Garbage - No Gods No Masters [Review]

American alternative rock band Garbage recently released its highly anticipated seventh studio album No Gods No Masters after a wait of five years following 2016's Strange Little Birds. The album is definitely timely, as it is, as frontwoman Shirley Manson has stated herself, a commentary on "the rise of capitalist short-sightedness, racism, sexism and misogyny across the world." I say that that's timely because of recent events such as the United States enduring four years under a racist and misogynist president as well as movements like the Black Lives Matter movement, and I really appreciate it when artists turn something like that into art. With No Gods No Masters being the band's seventh studio album, Manson and the rest of the band also said that they tied the number 7 into the album's concepts in various ways, with Manson having said, "This is our seventh record, the significant numerology of which affected the DNA of its content: the seven virtues, the seven sorrows, and the seven deadly sins." This album admittedly took some time to grow on me, but there is one particular song that I instantly loved. (Stay tuned to find out which one.) It opens with the lead single "The Men Who Rule the World," a catchy and relatively heavy alternative rock track that opens the album with what sounds like slot machine sound effects. This makes sense because the song is lyrically about the privilege that comes along with being male and how that sometimes leads to being powerful and financially well off. The sounds of the casino slot machines therefore represent money, and Kesha did something similar on her song "Rich, White, Straight Men" - a song with a similar theme that makes use of the sounds of coins dropping and cash registers opening and closing. This track is definitely a highlight on the album and is, as I said, very catchy. There is, funnily enough, even a recurrent hook in the song that goes, "Stuck inside my head, stuck inside my head all the fucking time," and the song is, indeed, frequently stuck inside my head. I love the 8-bit aspect of the instrumental, probably emphasizing the idea that the titular men who rule the world are playing a long game, and I also love the relatively heavy guitar in the chorus, making it, as I said, one of the album's heavier tracks. It's a memorable track and a great opening to the album!

"The Creeps" is kind of reminiscent of old school Garbage, and I have seen a lot of fans say that a good portion of the album makes them feel nostalgic about Garbage's earlier days. It's one of the album's faster paced songs, with a fast beat and Shirley pretty rapidly spitting out in the chorus, "I cannot let my feelings to keep hijacking my brain... I'm gonna think my way around this wall I cannot change." The song is definitely about conquering anxiety and embarrassment, and as Shirley Manson has stated, it's about her experience having been dropped by Interscope Records back around 2009 and how that made her feel. "Uncomfortably Me" drops the energy down a little bit. While not quite a soft ballad, it's softer than the first two tracks. I especially love the low and bassy electronic humming underneath. The lyrics essentially address Imposter Syndrome, an inability to see one's success for what it is and instead seeing oneself as undeserving. "Too busy hating on myself, a waste of time, a waste of space," Shirley admits in the bridge. It's a great song to follow "The Creeps" because both songs are about being uncomfortable in one's own headspace. "Wolves" brings the energy back up a little bit - an alternative rock song with energy similar (at least in my opinion) to that of MARINA's new song "Purge the Poison." Not necessarily a highlight on the album for me (mainly because I find its melody to be one of the weakest on the album), the song speaks of struggling with two halves. It's a common belief that we have both light and dark in us - a duality. Genius, for example, talks about the Cherokee belief that we have two wolves inside of us - one that is good and one that is evil and that the one that comes out on top is the one that we choose to feed. That's essentially what the song is about, questioning which wolf you will choose to feed. No Gods No Masters then gives us "Waiting for God," one of my favorite tracks on the album. One of the softest songs on the album, it features a low, almost tribal beat with Shirley's soft voice which is distorted at the end of each verse. It's a very beautiful song and is also haunting, not only in its sound but in its lyrics which address some of the injustices that we have seen in the world over the last several years, especially school shootings and racially charged hate crimes. "...Tears won't bring them back," Manson laments in the bridge, bringing to light what many people say about how action needs to be taken because prayers and tears aren't going to change anything.

