Lana Del Rey - Lust for Life [Review]

It is debatable whether Lust for Life is Lana Del Rey's fourth, fifth, or sixth album. If one counts neither the limited independent debut Lana Del Ray A.K.A. Lizzy Grant nor the nine-track Paradise as an album (or vice versa), then they would probably consider Lust for Life the fourth album. If one counts one and not the other, then they would likely consider Lust for Life to be the fifth album. If, like me, one counts both Lana Del Ray A.K.A. Lizzy Grant and Paradise as albums, then they would probably consider Lust for Life to be her sixth album. As I said, I ultimately consider Lust for Life to be Lana Del Rey's sixth album. Including the iTunes bonus track "Burning Desire," Paradise contains nine tracks, which in many other cases (such as HIM's Venus Doom and Björk's Vulnicura) constitutes a full-length album, so, to me, Paradise is an album, and Born to Die: The Paradise Edition is a double-album. (I also consider Lady Gaga's The Fame Mons†er much the same way.) While Lana does not really reinvent herself in ways like artists such as Madonna and Lady Gaga do, she does create a slightly new environment on each album while still, overall, maintaining her image and sound, and Lust for Life is no exception. While some parts of the album are more or less the same as what we have gotten from her before ("13 Beaches" sounds like a Honeymoon outtake, and "Cherry" and "In My Feelings" sound almost like Ultraviolence outtakes), other parts (such as the title track and "Summer Bummer") are pretty much new territory for her. (I don't necessarily like that new territory, and I will cover those reasons in this review.) The album is, overall, a great album that explores a lot of interesting topics. (This is, for example, the first time that Lana has really gotten deeply political on an album.) It does have its shortcomings, though.

The first Lust for Life track is "Love," the album's first single. Sonically, the song is not too far of a departure from Lana's usual sound, but lyrically, it is a lot more hopeful and uplifting than her music usually is. It seems to speak to the beauty of love when you're young, how being in love can outweigh the mundane cycle that life offers as well as the hardships that it offers. Although the song is an effective opening to the album, I think that it also would have made an effective closing track because when you get to the end of the song, it does feel like there is a finality to it, some kind of closure. The album then gives us the title track, which features The Weeknd on guest vocals. "Lust for Life" is quite honestly one of my least favorite tracks on the album. It has grown on me since I first heard it, and I appreciate it a lot more than I used to, but I still find it rather underwhelming. In comparison with Lana's usual vintage style, "Lust for Life" sounds very modern and mainstream, and I can even easily imagine it being played on top 40 radio. This isn't always necessarily a bad thing (and I don't mean to be sounding like a hipster here), but the song is just kind of redundant, especially in its chorus, and falls flat and doesn't really go anywhere. It has a soulful R&B sound to it a little bit as well, which doesn't tend to be my favorite style of music. I also don't really like The Weeknd's vocals on it, but the two of them seem to have a friendship, given that she had previously collaborated on two songs of his. The song is somewhat similar to "Love" lyrically, as it speaks of being carefree despite life trying to throw hardships your way: "They say only the good die young. That just ain't right 'cause we're having too much fun..."

The third track is titled "13 Beaches" and is definitely a highlight on the album. It is said that the original version of the song was titled "Something Real" and was sonically much darker than the final version that we got, with heavier strings and a "horror movie vibe." (My sincerest hope is that we will eventually get to hear that version.) Interestingly, even though it does seem to have gone through a major change, it still pays homage to a horror movie, as the spoken introduction ("I don't belong in the world; that's what it is. Something separates me from other people. Everywhere I turn, there's something blocking my escape.") is lifted from the 1962 horror film Carnival of Souls. What I love the most about this song, which calls back to the relaxed and subdued jazzy sound of Honeymoon, is the lyrics of its chorus: "It hurts to love you, but I still love you; it's just the way I feel, and I'd be lying if I kept hiding the fact that I can't deal." As is typical of much of Lana's music, this is likely meant to contain more than one meaning. Lana has said that the song is about how she deals with being so famous and having to deal with being followed by journalists and paparazzi. The song was inspired by an experience that she had while trying to find a quiet place to unwind; she literally had to visit thirteen beaches before finding one where she could be alone and unrecognized. The chorus therefore addresses both her fame as well as a potential ex-lover. (She has, after all, stated before that she will probably always love the same man and is constantly writing about him, although I don't think that we know who that man is.)

