I
am reviewing these two singles together simply because they were
released on the same day - Friday, August 9, 2019, and neither of them
are featured on Lana Del Rey's latest studio album Norman Fucking Rockwell!.
On August 3, 2019, two consecutive shootings took place in America -
the first in El Paso, Texas and the second in Dayton, Ohio (the second
of which was motivated by the shooter's alignment with Donald Trump's
racist and xenophobic views and policies). "Looking for America"
was written in response to the shootings and was released a mere six
days after the events by which it was inspired, so it's easy to
understand why it isn't on Norman Fucking Rockwell! (even though it would have made a fine addition to the album); it was written and recorded after
the album's tracklisting was finalized and revealed and probably even
after the physical copies were pressed. The song is not new territory
for Lana Del Rey, as it is a folksy song on acoustic guitar that is
reminiscent of the acoustic hippie forerunners of the '60s and '70s, a
time period which Lana Del Rey has always heavily synthesized into her
own style of music. The song reminds me a great deal of Lana's last
album, Lust for Life (especially its back half which houses similarly politically charged songs such as "Coachella - Woodstock in My Mind," "God Bless America - and All the Beautiful Women in It," "When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing,"
and so forth). In the melodically beautiful and soaring chorus, Del Rey
dreams of a different America: "I'm still looking for my own version of
America, one without the gun where the flag can freely fly. No bombs in
the sky, only fireworks when you and I collide. It's just a dream I had
in mind." Given the state in which my country (America) now seems to be
in and how much it has affected me as a citizen and as a human being,
the song hits me hard and gets me a bit emotional. At only two minutes
and forty-two seconds, it's one of Lana's shorter songs, but that makes a
lot of sense given how soon after its conception and composition that
it was released. It's definitely a memorable song that I wish were on Norman Fucking Rockwell!, but, again, I understand why it is not.
The other single that Lana released that day is a cover of the 1966 Donovan song "Season of the Witch." The cover was released to promote the new horror film Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,
and although I have not yet seen it, I have heard from others that the
song plays during the end credits. A cover of a song originally from
1966 does not surprise me in the slightest because as I already said
during my review of "Looking for America," she seems to admire and feel a
close connection to the '60s and '70s and has even previously covered
songs from approximately the same era. Lana has also been suspected of
practicing witchcraft herself over the last few years, especially after claiming that she planned to perform a binding spell on the Trump administration,
so the choice of song to cover also is not at all surprising. Lana's
cover of "Season of the Witch" is very faithful to the original (as her
covers usually are), although she vocally delivers the melody much more
delicately than Donovan does. As is typical of much of her vocal
delivery, she caps off words such as "stitch" with a very soft,
delicate, and almost even detached "ch" sound. Donovan does something
somewhat similar in the original, but it's definitely a signature move
for Del Rey. I love Lana's humming at the beginning of the song and its
playful piano accompaniment. It is (not unlike the original version)
stylistically a psychedelic and folksy rock song, and I honestly prefer
it to the original because I love her previously discussed delicate
treatment of the vocals. She gives the song a sweet and sultry flavor
absent from the original, and it is, in my opinion, a welcome change.
Like "Looking for America," I understand why "Season of the Witch" is
missing from Norman Fucking Rockwell!. It is a cover and does not really fit the overall mood and narrative of NFR!, and it was also, as already said, used in promotion of a film, so she might not have even been allowed
to put it on the album. One thing that I do find ironic about the fact
that she recorded this cover for a film, however, is that she recorded a
cover of "Once Upon a Dream" for the 2014 film Maleficent, yet someone else covered "Season of the Witch" for its upcoming sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. What are the chances of that? Coincidence?
