I'm fine (not delighted, but fine) with Lana doing what she did with UV and HM, which was a sorta quiet promo campaign where she released a couple songs and videos and did some print interviews.
My problem this time is that everything is so unnecessarily drawn out and protracted. There's no reason for there to be such a long gap between everything she does. We've never had an era where we've had to wait this long and we don't even have a tracklist or a preorder. There's little to no communication from her personally - half our information comes from magazines and the rest from literally pulling scraps off various sites.
And finally, it's bizarre to see an artist I've always respected for her vision start an album campaign and fundamentally add to her album in terms of features and songs *during* the album campaign - it worries me that she seems to be set to release a disjointed and incohesive album with a mish mash of different ideas both musically and thematically.
She's really lost me this era, all I'm doing is waiting for the album and hoping that in the end the music will be worth it.
I was at Lanaboards
Waiting for Summer Bummer
Watching all the meltdowns untie
I guess I was in it
'Cause baby, for a minute
I thought Lana would release something on time
I went to sleep hoping I'd wake up to good news...
But sometimes I wake up in the morning to bad news and release date lies. It's so crazy I could drink bleach, cause I'm feeling born to die.
The writing, the rhymes, the storyline, the flow, her vulnerable but playful but CONFIDENT and PASSIONATE vocals, the swelling strings that just burst at the end and flow magically with her voice.
i just can't. this one song is better than most careers.
Off to the Races is her magnum opus. Gavel is slammed, case is closed, verdict is final.
It has an evolving chorus, heavenly bridge, emotional vocals, orchestral layering with the classic hip hop beats, iconiq Lana imagery, a STORY IN A SONG, one of her most fast-paced songs, showcases her range/versatility with her voice, the most fulfilling song shes ever done, takes advantage of extra runtime without overstaying its welcome, i could go ON
honestly my dream live performance of her doing this I want to be the encore, with the background visuals being REALLY fucking fast and almost dizzying, with the last third starting from the extended chorus in which the stage starts to fall the fuck apart and when the orchestra picks up in the bridge just have it sparking on fire and lighting the backscreen and have the panels topple and fizzling out by the last line
i know its literally unrealistic but think of how fucking dope that'd be
also can i just say im getting suspicious teas from unleakedversion w/o the _, why is there 3 different users with (un)leaked(_)version in they name
Off To The Races will forever remain my favorite Lana song and probably my fave song of all time. The iconography in the lyrics, the vocals are so haunting and the way she goes from the deepest end of her range straight up to a childish head voice is euphoric. I also love the samples she uses like the kids yelling "up here! Over here!" in the beginning. And yes, the orchestral outro is so beautiful, I always pictured acrobats swinging around on lace ribbons in the air. It's such a beautiful song and it takes you to so many different places in just 5 minutes. Her magnum opus.
My old man is a bad man but
I can't deny the way he holds my hand
And he grabs me, he has me by my heart
He doesn't mind I have a Las Vegas past
He doesn't mind I have an LA crass way about me
He loves me with every beat of his cocaine heart
Swimming pool glimmering darling
White bikini off with my red nail polish
Watch me in the swimming pool
Bright blue ripples, you sittin', sippin' on your black Cristal
Oh yeah
Light of my life, fire of my loins
Be a good baby, do what I want
Light of my life, fire of my loins
Give me them gold coins, give me them coins
And I'm off to the races, cases of Bacardi chasers
Chasin' me all over town 'cause he knows I'm wasted,
Facin' time again on Rikers Island and I won't get out
Because I'm crazy baby, I need you to come here and save me
I'm your little scarlet, starlet, singin' in the garden
Kiss me on my open mouth
Ready for you
My old man is a tough man but
He's got a soul as sweet as blood red jam
And he shows me, he knows me
Every inch of my tar black soul
He doesn't mind I have a flat broke down life
In fact he says he thinks it's why he might like about me
Admires me, the way I roll like a Rolling Stone
Likes to watch me in the glass room, bathroom, Chateau Marmont
Slippin' on my red dress, puttin' on my makeup
Glass film, perfume, cognac, lilac
Fumes, says it feels like heaven to him
Light of his life, fire of his loins
Keep me forever, tell me you own me
Light of your life, fire of your loins
Tell me you own me, give me them coins
And I'm off to the races, cases of Bacardi chasers
Chasin' me all over town 'cause he knows I'm wasted,
Facin' time again on Rikers Island and I won't get out
Because I'm crazy baby, I need you to come here and save me
I'm your little scarlet, starlet, singin' in the garden
Kiss me on my open mouth
Yo I'm off to the races, laces
Leather on my waist is tight and I am fallin' down
I can see your face is shameless, Cipriani's basement
Love you but I'm going down
God I'm so crazy, baby, I'm sorry that I'm misbehaving
I'm your little harlot, starlet, Queen of Coney Island
Raising hell all over town
Sorry 'bout it
My old man is a thief and I'm gonna stay and pray with him till the end
But I trust in the decision of the Lord to watch over us
Take him when he may, if he may
I'm not afraid to say that I'd die without him
Who else is gonna put up with me this way?
