War In My Mind

In the beginning, there was the sun, nothing but the sun moving through the heavens. Covering the surface of the earth were the seas and the seas were turmoil. With civilization came the surfer with his urge to conquer these moving walls of water.
 
[Doing Time]
[Venice Bitch]
[Mariner’s Apartment Complex]
[Norman fucking Rockwell]
 
The greatest journey is the journey of the mind. Since this is what determines the journey of life. Have you ever had the feeling that your mind was on a journey? A voyage of discovery? That sometimes it has to make long passages on dark, uncharted seas? And at other times it discovers bright islands of beauty or of truth. Islands it will know from this day forward, that it can always steer for and find in a storm. While the gales of life blow themselves out and the enormous seas of misfortune, or pain, or sorrow, or doubt subside into calm. Well if you’ll come, I’d like to take you on such a voyage of the mind…
 

In the beginning, there was the sun, nothing but the sun moving through the heavens. Covering the surface of the earth were the seas and the seas were turmoil. With civilization came the surfer with his urge to conquer these moving walls of water.
 
[Doing Time]
[Venice Bitch]
[Mariner’s Apartment Complex]
[Norman fucking Rockwell]
 
The greatest journey is the journey of the mind. Since this is what determines the journey of life. Have you ever had the feeling that your mind was on a journey? A voyage of discovery? That sometimes it has to make long passages on dark, uncharted seas? And at other times it discovers bright islands of beauty or of truth. Islands it will know from this day forward, that it can always steer for and find in a storm. While the gales of life blow themselves out and the enormous seas of misfortune, or pain, or sorrow, or doubt subside into calm. Well if you’ll come, I’d like to take you on such a voyage of the mind…
 

In the beginning, there was the sun, nothing but the sun moving through the heavens. Covering the surface of the earth were the seas and the seas were turmoil. With civilization came the surfer with his urge to conquer these moving walls of water.
 
[Doing Time]
[Venice Bitch]
[Mariner’s Apartment Complex]
[Norman fucking Rockwell]
 
The greatest journey is the journey of the mind. Since this is what determines the journey of life. Have you ever had the feeling that your mind was on a journey? A voyage of discovery? That sometimes it has to make long passages on dark, uncharted seas? And at other times it discovers bright islands of beauty or of truth. Islands it will know from this day forward, that it can always steer for and find in a storm. While the gales of life blow themselves out and the enormous seas of misfortune, or pain, or sorrow, or doubt subside into calm. Well if you’ll come, I’d like to take you on such a voyage of the mind…
 

In the beginning, there was the sun, nothing but the sun moving through the heavens. Covering the surface of the earth were the seas and the seas were turmoil. With civilization came the surfer with his urge to conquer these moving walls of water.
 
[Doing Time]
[Venice Bitch]
[Mariner’s Apartment Complex]
[Norman fucking Rockwell]
 
The greatest journey is the journey of the mind. Since this is what determines the journey of life. Have you ever had the feeling that your mind was on a journey? A voyage of discovery? That sometimes it has to make long passages on dark, uncharted seas? And at other times it discovers bright islands of beauty or of truth. Islands it will know from this day forward, that it can always steer for and find in a storm. While the gales of life blow themselves out and the enormous seas of misfortune, or pain, or sorrow, or doubt subside into calm. Well if you’ll come, I’d like to take you on such a voyage of the mind…
 

This is slowly becoming a favorite track of mine so I wanted to a close reading of the lyrics. Hopefully, you enjoy and remember this is my interpretation of the song.


 
The first line of the song echoes her song “Change” where she begins the song with “There’s something in the wind, I can feel it blowin’ in”, whereas in “Change” the song is eerie and is anticipating change, be it good or bad, in “Violets for Roses” the song immediately indicates that the/a change has already occurred, and we see it in the next two lines. Masks off and running happy, references the freedom (from COVID also making this song hyper-contemporary), but perhaps this is not necessarily true in the real world, since COVID is still running wild, it again echoes the album’s tone of the freedom and joy found in family.


 
The second “stanza” or pre-chorus makes explicit another change that has occurred—a breakup. However, unlike most break-up songs, this is neither an angry declaration nor a sad one, rather a happy one. The freedom that comes with breaking-up with someone because you can reallocate the love back to yourself. Perhaps from a relationship so toxic that you forget who you are and what you like, highlighted by the first line, “ever since I fell out of love with you, I fell back in love with me.”


 
In the chorus, there is the infamous line, “you made me trade my violets for roses,” a line perhaps not popular with the community but one that is nonetheless metaphorically symbolic. “Roses” have been known in poetry to represent love since medieval prose poetry. Similarly, violets are no stranger to Lana Del Rey’s own poetry (see: Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass). While in the titular poem, Violet is a child of seven-years old, it could be argued that Violet is a personification of her own desires. The poem’s first stanza is a contemplation of everything she wants to do which is clashed with the presence of Violet in the second stanza:

and saw Violet
bent backwards over the grass
7 years old with dandelions grasped
tightly in her hands
arched like a bridge in a fallen handstand
grinning wildly like a madman
with the exuberance that only doing nothing can bring
waiting for the fireworks to begin

Her seeing Violet, carelessly enjoying her life, leads the poetess to let her own worries go:

and in that moment
i decided to do nothing about everything


forever.

Other than the clear intertextuality with her own oeuvre, Violets are also known to be compared to roses in the well-known poem:

Roses are red, violets are blue

Sugar is sweet, and so are you.

This poem, like Del Rey’s song, puts “violets” and “roses” in immediate contrast. The switching of placement in the chanteuse’s song, structurally emphasizes her identification with “violets” or her own desires, her own identity, with “roses” which represent love. Thus, “you made me trade my violets for roses,” is a confession, “you made me trade myself, my values, my joy for love.” A sentiment that harkens back to Del Rey’s third full-length album Honeymoon and the song “Terrance Loves You” where she confesses this pattern, “I lost myself, when I lost you”.


 
The rest of the chorus’ lyrics echo these sentiments. About a lover who made her sacrifice each aspect of her individuality (be it cars, toenail polish) in negotiation for love. The chorus ends with a declaration that any love that forces a woman to do this, is a doomed one.


 
The stanza that serves as the songs bridge repeats some of the lyrics from the first stanza of the song, but with this time a declaration of hope that this change is permanent. At first, the change being understood as this love for herself and the joy she finds in the everyday. While once again echoing perhaps the civil unrest that she first mentions in “Text Book” the opening track of Blue Banisters. Thus, with these final lines of this verse, the change she is mentioning is both the love she has for herself, but the change in society, macro and micro changes.

 

The final pre-chorus sees the singer re-embracing things that she used to love before she fell in love, “I fell back in love with the streets” and “I breakdance to the beat” and “God, does it sound sweet, like it’s playing just for me”. All sentiments reinforced by the final chorus and the outro which reaffirm the toxicity that love can have and that it is important to stay yourself and not to sacrifice what you love about yourself in order to be loved, in doing so you’ll find that that person forcing those sacrifices does not love you but loves controlling you. In the final lines of the outro, Lana is watching the girls again but seeing in them her own mask is now off, that toxic love, and it makes [her] so happy.

This is slowly becoming a favorite track of mine so I wanted to a close reading of the lyrics. Hopefully, you enjoy and remember this is my interpretation of the song.


 
The first line of the song echoes her song “Change” where she begins the song with “There’s something in the wind, I can feel it blowin’ in”, whereas in “Change” the song is eerie and is anticipating change, be it good or bad, in “Violets for Roses” the song immediately indicates that the/a change has already occurred, and we see it in the next two lines. Masks off and running happy, references the freedom (from COVID also making this song hyper-contemporary), but perhaps this is not necessarily true in the real world, since COVID is still running wild, it again echoes the album’s tone of the freedom and joy found in family.


 
The second “stanza” or pre-chorus makes explicit another change that has occurred—a breakup. However, unlike most break-up songs, this is neither an angry declaration nor a sad one, rather a happy one. The freedom that comes with breaking-up with someone because you can reallocate the love back to yourself. Perhaps from a relationship so toxic that you forget who you are and what you like, highlighted by the first line, “ever since I fell out of love with you, I fell back in love with me.”


 
In the chorus, there is the infamous line, “you made me trade my violets for roses,” a line perhaps not popular with the community but one that is nonetheless metaphorically symbolic. “Roses” have been known in poetry to represent love since medieval prose poetry. Similarly, violets are no stranger to Lana Del Rey’s own poetry (see: Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass). While in the titular poem, Violet is a child of seven-years old, it could be argued that Violet is a personification of her own desires. The poem’s first stanza is a contemplation of everything she wants to do which is clashed with the presence of Violet in the second stanza:

and saw Violet
bent backwards over the grass
7 years old with dandelions grasped
tightly in her hands
arched like a bridge in a fallen handstand
grinning wildly like a madman
with the exuberance that only doing nothing can bring
waiting for the fireworks to begin

Her seeing Violet, carelessly enjoying her life, leads the poetess to let her own worries go:

and in that moment
i decided to do nothing about everything


forever.

Other than the clear intertextuality with her own oeuvre, Violets are also known to be compared to roses in the well-known poem:

Roses are red, violets are blue

Sugar is sweet, and so are you.

This poem, like Del Rey’s song, puts “violets” and “roses” in immediate contrast. The switching of placement in the chanteuse’s song, structurally emphasizes her identification with “violets” or her own desires, her own identity, with “roses” which represent love. Thus, “you made me trade my violets for roses,” is a confession, “you made me trade myself, my values, my joy for love.” A sentiment that harkens back to Del Rey’s third full-length album Honeymoon and the song “Terrance Loves You” where she confesses this pattern, “I lost myself, when I lost you”.


 
The rest of the chorus’ lyrics echo these sentiments. About a lover who made her sacrifice each aspect of her individuality (be it cars, toenail polish) in negotiation for love. The chorus ends with a declaration that any love that forces a woman to do this, is a doomed one.


 
The stanza that serves as the songs bridge repeats some of the lyrics from the first stanza of the song, but with this time a declaration of hope that this change is permanent. At first, the change being understood as this love for herself and the joy she finds in the everyday. While once again echoing perhaps the civil unrest that she first mentions in “Text Book” the opening track of Blue Banisters. Thus, with these final lines of this verse, the change she is mentioning is both the love she has for herself, but the change in society, macro and micro changes.

 

The final pre-chorus sees the singer re-embracing things that she used to love before she fell in love, “I fell back in love with the streets” and “I breakdance to the beat” and “God, does it sound sweet, like it’s playing just for me”. All sentiments reinforced by the final chorus and the outro which reaffirm the toxicity that love can have and that it is important to stay yourself and not to sacrifice what you love about yourself in order to be loved, in doing so you’ll find that that person forcing those sacrifices does not love you but loves controlling you. In the final lines of the outro, Lana is watching the girls again but seeing in them her own mask is now off, that toxic love, and it makes [her] so happy.

I MET MY BOYFRIEND DOWN AT THE TACO TRUCK
 
girl literally same, if you count tacos as boyfriends.

I MET MY BOYFRIEND DOWN AT THE TACO TRUCK
 
girl literally same, if you count tacos as boyfriends.

I MET MY BOYFRIEND DOWN AT THE TACO TRUCK
 
girl literally same, if you count tacos as boyfriends.

I MET MY BOYFRIEND DOWN AT THE TACO TRUCK
 
girl literally same, if you count tacos as boyfriends.

When they said prolific, they weren't kidding. You thought that I was just a calendar kitten.

This is slowly becoming a favorite track of mine so I wanted to a close reading of the lyrics. Hopefully, you enjoy and remember this is my interpretation of the song.


 
The first line of the song echoes her song “Change” where she begins the song with “There’s something in the wind, I can feel it blowin’ in”, whereas in “Change” the song is eerie and is anticipating change, be it good or bad, in “Violets for Roses” the song immediately indicates that the/a change has already occurred, and we see it in the next two lines. Masks off and running happy, references the freedom (from COVID also making this song hyper-contemporary), but perhaps this is not necessarily true in the real world, since COVID is still running wild, it again echoes the album’s tone of the freedom and joy found in family.


 
The second “stanza” or pre-chorus makes explicit another change that has occurred—a breakup. However, unlike most break-up songs, this is neither an angry declaration nor a sad one, rather a happy one. The freedom that comes with breaking-up with someone because you can reallocate the love back to yourself. Perhaps from a relationship so toxic that you forget who you are and what you like, highlighted by the first line, “ever since I fell out of love with you, I fell back in love with me.”


 
In the chorus, there is the infamous line, “you made me trade my violets for roses,” a line perhaps not popular with the community but one that is nonetheless metaphorically symbolic. “Roses” have been known in poetry to represent love since medieval prose poetry. Similarly, violets are no stranger to Lana Del Rey’s own poetry (see: Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass). While in the titular poem, Violet is a child of seven-years old, it could be argued that Violet is a personification of her own desires. The poem’s first stanza is a contemplation of everything she wants to do which is clashed with the presence of Violet in the second stanza:

and saw Violet
bent backwards over the grass
7 years old with dandelions grasped
tightly in her hands
arched like a bridge in a fallen handstand
grinning wildly like a madman
with the exuberance that only doing nothing can bring
waiting for the fireworks to begin

Her seeing Violet, carelessly enjoying her life, leads the poetess to let her own worries go:

and in that moment
i decided to do nothing about everything


forever.

Other than the clear intertextuality with her own oeuvre, Violets are also known to be compared to roses in the well-known poem:

Roses are red, violets are blue

Sugar is sweet, and so are you.

This poem, like Del Rey’s song, puts “violets” and “roses” in immediate contrast. The switching of placement in the chanteuse’s song, structurally emphasizes her identification with “violets” or her own desires, her own identity, with “roses” which represent love. Thus, “you made me trade my violets for roses,” is a confession, “you made me trade myself, my values, my joy for love.” A sentiment that harkens back to Del Rey’s third full-length album Honeymoon and the song “Terrance Loves You” where she confesses this pattern, “I lost myself, when I lost you”.


 
The rest of the chorus’ lyrics echo these sentiments. About a lover who made her sacrifice each aspect of her individuality (be it cars, toenail polish) in negotiation for love. The chorus ends with a declaration that any love that forces a woman to do this, is a doomed one.


 
The stanza that serves as the songs bridge repeats some of the lyrics from the first stanza of the song, but with this time a declaration of hope that this change is permanent. At first, the change being understood as this love for herself and the joy she finds in the everyday. While once again echoing perhaps the civil unrest that she first mentions in “Text Book” the opening track of Blue Banisters. Thus, with these final lines of this verse, the change she is mentioning is both the love she has for herself, but the change in society, macro and micro changes.

 

The final pre-chorus sees the singer re-embracing things that she used to love before she fell in love, “I fell back in love with the streets” and “I breakdance to the beat” and “God, does it sound sweet, like it’s playing just for me”. All sentiments reinforced by the final chorus and the outro which reaffirm the toxicity that love can have and that it is important to stay yourself and not to sacrifice what you love about yourself in order to be loved, in doing so you’ll find that that person forcing those sacrifices does not love you but loves controlling you. In the final lines of the outro, Lana is watching the girls again but seeing in them her own mask is now off, that toxic love, and it makes [her] so happy.

In my experience they dont usually re-press the non-black/alternate cover variants. Look at the prices for UV Urban Outfitters, Honeymoon UO for reference.

In my experience they dont usually re-press the non-black/alternate cover variants. Look at the prices for UV Urban Outfitters, Honeymoon UO for reference.

When Lana is asked about the announcement today and she remembers that the interview was with a Spanish-speaking media:

When Lana is asked about the announcement today and she remembers that the interview was with a Spanish-speaking media:

When Lana is asked about the announcement today and she remembers that the interview was with a Spanish-speaking media:

When Lana is asked about the announcement today and she remembers that the interview was with a Spanish-speaking media:

When Lana is asked about the announcement today and she remembers that the interview was with a Spanish-speaking media:

When Lana is asked about the announcement today and she remembers that the interview was with a Spanish-speaking media:

When Lana is asked about the announcement today and she remembers that the interview was with a Spanish-speaking media:

dark times
two collabs with asap rocky on one album, havent we suffered enough

I just finished my prospectus and preparing my defense but who cares, only one of these once in a lifetime moments will have a cultural impact.

When Lana is asked about the announcement today and she remembers that the interview was with a Spanish-speaking media:

In my experience they dont usually re-press the non-black/alternate cover variants. Look at the prices for UV Urban Outfitters, Honeymoon UO for reference.