"13 Beaches" transitions smoothy into "Cherry," one of the most playful songs on the album. The song begins with Lana warbling over a lightly strumming guitar. The song picks up a little bit when it gets to the chorus, adding a light hip-hop-esque beat. The song has a bluesy-rock sound to it, which reminds me of Ultraviolence, but it also, as previously mentioned, has a restrained hip-hop sound to it, which reminds me of "High by the Beach" from Honeymoon. The song manages to be playful (throwing words like "bitch" and "fuck" out seemingly for their own sake) but also subdued, which is one reason why I love the song. "Cherry," which seems to speak of the way that love typically declines and deteriorates over time, is another highlight on the album for sure. "White Mustang," the fifth track, on the other hand, is a bit of a letdown in my opinion. The song starts with a quiet piano, which I do enjoy because the piano is my favorite musical instrument, but the song makes promises that it doesn't keep, building up to an anticlimactic chorus that doesn't really do anything interesting. The song, however, is arguably the closest that the album comes to the sound from Born to Die, possibly reminding one of songs like "Dark Paradise" and "Summertime Sadness." The song is extremely short (running at only two minutes and forty-five seconds) and honestly just seems to abruptly cut off at the end. Lana recently said during a live Q&A session via Instagram that "White Mustang" will be the next music video, which I admit does disappoint me a bit; it's hardly a highlight from the album. It thematically speaks of an infatuation with and possibly even relationship with a famous musician.

The next two tracks are "Summer Bummer" and "Groupie Love," both featuring rap verses. "Summer Bummer" features A$AP Rocky (with whom Lana had previously collaborated on the unreleased track "Ridin'") and Playboi Carter, and "Groupie Love" features only A$AP Rocky. I discuss these two songs simultaneously because Lana has said that she considers them to be sibling songs (probably mainly because they both feature A$AP Rocky). I honestly hated these songs when I first heard them, but they have definitely grown on me, and I now love them. I do feel, however, that the rap verses do not fit and should not have been featured. Lana has a very distinct vintage folky sound as well as a very soft subdued voice, which, in my sincere opinion, do not mesh well with aggressive rap vocals. It would almost be like trying to mix Patsy Cline or Nancy Sinatra with rap verses. Can you imagine? On "Groupie Love," for example, A$AP Rocky raps in his verse, "God dang, got a nigga actin' irate," which really does not sound like it belongs in a Lana Del Rey song. "Summer Bummer" features a very heavy hip-hop beat, and the song definitely has a strong urban appeal. Given that that is the sound that tends to be popular, I can totally imagine this song being played on the radio, as it definitely has a "top 40" sound to it (which is, as I said, unusual for Lana). "Groupie Love" is softer than "Summer Bummer"; even Rocky's verse is softer than his verse in "Summer Bummer," but he still sounds out of place. While I do understand Lana's reasonings for considering these two songs to be sibling songs, I actually more so consider "Groupie Love" and "White Mustang" to be sibling songs because both are thematically similar, telling stories of relationships with famous musicians. (There were actually rumors recently that Lana was dating rapper G-Eazy, which these two songs might help substantiate.)