My absolute favorite song on No Gods No Masters is definitely "Godhead," an industrial electro-rock track infused to the brim with Nine Inch Nails influence. I can't get enough of this song's groove, its bouncing and grinding rhythm that makes me want to dance or even... well, you know, to it. (Let's just say that its beat is very sexy.) It is definitely one of the more lyrically explicit songs on the album and is also pretty sexually charged, although it isn't meant to be literal, as it's making a statement about sexism and misogyny. "If I had a dick, would you blow it?" she sings in a whispered tone several times throughout the song. While this is an obvious reference to fellatio (which is also likely referenced in the song's title as head is another term used for fellatio), it is, as I said, not intended to be literal. Getting on one's knees is sometimes a phrase used in those sexual terms, but it's also used to imply worship or respect, and Shirley is asking if she would be more respected if she were male. She is also, I think, asking if she would be sexually objectified to the same extent if she were a man. She, in the second verse, whispers, "Get off my tits...," and this, again, is likely meant to have more than one meaning. Genius points to the possibility that she is essentially calling toxic men babies, instructing them to stop feeding off her the way that a baby would, and I love that idea. A woman is also often sexually objectified, however, because of her breasts, so she is also likely demanding that that stop. (This once again calls back to the idea of her asking whether or not her dick would be blown if she had one. Would she be objectified the same way if she had a penis rather than breasts?) It's a ridiculously catchy song begging to be danced to, and I absolutely love its industrial production and clever, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. "Anonymous XXX" is pretty straightforward in what it's about - anonymous sex. (In fact, the XXX part of the title is most likely meant to be Sex, similar to how the clean version of Lady Gaga's "Sexxx Dreams" is titled "X Dreams.") The song has a bit of ska flavor to it, bringing in saxophone as well as rapidly strumming acoustic guitar. (It in fact reminds me a great deal of '90s No Doubt.) "Don't tell me your name," Shirley asserts in the second verse (although unlikely from her own perspective). "I don't want to know. Don't come too close. I don't want you to..." As I said, it's very clearly about people who enjoy taking part in sex with strangers and maybe even questioning why.

"A Woman Destroyed" is quiet and sultry in a way that reminds me of the band's last album Strange Little Birds, especially its opening track "Sometimes." The song does eventually bring in a little bit more energy but really only in its chorus. It's mostly a softer and atmospheric trip hop track, but I absolutely adore its marching bells that come in a little more than halfway through. I think that there are two ways to interpret the song. One is that its titular character (the woman destroyed) is seeking revenge on her former lover for having been unfaithful to her ("you swapped your queen out for a pawn"). That is, in fact, likely the sole way that I would personally interpret it if not for a statement made by Shirley Manson in which she explained that the song was written from the perspective of a woman who has been abused and/or sexually assaulted and is on a path toward revenge. It's similar to how I would have interpreted the song except the cause is different, but the revenge aspect of it is pretty obvious: "Lock your door; get a guard dog... Better sleep with all the lights on," she warns. "Flipping the Bird" brings the mood up considerably, at least in its sound. It features an instrumental very reminiscent of The Cure's "Friday I'm in Love," and I have also seen some fans compare it to Garbage's 1998 song "When I Grow Up," which I can definitely hear. The title of the song is obviously in reference to the gesture one might make of sticking their middle finger up at someone, and I think that it's very clear that Manson is doing so toward men who think that she isn't smart enough to have thoughts of her own because she is a woman. The word that is often used to describe this is mansplaining, which is when a man condescendingly explains something to a woman in a degrading way. "I stopped listening to you years ago," Manson opens in the first verse. "You always think that you know best, I know. I hear you explain things from the other room," and she then sings in the chorus that "you tell me who you think I am." As I said, I think that it's very clearly about toxic and womanizing men who treat women as ignorant children who need to be talked down to. It's interesting, however, how there is also a small bit of empathy afforded such men, or at least there seems to be. The bridge features the following words: "You try to love, but you're too far gone inside. Your own self-worth, it died inside." This, to me, implies that maybe such men are projecting their own feelings of worthlessness onto others, especially women.

