Lilybert

I feel like Change is really underrated. I think the reason for that is that it's so intimate and full of raw-emotion which makes ot uncomfortable to listen to when you are not in the right mood. However, when you are it completely destroys you - and if you pay attention to it, then it's one of the best vocal deliveries on the album. Many of her songs are emotional and a good "soundtrack" for hard feelings. However I feel like Change is one of the few that is actually capable of completely breaking you down all on it's own

I'm glad she's not censoring herself. Artist should never censor themselves for the sake of their public image. I hated it when she said in an interview that she tries not to use certain words & topics in her songs now that she's 'aware' of her impact on public.

It's just way too repetitive, even for her.

This is my translation of the interview posted by Vanity Fair Italy with Lana. She is on the cover of the magazine, anyway it is an old photoshoot. There will probably be a lot mistakes, but I'm not a native speaker and I tried my best. 
Enjoy your reading  
 

 
 
 
 
Her first record was Born to Die, the last one it titled Lust for Life and it is not a case. Lana Del Rey is happier and less dark at our time, she has found out political commitment. She got rid of all of the covers that she used to hide herself behind, but she still keeps beautiful memories from the past. Some of them more special than others, and some of them are Italian.
She admits that something has changed and it comes to my mind that the first sign of this change may be her smile on the cover-art of the record, even though it is pretty ironical. Daisies in her hair, a long white dress hippie-style and a retro feel that reminds of Summer of Love. And then there are the titles of her records, that seem to give no explanation except for some hints: we’ve come from Born to Die, 2012, her first album, to the last one, out a few days ago, Lust for Life.
“For what concerns the titles, that seem to mirror one another, I actually noticed it a lot after, it wasn’t something thought in advance, but I really like the idea, I think it is really cool. For me it symbolizes the beginning of a new chapter. But the contents of this new chapter are yet to decide” she says before bursting in laughter, and it won’t be the only time she will during this chat. Calling from Los Angeles, Lana Del Rey speaks so slowly, you can hear an undertone of music and people talking.
Conspiracy theorists from the business probably will have a lot to say about this change, going from the dark David Lynch character singing about death, violence, hopeless love, to a Californian Style popstar, always sad but with hippie features (there’s also a duet with Sean Lennon, which is called Tomorrow Never Came, and she tells us why she choose him: due to the “peace & love” concept that runs in his veins.)
 When Lizzy Grant changed her stage name to Lana del Rey, with her first song, Video Games, getting millions of views on YouTube, suspicious was after her: her look was considered too perfect, planned in advance, that goth imagery – she seemed to be a marketing product, with nothing authentic in it.   “A reflect of our common nightmares about cynicism and fake American culture”, that’s what was written by New York Times. It was 2011. Her career eventually told us another story. There have been successful records as Ultraviolence and Honeymoon, new scandals, an important love affair with Francesco Carrozzini, son of Franca Sozzani, who died last December, and above all the desire to carry on, among haters and loyal fans.
 
