs might sound the same to you, but there is quality. To deny that makes me question your understanding of the artist and song. But if you are a life long fan then I believe you. 

[Nathaniel Arven 1,281]

I think dealer opens the gate of the best part of the record. At least, the part that wrecks me like a bip. 

I also think people who don't get along with it are probably fans of folklore and evermore and it's ok.

 

[Nathaniel Arven 1,281]

also I think Lana is like George Brassens. They always make the same songs because music is here to serve the words. They are poets and they know it. At least I see that in her.