The eighth track on the album is titled "In My Feelings" and is probably my #1 favorite. The song starts with what sounds like deep strings which introduce us to the light hip-hop percussion (something that essentially pervades the first half of the album) that persists throughout most of the song. "In My Feelings" is probably the angriest song on the album, with lyrics such as the impatient demand that her (ex) lover "get that cigarette smoke out of my face," the savagely sarcastic statement that "you wanna make the switch? Be my guest, baby" and the fair warning that "if you were me and I was you, I'd get out of my way." The song addresses a lover who has more than likely been unfaithful (a theme especially prevalent on Ultraviolence) and has consequently caused her to feel a wide array of emotions, the most dominant one seeming to be anger. The speaker has had enough and wishes to now be on her own (a theme also present in the also angry Honeymoon track "High by the Beach," in which she poetically determines that "everyone can start again, not through love but through revenge. Through the fire, we're born again. Peace by vengeance brings the end." (This seems to recall the popular adage that "living well is the best revenge," as if Lana were saying that the best way to recover from a broken heart is not by rebounding but by living happily on your own. One could also argue, of course, that by revenge, she means shooting your ex out of the sky with a bazooka, but I am going to assume that that is probably not the case.) I love the blip sound that drops the chorus, and the chorus varies in tone, going up and down the scale more quickly and more often than Lana's songs usually do.

The ninth track on Lust for Life is titled "Coachella - Woodstock in My Mind" and is right about where the more pop and hip-hop flavored songs transition into more folky songs. This song was released months ago as a promotional single, and it was originally meant to be a standalone single, as Lana said that it was not going to be included on the album. When fans finally saw the tracklisting, however, they were surprised to see that she had, in fact, changed her mind. I am glad that she did because the lyrical content of the song is in keeping with some of the other songs, with "When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing" functioning almost as a sibling song. The song, like "13 Beaches," is meant to be taken literally because it is based on actual experience of hers. Lana attended Coachella 2017 where she, with the frontman's wife, watched Father John Misty perform live. In the song, she compares the experience to Woodstock '69 because both shows took place during turbulent times and represent freedom through music in spite of the turbulence. Lana does, for the first time in her career, directly address politics on this album, and this starts on this song when she addresses the mounting tension between the United States and North Korea. The song has a slow waltzy groove to it, and I love the melody. I also love how it nods toward Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" in its chorus. My only complaint regarding this song is its beat. She said that the song was quickly whipped up following the Coachella show, and I think that the beat makes this evident. It does not sound like live drums; it instead sounds like a very basic drum machine beat. I do, overall, really love the song; I just wish that it hadn't been rushed.

Lana is no stranger to infusing her music with Americana; she has done it before on songs like "National Anthem," "American," "Afraid," and so forth (the list goes on), and she has also used the American flag as imagery time and time again, but as previously mentioned, Lust for Life is really the first time that she has directly addressed current American politics in her music. She begins to touch upon it on "Coachella - Woodstock in My Mind" but digs even deeper on the next several tracks. "God Bless America - and All the Beautiful Women in It" is meant to add to the discussion that many had this year at the Women's March on Washington, when approximately 500,000 people protested in Washington D.C. against the inauguration of Donald Trump. Lana's song glorifies women, acknowledging their value and worth in the country. The song is very light and acoustically driven and has a strong folky flavor to it, as do many of the songs on the back half of the album. The album then moves into the aforementioned "When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing," which is thematically similar to "Coachella - Woodstock in My Mind" and is similar in sound to "God Bless America - and All the Beautiful Women in It." In response to Donald Trump's election, Lana asks, "Is this the end of an era? Is it the end of America?" This is in keeping with how many Americans felt following the November election results, but Lana provides hope: "If we hold onto hope," she encourages us, "we'll have our happy ending." Echoing what she says in the Lust for Life album trailer, she reminds us that America has endured turbulence in the past, and we'll endure it now: "When the world was at war before, we just kept dancing." As previously stated, this also echoes "Coachella" in that it offers music as a way for us to get through this.