 
Have you still got that tattoo that says “trust no one”?
Yeah and I never understood why I did it, I think it was a subtle message to myself. At first I thought I did for fun, but at a certain point I wasn’t that sure about it.
Have you been betrayed so many times?
She laughs. “I’d say that a good half of my boyfriends cheated on me. I’ve never been good at picking them.”
But today you sing about your lust for life. Is it a statement?
Yes, I think so.
So, does it mean that you’re happier?
When I started making this record and I wrote Love, the first single, I was in a place where doing this kind of statements was really easy and I wanted to change.
How have you changed?
In the last two years a lot of things happened that made me a different person. Relationship, thoughts. This is the direction I’m going to: more colors, more light, a sound with a seventies aftertaste.
What does this new light you’re talking about illuminate?
Beautiful melodies, a sixties mood but still with a contemporary atmosphere. It’s the tone of my songs that is different: they are what they are, without barrels, without covers.
And what did the covers used to hide?
The story I was telling. So that the listeners weren’t able to understand and empathize. For me it’s an achievement to have gotten rid of them.
It’s a new season for you.
I like my last records, in them I told my whole life and it was a hard challenge making them. With Lust for Life I felt like I could be more relaxed and experiment new things, such as having other people on my record, and also at the same time having the opportunity to stay in my comfort zone.
Love it’s a hymn to youth, to the sensation of having endless possibility in your hands.
Yes, it’s a feeling that I have often, that I can do everything. I like my life. After a day in the studio, I go out and do whatever I want with my friends, like going to the beach or just hanging around the city. I really feel lucky, and free in every moment of my life. Nowadays I only see people that make me feel good and give energy to my life. Love talks about this energy that you try to grow in yourself.
And yet a few years ago you said in an interview that you whished you were dead. It was a scandal: did you regret that statement?
No, I don’t regret it, that’s because I really thought it, it was a hard time in my life. I just never thought that the journalist would publish that sentence. I was in tour for 14 months and in this kind of situations the only persons you talk to the most are journalists. To this person in particular, I had developed a confidential relationship. That’s how it went. My fault was to be too naïve.
You spent a lot of time in Italy. What have you learnt from our country and our people?
I found out that Italy is really beautiful as you see in movies. My experience was exciting: when I was in Milan I used to be part of a world that was separate from everything. At that time I only knew a couple of Italians and their friends were people with a strong sense of freedom, they were wild, they were artists, joyful and had this motto on their mind: live and let live. And then there was fashion.
What relationship did you have with Franca Sozzani?
I used to see her very often, that’s because every time I was in Italy she stayed with us. I was a big fan of her, I really appreciated the way she brought Italian fashion at the top of the world, I think it is extraordinary. And she was extraordinary too.
And what memories do you still keep with you from your Italian lover?
The days spent with a beautiful and slow rhythm in Portofino, a dream place; playing soccer in Miami with his Italian friends; spending time with his mother.
Even when you were in Italy you were followed by paparazzi. You always say that you don’t really like fame.
It’s not that I don’t like fame, it’s just that I consider it being a total different game that has nothing to do with music. When I lived in London I used to ride around with my bike and it was so easy to be recognized that I always ended up with being caught by paps. Then I learnt some tricks, it takes a couple of years to get used to this kind of life. Now is good, definitely, I feel at ease.
What’s the worst part of being famous?
I don’t know.
You have many haters.
She laughs: “maybe that’s the worst part of being famous.”
This record is more political involved than the others. How come?
I was a girl with a good voice, who loved singing and who knew that she was going to be a musician. After my debut, I spent a lot of time trying to understand what was happening to me. I mean, I was figuring out who I was, so that means that I wasn’t ready to express my opinion about problems going on in the world. Now, six years after Video Games, I feel like I am part of a community, so I can take part of the social talk where are involved millions of people.
There’s a song on the record, called God Bless America – and All the Beautiful Women in It, dedicated to American women.
Yes, that’s because we are the most hurt by the new administration. Just think about all the stuff going on with Planned Parenthood, trying to limit access to birth control. I’m just one out of many women who feel outraged.
But feminists have never loved you.
At the beginning of my career people wanted to label me as “the singer who doesn’t like to feminists” because of the things I was singing and so I received a lot of questions about the theme. I have never answered, I have never wanted to get at the same level of this kind of discussion. I always believed music goes beyond everything, and in a year as the one that we are living in the U.S.A, it was natural to speak to women and say: I’m with you.
Speaking about Trump, on Twitter you posted some magic formulas to get rid of him…
I red somewhere that witches from all parts of the world were organizing a ritual against the president. Obviously, it was a joke. Was it that hard to understand? 

I fucking adore UV and it's my favorite album of all time, and I have accepted that I'm not gonna get that music from Lana again. Artists can't keep on making the same type of content over and over again cause that would be exhaustive and boring. And in this case, it would be horrid for Lana's mental health since she was in a bad place when she made that record. Just move on from hoping for UV pt. 2 cause it's not going to happen. 