No Gods No Masters then offers up its title track, an upbeat electro-rock song. I love its catchy chorus and its anthemic quality, and it lyrically dreams of a better future in which we are kind to one another and take control of our own destinies rather than believe that they're in the hands of powerful men and/or (a) god(s). The album then closes (sort of, anyway; I will get to that in a bit) with "This City Will Kill You," a moody and cinematic trip-hop song with trilling piano chords that I adore. The song is ultimately about being miserable and in pain while encouraging us to claw our way out of that: "You got to get out," Manson urges us. "You got to run, got to quit this town." I also love how she says that "everybody's praying that it rains; it's been promised now for a few days..." because it is very likely a reference to what is probably Garbage's most eminent hit, "Only Happy When It Rains." It is definitely a highlight for me, especially because of, as I said, the haunting, fluttering piano that I love so much. That is how the standard album ends, but I purchased the two-disc deluxe edition of the album which features a bonus disc of eight extra tracks - songs that had previously been released as stand-alone singles over the last several years. In fact, you could even argue that "No Horses" is the album's lead single because it was released back in 2017 with the news that it would possibly be featured on the band's seventh album. The tracks featured here are "No Horses," "Starman" (a cover of the David Bowie classic), "Girls Talk" (a heavy alternative rock track featuring Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle), "Because the Night" (a cover of the Patti Smith song that features Screaming Females), "On Fire" (originally released as the b-side to the following song), "The Chemicals" (featuring Brian Aubert of Silversun Pickups), "Destroying Angels" (which features John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X), and "Time Will Destroy Everything" (released as the b-side to "Girls Talk"). What's interesting about these songs is that most of them were originally released closer to Strange Little Birds; "Girls Talk," "Time Will Destroy Everything," "Because the Night," "The Chemicals," and "On Fire" were all released before Strange Little Birds was released yet are featured as bonus tracks here rather than on that album. Regardless, however, I am glad that they finally have a shared home, and I am so pleased with No Gods No Masters. It is a memorable album with charged messages that are so very important to hear, especially right now.

MARINA - Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land [Review]

Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land is Welsh/Greek pop musician Marina Diamandis' fifth studio album following 2019's LOVE + FEAR. I overall enjoyed LOVE + FEAR, especially with songs like "To Be Human," "End of the Earth," and "Believe in Love" being some of the best of her catalogue so far, but it (as an overall whole with those songs notwithstanding) is my least favorite MARINA album so far, and that's in large part because it's largely absent of the fun and playful attitude usually exhibited in her work. It's definitely back on Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, though, especially front and center on tracks such as "Venus Fly Trap" and "Purge the Poison." Prior to the album's release, four singles were released from the album - "Man's World" (reviewed here), "Purge the Poison" (reviewed here), "Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land" (reviewed here), and "Venus Fly Trap" (reviewed here), and while I like all four of those songs, she was definitely holding out on us because those singles don't even showcase the best that this album has to offer. Ancient Dreams is absolutely beautiful and so much more emotionally raw and brutally honest than what I expected after having heard the singles. That's primarily because the album ultimately has two themes that are, in fact, split right in half (although I doubt that that was the intention as it was on LOVE + FEAR). One thing that I have more than likely discussed somewhere on this blog before, however, is the fact that albums tend to be promoted much differently nowadays than they used to be, and I am not the hugest fan of it. When I was growing up, an album would usually get one lead single - two at the absolute most - before the album dropped, and I liked that because when you finally got the album, most of it was still a surprise. Nowadays, however, you usually get several singles before the album comes out, oftentimes so many, in fact, that you end up having heard half of the album (or close to it) before it comes out, and Ancient Dreams is no exception to that trend. In fact, if you had heard all of the singles released thus far, then when you first hit play on the album when it came out this past Friday, you wouldn't have heard anything new until track 5, and with the album only consisting of ten tracks, that means that - as I said - fans had heard almost half of it before the release. I am not a fan of this trend and miss the days when most of the album was still a surprise when you got it, but I digress (and yes, I do realize that I could simply choose not to listen to the singles until I get the album).

