'Honeymoon' Turns 4: Achieving Mental Health Through Time-Travel

[PARADIXO 32,940]

 

Lana Del Rey released her third major-label studio album Honeymoon on September 18, 2015.

 

The spacey, soothing record finds Del Rey at her most introspective and lyrically and sonically artistic: she goes on a mysterious honeymoon with herself in order to re-invent her self-perspective, ambitions and wishes. The album has such a deep sense of thinking that it feels like she's time-traveling through her mind, re-evaluating her past experiences with love, drugs, alcohol, analyzing her very present (which is now her past) as a woman and celebrity and projecting her wishes for the future (now her present onwards). Perhaps the reason she decided to make such a self-examining, vain and almost psychological album is the 'post-Ultraviolence trauma': her dark, self-destructing 2014 release, which Lana herself admitted it "went too far". However, it was necessary for her growth and evolution as a depressed being: her broken state of mind was clearly expanded throughout Ultraviolence. The time-travel is also represented in the production: the smooth mix of jazz-influenced instrumentation, trap beats that go backwards and forwards endlessly, operatic and retro-filtered vocals, a balance between programming and live recordings and, of course, the non-existent space between the songs -- Honeymoon is a gapless project.

 

The ambitious album opens with the cinematic, orchestral title track: it functions excellently as the opening song as it describes the absence of this troubled man Del Rey is longing for. She calls him "elusive" and at last embarks on this honeymoon with herself. Her trip included no other than the most Lana Del Rey destinations: Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu, Hollywood (location that would later be the stage of the following record, Lust for Life) and also New York and Florida. "Music to Watch Boys To" is a sensual, playful number in which we find Lana taking, for the first time, a more dominating, empowered role: she's hypnotizing men with her echoed "I like you a lot so I do what you want", though it is "all a game to [her] anyway". She's watching them fade, fall one by one as she plays some Caribbean-influenced music and drinking lemonade lazily. However, this character is not strong consistently: the slow process to inner peace, happiness and independence has its highs and lows, and that is exposed in the vulnerable "Terrence Loves You". Now all the bad men are gone, but there is one that still haunts her: "I lost myself when I lost you", she sings in a jazzy tone. All the lines indicate she's describing her breakup with Barrie-James O'Neill, who Ultraviolence was mostly about, making these two projects sister albums: two chapters of the same story. 

 

After being stuck in the past for a few minutes, we fly gently to the present: in "God Knows I Tried" she expresses that fame was not as she expected. The lyrics suggest she has her breakdowns alone in her room, lamenting everything she's going through; however. "I feel free when I see no one and nobody knows my name".

 

 

At this point, it is clear that Honeymoon is not like Del Rey's previous works, where production shined for its grandness and claustrophobic nature: this time, she is inspired, alongside producers Rick Nowels and Kieron Menzies, by ambient music and minimalism. There is so much space to breathe, to think, to stay silent, to sing as high and low as she can, to penetrate the words into your mind, to let the instruments and sound effects melt with each other.

 

The following track introduces an entire section of the album: we are in the present, as we noticed with "God Knows I Tried", but now the background music accompanies the travel: Lana Del Rey says welcome to trap music for the first time in her discography. Something must have happened when they were sent, though, because there's slightly different from what we know as trap: they're muffled and distorted or, how she calls it, muddy. The pioneer, forward-looking "High By the Beach" shares the same concept as the previous track, but instead of being reflecting alone in her house, now she's outside, ready to fight whoever obstructs her path, especially those who wish to attack her privacy. There is a feeling of danger and assertiveness -- she dreamily expresses her mundane wish to smoke weed in the shore, an activity most humans would enjoy without any problem, but she as a celebrity has to carry an enormous gun to shot down an helicopter full of paparazzi. Of course, this is a metaphor (though I am sure Lana, more than once, wanted to actually do this) to people wanting to know everything about her and questioning her so-talked-about authenticity and how she's using her ever-growing music to fight them. In this time and space she has found a new interest, a man of "leather black and eyes of blue" she begs him to "come to California" to be a freak with her and escape. She is aware of time even in the way they listen to whatever 70s band is playing: "We could slow dance to rock music". "If time stood still," she says, "I'd take this moment and make it last forever". The experimental "Art Deco" is perhaps the song that defines the sonical world of Honeymoon the best: back and forth beats, soft orchestra, layered vocals, timid yet epic saxophone and subtle electronic effects that sound like psychedelic drops of water.

 

The record is separated in two by a trippy, on-loop-like interlude: Lana is reading a part of "Burnt Norton", a poem by T.S. Eliot. The work explains that one individual, in order to grow and achieve peace, must momentarily leave the metaphorical space and forget the limits of time they're in and start to look into themself, a dimension where is always present. "Time present and time past," she reads, "are both perhaps present in time future / And time future contained in time past." The poem is part of Eliot's Four Quartets, a collection that "symbolically represented the completion of his former poems and his moving onto later works," very much like Honeymoon. In the following second half of the album, the present is set and there's no more traveling to the past -- we are, however, thinking and reflecting of it (which is different than dwell in it). The concept of escapism is the protagonist here; perhaps as a way to avoid the future or, oppositely, to actually travel to it -- to escape from this present of pain and uncertainty.

 

In "Religion", this time lapse is depicted just like that -- yes, her past is gone and "everything is fine now" but it's still the present and it's haunted. "You're my religion," she sings layered endlessly, "all my friends say I should take some space / But I can't envision that for a minute". In the song, Lana has fallen on the philosophical question of what to do when things are fine -- when the tangible horror is gone, what is next? Post-trauma feels like that. It's a void; you're not there anymore but the experience is now within you. In the bridge, the instruments go back and forth, as an effort to time-travel again, but it fails and we continue the story in the epic "Salvatore". What's around her is described, just like in "Religion", as fine -- gleaming lights in Miami, beatboxers and rappers by the beach, jazz and blues. However, the hypnotizing, empowered chanteuse from "Music to Watch Boys To" is back: she half-lies, borrowing the melody of the romantic "Careless Whisper" by George Michael, "The summer is wild and I've been waiting for you," only to play with her lover's mind again -- "Catch me if you can."

 

And we're back to the lows. Exquisitely positioned towards the end of the album, the spectacular centerpiece "The Blackest Day" is the result of so much thinking, lamenting, healing, speculation, delusion, time-travel and mind-playing: the ultimate breakdown. "Carry me home," she demands with her blue nail polish on as a tense pad plays in the background. "I don't really want to break up / We got it going on / It's what you gathered from our talk but you were wrong," again lost in the past. Like in "Religion", the present is such an empty concept for her now that there's nothing left to do other than go on. She finds no words to explain her state, this feeling of her life being one long dark day ever since that happened. So much soul searching has made her fall "deeper and deeper" and now she finds herself "looking for love in all the wrong places," making every word more dismal with a dramatic "oh my God!". Now the music is enormous; the sonic landscape of Honeymoon has so much empty space that it let "The Blackest Day" fill it all with its progressive music structure, ethereal, FKA twigs-like synthesizers and sawers and gentle, post-rock drums, beats and overall production. She is in denial with the future and what it takes to get there: "There's nothing for us to talk about / There's nothing for me to think about." At the end of the song, she has no other option than to accept her reality, because that's exactly what she needed: she already embraced her past, and now it was time for the present to receive the same treatment. "I'm on my own," she sings in a tone of isolation.

 

In the cinematic "24" she depicts her lover as a liar and a dog with fleas, only to slowly find peace with herself in "Swan Song", an ode to escapism and isolation. The fact that this process felt like one long day is strong as she sings "The world can change in a day if you go away". "Let's leave the world for those who change everything," she says apocalyptically, "Let's just get lost if that's what we want." It is also a reference to the 'white tennis shoes syndrome': the feeling that makes it seem as though there's always something interrupting us from doing our most important (and also most difficult) task. In her case, getting to a better place mentally and emotionally -- the worst of procrastinations. "Why work so hard when you could just be free?". Entelechy at its finest.

 

The album closes with a cover of the classic "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", where she sings "No one alive can always be an angel", justifying her ever-changing and postponing behavior throughout the project. She is trying, and her intentions are always good: she only needed space and, of course, time, for no one to interfere with her thoughts and, what she fears the most, misunderstand her. However, she must know (as she does on Lust for Life), total isolation does not do, especially when the relationship with oneself has been broken and tortured.

 

[Dua Lipa 3,783]

One of her best records hands down!

[Gone user 5,373]

FUCK. I was waiting for this thread and I wasn't disappointed. I love when you do this for Lana's albums, good jobbbbb!

[expandableclitoris 9,091]

Amazing review. Very detailed

 

 

Also for me its her best album. 

[PARADIXO 32,940]

FUCK. I was waiting for this thread and I wasn't disappointed. I love when you do this for Lana's albums, good jobbbbb!

 

Amazing review. Very detailed

 

 

Also for me its her best album. 

 

Thank you so much!!!

[TheBoss 13,507]

I was waiting for this post all morning, they way you always write about her projects makes me feel so emotional and nostalgic.

 

With HM is no different it was the project that had the most impact on me, I love this album so much .

[PARADIXO 32,940]

Besides being such an incredibly artistic project, it's objectivelly well-made, musically speaking. The compositions in this are MIND-BLOWING... the playing, the instrumentation!!! I'm listening to the instrumentals, only by Track 3 and I'm already in tears The quality is insane.

[godsmonster 14,221]

This album is a musical masterpiece

[TheBoss 13,507]

And can we all talk about how HTBT was quite ahead of his time? We love a pioneer on doing trap beats in pop music mainstream

[Trash Magic 28,370]

Honestly, I do not love this album - definitely my least favourite besides Paradise, both Honeymoon covers are her worst album covers too. I don't like the fuzz vocal reverb on songs like Religion I feel like they really hold the songs back. Freak, Art Deco, High By The Beach and Music To Watch Boys To are amongst my least favourite Lana songs ever. All the photoshoots sucked too. And she is just a dumbass for repurposing the most beautiful and fitting footage for the Ultraviolence era for FREAK... WTF. The video is kind of good just for how good she looks and the settings and everything, so imagine how good the actual video for Ultraviolence was. Like I'm guessing she was singing the lyrics in the original video so the Freak video is literally scraps of footage that weren't going to make up the bulk of the video...

 

However, on a positive note, I will say that one thing that stands out about all of the songs are how good the bridges of every song are. She said in an interview before how she and Rick specifically loved to work on crafting bridges because they thought they were a dying thing in popular music. Also the High By The Beach video really was fun and unexpected and looking back it was the first introduction to a lighter side of herself that she shared with us, that later naturally led to the first line on her future album being "God damn manchild, you fucked me so good that I almost said I love you" and song titles like Venice Bitch.

 

Top 5 songs for me are Terrence Loves You, God Knows I Tried, Swan Song, The Blackest Day and Honeymoon.

[PARADIXO 32,940]

And can we all talk about how HTBT was quite ahead of his time? We love a pioneer on doing trap beats in pop music mainstream :defetaed:

 

absolutely, it one of the finest songs of the trap era for sure

[ArtDecoDelRey 15,284]

HER BEST ALBUM

 

This was such a beautiful read, Lana and @@PARADIXO 's minds 

[Creyk 11,699]

Honeymoon was her last album that had a good amount of truly sad songs. And I miss that. The Blackest Day breaks my heart every time i listen to it to this day and I love it. I love it so hard.

[PARADIXO 32,940]

Honeymoon was her last album that had a good amount of truly sad songs. And I miss that. The Blackest Day breaks my heart every time i listen to it to this day and I love it. I love it so hard.

 

I agree, it's a devastating album

[CatchTheBreeze 1,681]

I agree, it's a devastating album

 

But devastating in the best way possible. I love HM!

[American Whore 51,314]

This was such a good album. I have to listen to it on the way home

[movebaby 5,379]

Music To Watch Boys To 

 

amongst my least favourite Lana songs ever.

 

 

i...what

[TheBoss 13,507]

I'm doing my anniversary listen right now and I can't express how perfect the lyrics of MTWBT are, they are so well constructed, the contrast between each line. The "wolf in sheep's clothing" attitude.

 

She really was sent to destroy us all, such a player

 

Plus the production is gorgeous! that video tho

[TheBoss 13,507]

@@PARADIXO Funny thing you said that TBD had FKA twigs inspired beats.

 

I personally don't hear it but I can totally hear the influence on the beat of Art Deco it reminds me a lot some portions of the incredible beat from Pendulum.

[Trash Magic 28,370]

 

i...what

Well released ones anyway. Total snoozefest