Idg why people are so determined to prove their fav album is ~the best~ and try to justify why it's so superior and stuff. UV is the best album ever for me but it's perfectly ok for some people to have another album as their best ever, that doesn't make it less the best album ever for me, I mean it's so extremely subjective What makes you prefer this or this album is purely personal idk I needed this out

I haven't seen Tropico all the way through 

god bless all 468 genders and all their various sexualities 

which is basically a protest against capitalism, repression and subjugation. it would be completely incoherent to be quoting Ginsberg and constantly mentioning him and other beat writers as main inspirations while being social and even fiscally conservative. and that's excluding the fact that we know she voted for, or at least supported, Obama; the re-imagination of JFK as a black president; the vaguely lesbian theme in SS; how she seems to relate to the fringes of society in her videos and lyrics (cults, gangs, strippers, drug dealers, etc) - nothing even remotely compatible with Republican ideology. of course she could be doing all this for the stylistic aspect alone, or some cool-by-association factor... but even so, it would still be baffling.
 
i'm not american so their whole bipartisan system is bizarre to me; even in multi-party systems it's often quite hard to find a party or a candidate that completely fits one's ideology and beliefs, so given the current choice in the US it's definitely easy for me to understand why someone would prefer not to publicly claim to be a supporter of one or the other - and how they choose to vote in private is another matter (of pros vs cons, basically).

I don't know if this is unpopular, it seems more like a 50/50 opinion in this site, but the swearing on Cherry is plain, stupid and unnecessary, the clean version is better.

I can't stand This Is What Makes Us Girls, sorry
 
Oops there's actually quite a few more BTD songs I find kind of annoying, Lolita, National Anthem, Lucky Ones.

i think the fact that she keeps alot of her life private shows me that most of it isn't a persona. i think she does a lot of the 50's "daddy" stuff and kinky stuff as a persona, but I do believe she lived a life of alcohol and drug abuse (aren't there FB screenshots of drug use proof?), she probably did dance for money, she lived in NY and Jersey which is hella expensive and i don't think she's ever indicated anything other than doing "odd jobs off craigs list" (sounds sketch). and she sings too much about abusive relationships for me to not believe that isn't true.
 
she probably exaggerates to make the music more appealing but i do think most of it is extremely true.
 
as a musician who has to write lyrics - you write what you know, sure you make up stories, but you always put apart of yourself into those stories.

He gets so much hate. If you check his Youtube account the comments are so rude like he is trying to be his dad or that he sounds like a girl or that it's too boring. People are so mean nowadays.

THIS. The Stan hivemind just enjoys trashing anyone their fave used to date. It's ridiculous. 

Fixed.

Ultraviolence, Sad Girl and Florida Killos are the best songs of UV to me

a beautiful dark complex album.
 
i remember when this first came out and I took like four months to listen to the whole thing because I had a feeling it was going to be one of those really special albums, even for Lana standards, and I wanted to savor it. 

One of the most amazing albums of all time. Soundtrack to the best and saddest summer of my life. An album I'll literally never forget.

For me, Ultraviolence is her masterpiece. Timeless record..

Samantha Robinson

 
Both photos are by Neil Krug too

I think it would be near impossible to ever know exactly how much of her music is a play-by-play of past experiences. I think that, emotionally, she has always told the truth about what she's been through, how things felt for her. You can hear it in the lyrics and in her voice. Even if the line between fiction and reality is sometimes blurred in her songs, I've never felt "cheated" listening to her, and that's really all I care about (and possibly all I really even want to know). 

I think her drinking addiction was true and that it led her to go to a boarding school (inspiration for Carmen and This Is What Makes Us Girls?), and I think the road trips her family made when she was a kid inspired her to Ride (both the monologue and the song). Video Games id based on something real too and Born To Die is about the very thought that we all will pass away one day.
I think the whole Ultraviolence album is based on past relationships (did the friend Jim in the old trailer park interview actually hit her?? ), people who have used drugs or her past with drugs too... basically just looking back on her past in New York/Brooklyn, old toxic relationships, mean critics and so on.
I could go on, but I think there's parts of her real life in every album although she most likely exaggerates a lot in the lyrics as well. I can't actually tell if she ever had a "daddy" or if she just liked the forbidden/taboo thought of it...

I think there's something good about not knowing for sure.
She shrouds herself with mystery and that's part of what makes her so interesting.
 
I don't think she was as wild as her songs indicate, I don't know if she would be so open to share if she were.

I think it's a mix, she said herself in the past that she tends to exaggerate things in her lyrics

maybe not even unpopular but i havent seen it anywhere else, 13 beaches should have been the album opener and fade in to lust for life as the second track, it sounds so good when i play them back to back