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It is a sweetly innocent song about observing an audience of young girls dressed just like her, and praying for their safety amid a period of global terror. Meanwhile, Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind is a sedated trap track one that attracted derision for its title, given that Del Rey is the patron saint of wearing a flower garland at a celebrity-filled festival.
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Del Rey’s longtime producer Rick Nowels recently declared When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing a “masterpiece” for its lyrical message about finding pleasure in the Trump era. Here, her political approach is rooted in escapism. However, the world has changed considerably since 2015’s Honeymoon, and, much like Katy Perry’s ambition to make “purposeful pop”, Del Rey has decided to puncture her long-running narrative and reflect the troubled times we are in. I loved those records, but I felt a little stuck in the same spot.”įor those who haven’t paid attention to Del Rey’s career since its first flourish – the sighing, sorrow-drenched Video Games – the Californian artist’s music has remained locked within a small range of emotions, most of which revolve around awful men (often elderly bikers or gangsters) doing awful things and Del Rey remaining belligerently in love with them. It was her goal, she says, for this album to mark a “moving-on-ness from wherever that other place was that Honeymoon and Ultraviolence came from. According to a recent interview with NME, however, the smile is symbolic of a new artistic chapter. Such is her brand loyalty to pained poise and misery, the joyful precision on Del Rey’s 2017’s face seems almost ironic. Quite the radical move considering her default expression has ranged from seductive glower to wounded pout. L ana Del Rey is smiling on the cover of her new album.