A piano-driven folk track, "Beautiful People Beautiful Problems" is definitely a highlight on the album because Lana collaborates with legendary folk musician Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac (with whom she sounds incredible). The song sounds like a vintage folk song, and the opening verse could potentially be leaning towards a political meaning: "Blue is the color of the planet from the view above. Long live our reign. Long live our love. Green is the planet from the eyes of a turtle dove 'til it runs red... with blood." The planet running red with blood could be in reference to war, but it could also be referencing the planet metaphorically bleeding because we are not being eco-friendly and are not taking care of it. (Donald Trump is not concerned with eco-friendliness and regards climate change as a hoax.) My overall interpretation of the song is that most of us are both better than and worse off than other people in the world, and regardless of how we feel, we are all inhabitants of the same planet and should all have similar goals in mind. The next track on the album is also significant because it is a duet with the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Sean Ono Lennon. "Tomorrow Never Came" is either my second or third favorite song on the album. An acoustically driven folk song that I can totally imagine Sean's father and/or The Beatles performing, the song is a beautiful lament about someone (most likely an ex-lover) who had represented a brighter future for the speaker but then never delivered on that promise. (It is a song to which I strongly relate.) Near the end of the song, Lana sings, "I wish we had stayed home, and I could put on the radio to our favorite song. Lennon and Yoko, we would play all day long. 'Isn't life crazy?' I said, now that I'm singing with Sean." I love this part of the song because it is meant to be ironically "meta."

"Heroin" is not a terrible song but is a part of the album where it temporarily dips off for me. I like the chorus of the song, in which Lana sings, "Flying to the moon again, dreaming about heroin," as it is melodically beautiful, but most of the song is flat and doesn't go many places. It is one of my least favorite songs on the album. (It lyrically seems to be very personal and could be addressing actual drug use like past songs such as "Yayo" and "Florida Kilos" seem to, but that's unclear.) The next song, on the other hand, simply titled "Change," is either my second or third favorite on Lust for Life, butting heads with "Tomorrow Never Came." "Change" is piano-driven and is devastatingly beautiful, especially in its soaring chorus: "Every time that we run, we don't know what it's from..." The song addresses a common human condition: "Lately I've been thinking that it's someone else's job to care." We sometimes do suffer from this syndrome, believing that we don't need to stand up for what's right because someone else will. The problem is that if everyone has this mindset, then no one will stand up, and Lana addresses this in "Change." The song seems to be a call to action, encouraging listeners to live by the mindset that we are the change that we seek: "Change is a powerful thing; people are powerful beings." The song is discouraging and encouraging at the same time, seemingly hopeless but actually very hopeful, and it is another song that definitely seems to have a political stance to it. (I think that it is another song that was definitely written in the wake of Trump's election.)

The final song on the album is "Get Free," which sounds extremely similar to Radiohead's 1992 hit "Creep." It is a beautiful song which kind of has a psychedelic rock flavor to it, and I interpret the song as being about newfound happiness and self-discovery. She nods to her single "Ride" from Paradise when she sings, "Sometimes it feels like I've got a war in my mind. I want to get off, but I keep riding the ride." It is my belief that Lana here is tackling the same issue that she does on "13 Beaches" and Honeymoon's "God Knows I Tried," which is the burden of fame. I don't believe that Lana is referring to suicide when she says that she wants to "get off" (although I suppose that one could interpret it that way); she is referring to giving up her life as a famous musician. This is substantiated by the following line: "I never really noticed that I had to decide to play someone's game or live my own life." Being famous can sometimes mean being a puppet owned by the media; the media can tell lies and spin your stories their own way, making your own life not truly yours. This has been the case constantly for Lana, as headlines have commented on her fluctuating weight, whether or not she has had cosmetic surgery done, and even whether or not the vintage folk and Americana aesthetic is real or merely a gimmick. On "Get Free," Lana seems to be addressing this, saying that she plans to continue moving forward regardless because freedom and happiness are states of mind, and she has found both of them. While Lust for Life is not my favorite Lana Del Rey album to date (as that honor still goes to Ultraviolence), I do overall love it despite my wishes that a few decisions had been made differently. Let's just hope that now that she is six albums into her career, people are finally starting to realize that Lana Del Rey is not a gimmick.