One of the reasons why I point all that out, however, is that, like I said, nothing new is heard until the fifth track, as the first four tracks had all already been released as singles, so while I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about the first four tracks since I already reviewed them, I do want to mention something about the opening title track that I didn't mention in my review of it. First of all, both it and "Purge the Poison" have really grown on me, and I now consider both of them to be highlights on the album. Secondly, I think that there might be an intentional nod to the FROOT track "Savages" in the title track. "Savages" is an upbeat and playful track that looks at humanity from a critical and cynical perspective, positing the possibility that things like rape and murder happen because it's part of human nature. Near the end of the first verse of "Savages," she argues, "At the end of the day, it's a human trait hidden deep down inside of our DNA." Here on "Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land," she sings in the chorus, "I am not my body, not my mind or my brain, not my thoughts or feelings; I am not my DNA." I don't think that mentioning DNA in both tracks is a coincidence; I think that this is Marina acknowledging what she said in "Savages" and amending it, basically saying, "Yes, that ugly stuff can be a part of human nature, but we're more than just human nature. We can choose to be better." Moving on, however, the first new song that Ancient Dreams offers up is the piano ballad "Highly Emotional People." The piano accompaniment is gorgeous, and the song is the first spot on the album that is likely, at least in part, about her ex-boyfriend Jack Patterson of Clean Bandit, although I think that there is more than one way to interpret the song which I don't think are exclusive to one another. The chorus features Marina's signature porcelain vocals singing in a higher and precarious register, "'Cause we're just highly emotional people, and you don't need to hide. Sometimes it's hard to tell me how you feel. I never see you cry... You know it's safe to tell me how you feel." Marina has apparently confirmed that the song was inspired by her relationship, indicating that her ex was a reserved and stoic person, but I think that it can be applied to men in general because of the bridge (my favorite part of the song): "People say men don't cry. It's so much easier to just lie 'til somebody takes their life. Emotions are a part of our design." She is here making the case that emotions are a part of being human and that your sex or gender has nothing to do with it. It's a powerful (not to mention true) outlook.

"New America" is, to me, very reminiscent in style of Electra Heart, although some fans have also compared the melody of the chorus to the chorus of the FROOT title track, and once I saw that comparison, I went back and listened for it and now can't unhear it. (As I said, however, the style of the song is overall very reminiscent of Electra Heart. It, to me, features the big and full sound of songs like "Bubblegum Bitch" and "Radioactive.") Like the singles released thus far, the song (the title of which reminds me of Halsey's "New Americana") takes a critical look at the state of things today, this time specifically regarding the United States (which Diamandis had sort of previously done on "Hollywood" from The Family Jewels). She opens with, "Everything that made you great only made you bad, made the people hate all the good they had," and this is very likely a reference to Donald Trump's horrendous presidency and his campaign slogan, Make America Great Again, which many people combated with the argument that America was already great. Marina stated that she began writing this song the day after news broke of George Floyd's murder, and that makes sense because the song, amongst other things like privilege and wealth, definitely addresses racism: "Who gave you jazz, hip hop, rock and roll, and the blues?" It is of course a rhetorical question because the answer to it is people of color, but the influences and accomplishments of people of color are often overlooked, and people of color are frequently not afforded the respect that they deserve. I love this line at the end of the chorus: "Stars are shining for you, sparkling red and blue." The colors are clever because they're not only two of the colors on the American flag but also likely represent blood and tears. It's a very powerful song, although I do wish that its spot on the album were switched with "Highly Emotional People." Remember how I said that the album essentially has two themes? Half of the album is about society; the other half is about heartbreak, and like I said previously, "Highly Emotional People" is essentially the bridge between the two as it very likely deals with both of those themes. It would therefore make more sense to have "New America" closer to songs similar in theme - songs like "Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land" and "Purge the Poison." While I do realize that that would result in an ever higher number of slower ballads heard on the back half of the album, it would make more sense thematically; tracks 1-5 would deal with society and culture while tracks 6-10 would deal with love and heartbreak.

Speaking of love and heartbreak, "Pandora's Box" - one of my favorite songs from the album (likely my second favorite, in fact) - is the first spot on the album where it's addressed in full force without much room for alternate interpretation, and I think that the whole remainder of the album likely addresses a failed relationship. There is one line in particular for example that seems to indicate infidelity: "You damaged what we had, but for her, it's just another day." This line implies, again, that infidelity was involved in why the relationship ended and that the woman with whom the speaker's partner cheated might not have even known that she was an accomplice in infidelity. I have seen a lot of fans cite this as one of their lesser favorites on the album, and I just don't understand that at all. The melody - along with the song's strings - is so haunting and beautiful, as are the lyrics. It's also not likely a coincidence that MARINA would make use of an artifact from Greek mythology in the imagery. Being half Greek herself, she has implemented imagery from Greek mythology and history in the past. Electra Heart is in reference to the Greek tragedy of Electra, and that album's song "Hypocrates" refers to the Greek physician Hippocrates. According to the Greek legend, Pandora's box was a box that contained sickness, death, and evil - all unleashed onto the world when the box was opened. In the chorus of the song, Marina sings (in a beautifully catchy melody), "You opened up Pandora's box. You don't know what you just unlocked. I lose all control, let go of my darkest thoughts..." This ties tightly into the opening line of the song: "You almost turned me psycho. I almost lost my mind." Marina is referring to her mind as Pandora's box, saying that her lover's act of betrayal allowed for dark thoughts to escape. It's such a great track that stands out to me not only because of how beautiful its melody is but also because of how much I find myself relating to its haunting lyrics. Ancient Dreams then continues with the theme with "I Love You but I Love Me More," arguably a bit of a sequel to "Pandora's Box." "Do you expect me to believe that you've changed when I can tell that you're exactly the same?" she asks rhetorically in the first verse. She also points out in the first verse that "you'd rather shut your eyes than feel any pain," likely tying the song to "Highly Emotional People." There is also a possible Britney nod (of whom Marina is a fan) in the song when, in the chorus, she warns, "Don't come back knocking at my door." It's an upbeat and very catchy song in the vein of FROOT.

I mentioned that "Pandora's Box" is probably my second favorite song on the album, and "Flowers" is likely my first favorite. I have seen a lot of fans cite it as their favorite as well, so (similar to songs like "Teen Idle" and "Savages") it seems destined to become a fan favorite and a classic in our eyes even if it doesn't get released as a single. Like "Highly Emotional People" and the closing track, "Flowers" is a soft piano ballad and is just absolutely gorgeous. I even sent a link to the song to my best friend shortly after my first time having heard it, and she commented on how beautiful it was. A few days later, after having heard the album in its entirety herself, she cited "Highly Emotional People" and "Flowers" as two of her favorites on the album. (Like I said, it just seems like just about everyone loves this song.) I love the opening verse because I think that it might be an intentional nod to one of my favorite MARINA songs of all time - "Forget" from FROOT. The closing verse of "Forget" says, "'Cause in the end, the road is long but only 'cause it makes you strong. It's filled with peaks and twists and turns." The opening verse here on "Flowers" says, "The road had many bends, but we knew that all along. I think it made me stronger..." She goes on to say that even though difficult times have made her strong, "I would rather not betray myself just to keep your love at any cost." The song is from the perspective of someone hurting from a wrong committed by her lover, and, to me, she knows that she did the right thing by leaving but occasionally wishes that she had stayed: "...It's most tempting to give in when you're almost at the top, when you're steps from winning back all the happiness you lost." I could be misinterpreting this, but what this means to me is that she is tempted to take her lover back because she feels like the heartbreak would then go away, but she also knows that that wouldn't be the right thing to do for herself. (This would tie into the earlier line of not wanting to betray herself just to keep his love.) She argues in the chorus that "if you just bought me flowers, maybe I would've stayed," but it's unlikely that this is literal. Flowers, after all, can't save a doomed relationship. (I would know because I tried that.) Marina's love of flowers, however, is no secret, so she is likely just saying that she might have stayed if he had just paid more attention to her interests. ("With every careless action, you let me slip away.") It's just such a stunningly beautiful song, and I especially love the trilling piano in the chorus after the first line.

Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, like the last two albums LOVE + FEAR and FROOT, only has one version - no deluxe version with any extra tracks. All versions therefore end with the raw piano ballad "Goodbye." "Goodbye" is such an emotional closing to the album and likely says goodbye to more than one person - her ex but also past versions of herself. My favorite part of the song is when, at the very beginning of the chorus, a single piano key is struck with force. It adds such emotional depth to the song, making her farewell feel more finalized. The song thematically reminds me a lot of Avril Lavigne's song "Goodbye" from her 2011 album Goodbye Lullaby. Like MARINA's "Goodbye," the song is saying farewell to an ex lover but is doing so with warmth, not coldness or anger, wishing them well. "Maybe we won't meet again," MARINA sings in the second verse, "but you'll always be my closest friend. I hope you'll always be happy." She also addresses their love as having had a positive impact on her and her life and seems to want to remember it that way: "No matter what happens now, nobody can take our love down," she asserts in the bridge. "It's safe in our memories, and I won't forget how you healed me." The LOVE + FEAR track "Superstar" was written about Jack and was essentially about his love healing and saving her, making this all come full circle in a really beautiful and poetic way. It is such a beautiful song that makes me cry especially because of the ways in which I can relate to it emotionally, and it's a perfect closing track to Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land. It is so hard for me to rank MARINA's albums because they are all so good and each have something unique to offer, but what I can say about Ancient Dreams is that, while offering a few echoes of past albums (especially The Family Jewels), it is one of her more ambitious albums especially in how, as stated previously, emotionally vulnerable the back half of it is. Diamandis holds nothing back lyrically and gives us the bare truth, as bitter as it might be at times, and it's a lush album combining indie rock bangers and vulnerable ballads, and I love how tracks like the title track, "Purge the Poison," and "New America" have a very full sound to them. Similar to FROOT tracks like "Can't Pin Me Down" and "Better than That," they sound very big like they're backed by a live band. Bravo, MARINA! You have done it again!

MARINA - Venus Fly Trap - Single [Review]

The fourth single released from Marina Diamandis' upcoming fifth studio album Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, "Venus Fly Trap" is a song about being confident in yourself and proud of everything that you have accomplished so far. I can't say for sure whether or not it's intentional, but it definitely seems to me as if the song references her song "Hollywood" from her first album The Family Jewels. That song takes a critical approach in its discussion of the Hollywood lifestyle, and here in "Venus Fly Trap," Marina, in the first verse, sings, "I never quite fit in to that Hollywood thing. I didn't play that game for the money or the fame." With Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land being, as I said, her fifth studio album with past albums such as Electra Heart and FROOT being moderately successful financially, it would seem as if Marina has since embraced the lifestyle, especially since (as discussed in this interview) she recently bought a house in and moved to Beverly Hills. However, she did it in her own way and on her own terms: "I did it my way, baby. Nothing in this world could change me." In the song's intro and bridge, she asks the rhetorical question, "Why be a wallflower when you can be a Venus fly trap?" This more or less sums up the song's message as it is, like I said, about empowerment and being true to yourself. As have just about all of the singles released thus far from the album, it also addresses sexism and misogyny such as in the bridge when she, in a breathy and whispered tone, sings, "They'll shame you, blame you, pretend to even hate you, take away your rights, pacify you with their lies." Marina addressed the song's lyrics and sound by saying that the song "is really sassy. I'm sure my lyrics are going to be taken out of context and misunderstood, which I love. It's a very sassy, fun, bouncy, big song. It's silly, but I love it so much." In the aforementioned interview to which I linked, Marina stated that Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land is most similar in sound to her first album The Family Jewels, and I so far definitely agree. The lead single "Man's World" (reviewed here) is, in my opinion, most similar to her third album FROOT, but the following singles "Purge the Poison" (reviewed here) and "Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land" (reviewed here) definitely remind me of The Family Jewels, as does "Venus Fly Trap" which incorporates jaunty piano and a playful indie rock sound very similar to the overall sound of The Family Jewels, and I am so excited to hear the rest of the album (which drops tomorrow!). Although "Venus Fly Trap" is probably my least favorite song of the four singles released thus far, I do still really love it, and its music video is by far by favorite music video released so far this era!

Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters - Single / Text Book - Single / Wildflower Wildfire - Single [Review]

Lana Del Rey will soon be releasing a brand new album following Chemtrails over the Country Club, titled Blue Banisters, and she surprise dropped three singles from the album all on the same day - the title track, "Text Book," and "Wildflower Wildfire." Before I begin discussing the songs themselves, I do want to discuss a couple of other issues regarding Lana Del Rey. Firstly, even though it's probably my least favorite Lana Del Rey album so far, I really hate how little promotion that Chemtrails has received. She barely gave that album any time to marinate at all before moving on to promoting the next project, making Chemtrails a blip in her discography. I overall, as I said, found Chemtrails to be a bit of a disappointment, so I am looking forward to what will hopefully be an improvement, but I just hope that Lana won't be making releasing multiple albums per year a habit because, like I said, I really think that albums need time to marinate and leave impacts. The second point that I want to make (one that I have seen a lot of other fans make as well) is that I am really hoping that the album cover is not the same cover as the single cover for the title track and that it's a lot better. I love Lana so much, but these covers are horrendous, especially the one for the title track. People who have been defending the covers have been saying things like, "People are really upset because Lana gave us a selfie as a cover?" The selfie is not the problem, however. The editing is the problem. The borders and the font on the covers are very cheap and tacky looking. They look like they were done by someone with little to no editing skills on a program like Paint or PicsArt. Defendants have also made the argument that the music is what's important, not the covers, and I agree to an extent, but visuals are definitely part of the experience. That was definitely the case, for example, with Norman Fucking Rockwell!. I adore that album cover, and it represents the story told through the music so well. Moving on to discussing the actual music, however...

 

"Blue Banisters" is the first of the three singles released from the upcoming album of the same title. The song is driven by piano, as has much of Lana's music for several albums now. It is mid-tempo, and Lana quickly fluctuates between a lower register that reminds me a little bit of songs like "Off to the Races" from Born to Die and a higher register which has ultimately been her signature sound vocally for quite some time now. The verses are sung primarily in the lower register, and they sound almost conversational in tone and rhythm, as if she is sharing a story with us. In the first verse, there is what I believe to be an obvious parallel to Lana's hit song "Video Games" from Born to Die. In "Video Games," Lana sings, "Open up a beer and you say, ‘get over here,'" and here in “Blue Banisters,” she sings, “Jenny handed me a beer, said, ‘How the hell did you get there?'" The parallel here - not only visually but in its rhyming scheme - is far too striking to me to be coincidence, and I definitely think that it's meant to be a deliberate juxtaposition. The focus of "Video Games" is love (as in romantic and sexual love), but the focus of "Blue Banisters" is instead on platonic love with female friends. As explained on Genius, Jenny is a close friend of Lana's and is one of the women featured on the standard Chemtrails over the Country Club album cover. The song, as is obvious from the title, references the color blue, as does a great deal of Lana's work. Several tracks even have the color in their titles - "Baby Blue Love," "Gramma (Blue Ribbon Sparkler Trailer Heaven)," "Blue Jeans," "Blue Velvet" (which is a cover, but it still counts), "Quiet Waiter Blue Forever," and now "Blue Banisters." Countless other songs also mention the color in their lyrics. It's definitely a recurring theme, and she sometimes uses it in a positive way ("paint me happy and blue") and sometimes uses it in a negative way ("you make me blue"). I think that the color likely makes a transition from happy to sad in this song. She, in the first chorus, sings, "Said he'd come back every May just to help me if I'd paint my banisters blue." The color here represents a promise, but later in the song, when she, in the second chorus, instead sings, "Now when weather turns to May, all my sisters come to paint my banisters green," we realize that the promise was not kept. It's a simple but beautiful song, and I love its reference to Joan Baez's classic song "Diamonds and Rust": "...the diamonds, the rust, and the rain..."

"Text Book" is so beautiful, and I absolutely love its catchy chorus which reminds me a bit of the chorus of "Change" from Lust for Life. Genius claims that the song is a continuation of the country-influenced sound featured on NFR! and Chemtrails, and I have to disagree with part of that stance because while I do definitely hear some country influence on Chemtrails, there is absolutely no country influence on NFR! at all. Back to the discussion at hand, however, Lana once again refers to the color blue on this track: "...and there you were," she reflects in the pre-chorus, "standin' blue with open arms." The song is very poetic in nature as it's a reflection on Lana's past, where she is today, and how much of her past she still carries with her. She acknowledges her Electra Complex which has permeated much of her music's themes throughout her career, even referring to her lover as "my old man" in "Off to the Races" and admitting that "I gots a taste for men who are older" in "Cola" from Paradise. She acknowledges that perhaps more directly and with more self-awareness than she ever has before in "Text Book" right in the first line: "I guess you could call it textbook. I was lookin' for the father I wanted back..." Although his theory wasn't exactly new as it was based in large part on the aforementioned Electra Complex, Freud posited the theory that some young girls find themselves attracted to their fathers at a young age and, later in life, are drawn toward men who remind them of their fathers. Sylvia Plath made the exact same admission in her classic poem "Daddy": "I made a model of you... And I said I do, I do." (Del Rey has previously alluded to Plath on her NFR! track "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it" as well as on her Violent Bent Backwards over the Grass track "Bare Feet on Linoleum"). As previously mentioned, Lana is reflecting on her struggles ("I didn't even like myself," she admits in the pre-chorus, "or love the life I had...") while also tying that together with where she is today and how she has been involved in important movements ("...There we were, screamin' 'Black Lives Matter' in the crowd..."), and I saw her come under some heavy fire on Twitter for supposedly romanticizing the BLM movement in that line, and I don't see how she is romanticizing it; she is simply reflecting on her journey and the steps along the way, having been involved in that movement being one of them, but something that I have noticed is that she frequently comes under heavy fire for no good reason. I mean, if you're going to critique tacky cover art, that's one thing, but to keep attacking her for everything that she says and does and doesn't say or do as if she can do no right, that's exhausting.

I love the title of "Wildflower Wildfire" not only because of its use of alliteration but also because it is definitely a bit of a tongue-twister. Just like the other two tracks released from Blue Banisters thus far, "Wildflower Wildire" is accompanied primarily by piano, and the piano flutters under Lana's whispery vocals in the verses. It's a pretty song, but I think of the three singles, it's the least unique and least inspired from a melodic standpoint, and it is definitely my least favorite of the three (with "Text Book" undoubtedly being my favorite). The lyrics, however, are pretty powerful and are definitely some of Lana's most abstract and poetic lyrics to date: "Baby, I, I, I, I've been runnin' on stardust alone for so long," she laments in the pre-chorus of the track. "I wouldn't know what hot fire was - hot fire, hot weather, hot coffee." I believe Lana to be presenting heat as something that can be comforting (hot coffee) but also uncomfortable (hot weather) and even destructive (hot fire). In fact, speaking of its destructive nature, I don't think that it's any coincidence that the title and lyrics of this song refer to wildfires because Lana has focused very heavily on the California wildfires throughout much of her art as of late - on tracks from Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass, and Chemtrails over the Country Club. (The Norman Fucking Rockwell! album cover even showcases a landscape on fire in the distant background.) Wildfires are, of course, dangerous and destructive. They are also a result of humanity and how we - as a species - tend to take care of the earth and our environment, and embracing humanity and who we are is definitely one of the themes present on this track. When Lana, as previously cited, refers to running on stardust, it is my belief that she is saying that she was only being who she could be - who she was at the time (as the belief is that life is made up of stardust from a supernova). She also refers to wanting to hold on to being good and for her heat to remain comforting and not destructive: "I'll do my best never to turn into something that burns, burns, burns" (her repetition a possible reference to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire"), Lana also refers to some of the hardships in her life that have tempted her fire to become wildfire, such as a tumultuous relationship with her mother and hospital stays. It is a lyrically beautiful song but is, as I said, musically rather restrained, but based on what I have heard so far, I am intrigued and am looking forward to Blue Banisters, which is expected to drop on July 4th, 2021.