The album Honeymoon by Lana Del Rey swims, lounges and mugs for the camera in the impressionistic video for her Honeymoon tune “Music to Watch Boys To.” Although the clip features a few scenes that live up to the song’s male-objectifying title, the most curious vignette finds the singer reclining in a beach chair as gramophone horns spin around her and the silhouette of one of her boys plays basketball. Then, after a shot of them playing hoops, the camera gives her a close-up for her line about “singing soft-grunge.” Honeymoon is Lana Del Rey’s best yet album.
For her third long player ,the lyrical clichés that bogged her down before are still present, but far less frequently. In fact, those that remain often add charm to the Lana Del Rey experience. She’s finding her voice and owning a persona that’s unlike any of her pop peers. We’re ready to forgive her for whatever she was singing about Florida kilos — here are Honeymoon’s top 10 moments of Lana being Lana.
“All I wanna do is get high by the beach.” – “High By the Beach”
“Club queen on the downtown scene / prowling around at midnight” – “Art Deco”
Get ready to hit the club with Lana, and maybe Azealia Banks, the rumored subject of this song. When you open a song with this couplet you know you’re getting peak LDR; in this case, focused on fervor for 1920s American culture.
“Ground control to Major Tom / Can you hear me all night long?” – “Terrence Loves You”
Sometimes Lana’s lyrics really make the grade.
“Now you’re just another one of my problems / