I'm LIVING for how we were trashing Tomorrow Never Came (due to its feature) and Get Free (due to its "stupid title") before the album's release, but now we're dying over them lmao.
I still can't stop listening to TNC. It's so perfect.
- The acoustic sounds
- The lyrics
- I love the Bob Dylan reference
- I love when Sean sings the 'wine' part over again
- When they both sing in the song
So I've been had a few thoughts about this album since I first listened to it in full, but decided to let them stew a little in case any other points came to me, and basically I have a feeling that Lana has been getting professional help from some sort of psychologist, counsellor or therapist and was possibly diagnosed with clinical depression and is now on medication. I know others in the past have speculated about her mental health and it has often been quite unhelpful and actually accusatory of Lana as fuelling her own sadness, when in reality she has probably had a serious mental health condition that she wasn't aware she could treat, or perhaps she was aware but didn't seek treatment.
She has said that she saw a therapist three times before but found it quite unsuccessful.
Quite clearly she has had mental health issues in the past (admitting so herself), likely a combination of anxiety and depression, perhaps related to her past substance abuse with drugs and alcohol, that she has openly spoken about.
In "Lust for Life", there are a lot of lyrical allusions to this theme, in my opinion, that I wanted to discuss.
What first struck me was the song "Heroin", in particular, the following lyrics:
"I'm flying to the moon again, dreaming about marzipan
Taking all my medicine to take my thoughts away"
I think she's being quite explicit here, in that she is clearly taking some sort of medication that is having an effect on her mindset. A common treatment for anxiety or depressive disorders is obviously through anti-depressant or other similar medications. One could argue that this medicine could be for anything, but I say that because she says it "takes [her] thoughts away" it's clear to me it's not to address any physical/bodily issue, but a psychological one related to mental health.
In the outro of Heroin she sings about wanting to make a change for the better, that there's something that "makes [her] head go crazy" and she'd "be lying if [she] said she wasn't sick of it". To me, this is Lana saying that she is willing to admit she has had many problems in the past. And if we look at "Get Free", she seems to admit that she really only has herself to blame for many of these problems.
"Like my part was I was not discerning
And you, as we found out, were not in your right mind"
Clearly she's had a difficult time discerning when she's in toxic situations/relationships with people not in their "right mind" but is finally coming to acknowledge that and try to make amends to that. It makes sense if you think about what she's said in interviews recently, about trying to finally move on from toxic relationships and take care of herself first and foremost, rather than unhealthy and unhelpful people.
When she sings of taking "the dead out of the sea and the darkness from the arts", and wanting to "move out of the black and into the blue", to me, this is her acknowledging she's been severely depressed and is finally ready to "cross the threshold" and make a step towards taking care of herself properly. She also wants this to be translated to her music and art as well, believing she can help others out there. Her "commitment", her "modern manifesto" is to gradually work on changing her mindset and sharing that with "all of us who never got the chance", "for... [insert name] and for... [insert name]".
The chorus of "Get Free" supports this whole idea as well. She feels as if she's "got a war in [her] mind" (as alluded to in "Ride"), but finally admits she "want to get off" from "riding the ride"; a ride that has ultimately worsened her way of thinking.
And these lyrics are also really important as well...
"I never really noticed that I had to decide
To play someone's game or live my own life
But now I do, I wanna move"
She is finally ready to take control of her life and get her life back together. Also, as a side note, when she sings of rainbows in the second verse, I have this weird idea that she could be thinking back to when she frequently used hallucinogenic drugs in the past, like going on a trip and seeing a wide array of colours, but they're not real, "their arches are illusions" and they "put you in a trance" (a literal, drug-induced trance). The way she sings about drug use on "Heroin" and that line about wanting to "get that cigarette smoke outta my face" on "In My Feelings" seems to me that she is becoming more aware of the harmful impact drugs have had on her life, and she's trying to move away from that. We saw this idea surface on Honeymoon, in "Religion", where she says "it never was about the money or the drugs", relegating them to something insignificant and a waste.
Heck, even the official iTunes description for "Lust for Life" talks of how in "Get Free" she "makes a vow to shift her mindset".
Now, I could be wrong about her having depression (although, I wouldn't say it's that far-fetched considering the highly melancholic tone in most of her work and her admitting she has had to see a therapist before, multiple times as well), but I think that for sure Lana is trying to grow and become the best person she can be through personal commitments to developing her character and living her life healthily. That's why she sings on "Change" about hoping that "by the time summer is done, [she'll] be able to be honest, capable" and so on.
Anyway, excuse the Graham4everything length essay... I hope this wasn't a completely incoherent ramble but rather gives a little bit of an insight into my interpretation and understanding of Lust for Life. I genuinely think that Lana is on a path towards complete self-recovery from toxic relationships, a totally negative mindset and the wild, drug-addicted days of her past.
don't forget that fact G-Greasy was seen with Ratsey recently looks like he really did downgrade; cause no way in hell is Halsey a tougher or freer bitch than our girl Lans
Rayse liked a post in a topic by Stargirl in Lust For Life - Post-Release Discussion Thread + Poll