I need you, I breathe you, I'd never leave you
They would rue the day I was alone without you
You're lyin' with your gold chain on, cigar hangin' from your lips
I said "Hun' you never looked so beautiful as you do now, my man."
And we're off to the races, places
Ready, set, the gate is down and now we're goin' in
To Las Vegas chaos, Casino Oasis, honey it is time to spin
Boy you're so crazy, baby, I love you forever not maybe
You are my one true love, you are my one true love
Idk why people are soo against rap and/or hip-hop. Every genre has it's bad artists that represent it. I think if you spend time exploring other artists of hip-hop, you're bound to find something you enjoy. Also, yeah Lana has been influenced by hip-hop and rap since the May Jailer days (but you wouldn't find May rapping over a beat) and it's evident in her bios from back then and her lyrical work
Clearly isn't a phase. She collabed with A$AP in 2012...a lot of BTD was influenced by hip-hop, and she always loved the genre. Idk why y'all twinks are pressed cause she's about to release #that summer song
Fun fact: I have people tell me I look like her all the time. I actually had a (rather strange) girl I met on a movie set who was sooooo convinced I was actually Poppy that she would get so mad if I tried to convince her otherwise.
While we're still off topic of the thread but on the topic of my movies, check out the Pitch Perfect 3 trailer to see your lil local movie star make a cameo from 0:14 - 0:19
OKAY, BACK ON TOPIC.
I wouldn't get too concerned that she hasn't really said anything about SB, because the same sort of thing happened with Coachella.
Magazine and Full Interview available July 6
STEVIE NICKS Helloooo? Is this you?
LANA DEL REY It’s me!
SN How are you from your little perch in the “H” of the Hollywood sign?
LDR [laughs] Oh, I’m good. I’m sitting comfortably up here. It’s a clear evening, so I can see what everyone is getting up to down in the City of Angels. Thank you for asking.
SN I was wondering, do you think that maybe I could rent the “W”?
LDR You know it is so crazy that you’re asking me that because I was thinking you would actually love to move into the “O.”
SN Well, the reason I picked the “W” is so that I could have an A-frame place, with a big, high ceiling. So, now I’ve decided that if I’m going to live in the “W,” then we’re going to be like witchy sisters, so I have taken on a new name: Marina Del Rey. But wait, it gets better! You know the little Yorkie we brought to the studio? Her name is Mana. She’s gonna be our witchy Yorkie and her name is gonna be Mana Del Rey.
LDR [laughs] Oh my God. It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t have a little witchy guard dog.
SN So, let us start here on your new record. But let us first touch on the fact that your first record was called Born to Die. Now this [record] is Lust for Life. In between that, what is it that affected you enough to go from Born to Die to Lust for Life? Because Born to Die is pretty dark and Lust for Life is pretty light. If you have a lust for life, that’s a pretty strong statement.
LDR Yeah, they’re complete opposites, and it’s funny because when I chose the title, I didn’t think about it right away. It was the title of the first song I wrote for this record. But there are so many things that have gotten me to the point that I’m at now. One of them is just time. And because I do write everything myself, I just wanted to chronicle how I was feeling honestly, in the moment, for each record. So, I had a lot of stories that I wanted to tell that I hadn’t told yet up until this point. And now, through the last four records, I got out a lot of those stories and a lot of those feelings, and for the first time, I’ve caught myself up to real time. And now, I’m at this place where I feel like I’m really present, and when I’m reading the news, I’m really reading it, whereas before I was a little bit in my own head. So, there’s definitely been a feeling of freedom and lightness being in the present moment. That brings on that lust for life feeling, when you don’t have all of those feelings about the past weighing you down. I remember an interview that you did once where you said, “Around every corner there’s an adventure waiting to happen,” and I’m kind of in that zone right now. I just feel like whatever each day brings me is something that I need and I want. It’s just time. Time has brought me here.
SN The way that we write is like we’re writing a diary as our songs go. If I listen to all the songs from Bella Donna, and then I listen to all the songs from Wild Heart, all the songs from Rock a Little, and then I get to The Other Side of the Mirror…I was just thinking about this one song I called “Doing the Best I Can (Escape from Berlin).” It goes, [begins to sing] “It’s all right, baby, I’m doing the best that I can.” I named it that because of this idea of escape. Something horrible was going on in Berlin, and I was also finding my way. I was in a drug-filled fog at that point, fighting for survival. I look back on it and go, You were really trying to survive in 1989. And then I actually went to rehab in 1994 to get off that horrible tranquilizer, Klonopin—from there, I start watching my life come back around, starting with a record I did called Sweet Angel, which was about the aftermath of rehab and coming back into the real world. And from then on, my path started to go up. And if I had not written all those songs, even reading all my journals from that time, they wouldn’t have really told the story, but the songs really told me the story of how bad that whole thing was. And I could watch, through the songs, my life start to come back to me. I think that we put out this running commentary on not just what’s going on in our lives, but what’s going on in the world at the same time. It’s a parallel thing. So, I see you doing the same things as I did.
LDR It’s a delicate balance because you’re chronicling your own story and then you’re also reflecting back what you see. It can take work not to let your world get too small, so that you’re still in both worlds. You’ve got your world with your own inner dialogue and your own narrative and the way that you write, and then there’s everything else. It’s funny, it’s been a minute since I’ve gone through my records, but I did do it recently and I hear so much of my own self and my own stories, but I don’t get as much of the outside world as I thought [i would]. This record is really different. When there were the women’s marches, I was writing about that. There was enough space in my mind to really absorb everything. I think I was very much in the mix of culture in California over the last five years, but it feels good to feel more connected to a wider world.
SN I think we’re all much more connected with what’s going on right now.
LDR That’s true. Regardless of where someone is at personally, the current landscape jolts you into being present, if you’re not crazy. If you’re a normal person, you’re suddenly aware and watching everything.
SN And you are getting up every day and waiting to find out what new thing has happened. I have never been that way before, ever, until the last two and a half years.
LDR It’s a very different time for everybody. Because there is something new every day that you read and you’re like, Oh my God, is that real?
SN My mom used to always say to me, “You’re on a mission here. People out there who are hurting or are sad or have something horrible going on in their lives, when they walk into your house of love or your house of music, you are going to take them on your own little adventure that’s going to pull them out of their life for a minute. And hopefully, when they leave you, they’re going to take a little bit of you with them and they’re going to feel better the next day.”
LDR I love that.
SN I think as songwriters right now, there’s a lot of songs I’d like to write that wouldn’t be very nice songs, but I’m not going to do it because we’re not going to help anybody by doing that. Then we’re just going to be in with the masses and we’re not going to be above the fray. Write your songs, but remember that we’re the ones that are here to lighten, to lighten life, to light the lanterns and the little fairy lights, and try to keep people going. We have to have hope. We have to believe that this will all end up okay and that we’ll all end up okay. Because if we don’t do it, then who the hell is gonna do it?
LDR You’re right, there’s no other way. As far as I’m concerned, there’s really not another way to sensibly think about it. I was never a huge self-editor—I wrote songs and then I felt like, Okay, well that’s that. And now, I’ve found in the last two years that I’ve really been editing some of the language of some of the songs in light of the political landscape, [because] I don’t want to be a part of anything that adds to that negativity.
SN And your record, do you have favorite songs? Do you have ones that have your biggest messages or ones that you think are the most helpful to all the people that love your music? All the old women like me and the little girls that are listening?
LDR I knew that the first song I wanted to put out was “Love” because of everything you and I have been talking about so far. It’s just the age-old thing: love is all there is. And I really was feeling that way. I made a lot of records for myself, chronicling my own stories, and I’ve played so many shows now, I’ve seen all the same kind of kids and grown-ups coming to the shows, and I really wanted to make a record for them. And then, I’ve been friends with Abel [Tesfaye] from The Weeknd for a long time, and I knew I wanted to put the title track, “Lust for Life,” out second because we have so many mutual fans and I knew they would love it. And then “Coachella—Woodstock in My Mind” I wrote on my way home from Coachella when things were getting hostile between North Korea and the U.S., and all those failed missile launches, which happened the day after the first night of the festival. I feel lucky to be able to speak my mind through music right in the present moment. I think one of my favorite tracks on the record is called “Yosemite.” The chorus is [begins to sing] “We did it for fun, we did it for free, I did it for you, you did it for me, we did it for the right reasons.”
SN I love it.
LDR And that’s been the theme of my record: being in touch with what it takes to do things for the right reasons. All the actions that you need to take beyond just the words and all the decisions that I knew I wanted to make this year. And that song is special because it’s really a song about surrounding yourself with people who put their art and love first, who do it for the right reasons, not just for the money. And I have a couple of songs, like “God Bless America,” and another song called, “When the World Was at War We Just Kept Dancing,” which is about what we’ve been talking about: trying to stay positive, and just believing that things are going to be okay. And if it feels like they’re not going to be okay, we’ll try and make them okay individually and then together.
SN I have not heard all these songs.
LDR I want to play them for you the next time I see you! And I’m so proud of the song that we did, “Beautiful People, Beautiful Problems.” I just love your performance on it. The people reading probably don’t know that you know my longtime producer Rick Nowels from high school, basically.
SN I’ve known your producer since he was 13 years old.
LDR He loves you so much, you know.
SN I do. It’s because we’ve been through so much together. My friend Robin [Anderson] died of leukemia and her brother got this terrible brain tumor, so Rick, Lindsey [buckingham], and I are the survivors of those five people. And then, Rick went on to be this totally famous producer and songwriter. He started with me in 1985 on “Rock a Little,” when Jimmy Iovine dumped me and the record into Rick’s lap and said, “Goodbye, good luck.”
LDR Which is so full circle because he ended up being the head of Interscope, which I’m signed to. There are so many full circle moments.
SN I think all of these little things, in a really fairy tale way, lead me to you and lead you to me in a strange witchy way. It’s set up, like all of these things that happened with my friend Robin, and her brother, and Rick, and everyone moving down here, me being Jimmy Iovine’s girlfriend from 1980 to 1984, then him giving the record and me to Rick, basically saying, “Here, take them both and go.” All of this led to me meeting you and singing on your record. The butterfly’s wings flap in Africa and something is achieved by that butterfly across the world. That’s how this story started, I think.
LDR I don’t know if you said it in the same interview I mentioned earlier, but at some point you said that sometimes you wonder, Does anyone even notice? Sometimes you wonder when you put something out, Does anyone even notice? But it all matters. Every little thing that each person does in their individual life, even when it feels like it’s not a big decision or not a big move, matters. Just being open to beautiful things happening creates them.
SN That sentence was about how sometimes over the last 10 years I would say, “Does anybody really notice that I’m a really good singer now? How much better my voice is than it was 20 years ago?” You have a beautiful voice and I’ve already learned things to add to how I sing from you. Working on your song has changed me forever because I’ve learned from you. We are witchy sisters and that’s it. That’s where “Beautiful People, Beautiful Problems” comes from, because we are trying to ride above all the problems and have hope in everything else, but it’s still a world filled with problems no matter how hard we try to change it.
LDR That’s what that song is about. It was such a special moment. It just goes back to my favorite song on the record, “Yosemite,” and doing it for the right reasons. Here we were in the studio, and when Rick and I were talking about who the other singers should be on the record, you were the only person we could both think of because of your intention and [how] that always comes through in all the music. That really closed the door on the record in the right way. It was the perfect last moment, so thank you for that.
SN Well, I am so happy that the butterfly wings flapped at the perfect time and it made it happen because I think that, in our lives to come, we’ll be able to work on many more songs together, because you know I don’t just want to sing with anybody. I just want to sing with the people that I think can make me better and make something that’s better than both of us singing by ourselves. That’s the only reason for solo artists to sing together.
LDR Amen to that.
SN You know, I think I told you this, but as I travel around the country [touring], I do get to sit down in between [shows] with my friends and hold their hands and laugh about the past, and my one friend that I wrote my first song about—the “I’ve loved and I’ve lost” song I told you about—his name is Steve. I always dedicate the song to him because I was so crazy about him when I was 15 and a half; my parents gave me this guitar and I wrote this little song about him. And I can honestly say that I was as in love with him as I have ever been in love with anybody.
LDR That’s such a beautiful thing to say. I feel the same way. Obviously when you’re at different stages in your life, things hit you harder, or just in different ways, but the way I love has always been the same. I don’t know if that’s just wholeheartedly or maybe you’re only attracted to a certain kind of person, so when that type of person comes around, you really feel it, but when these 15- and 16-year-olds are going through heartbreak, I really feel for them, because it’s real.
SN Lana Del Rey, I think we’ve filled up their entire magazine by now.
LDR You’re amazing and I can’t wait to see you. Maybe it’ll be when you move into the “W.”
SN That’s definitely going to happen soon, like next week.
LDR That’s the dream.
SN That is our dream and we make dreams come true, so it’s going to happen. I can’t wait to see you, too. I hope when people read this interview they know that kindred spirits find each other along the way and that love never dies.
This story has been shortened for web. To read the full interview, order the issue here or pick up your copy on stands July 6.
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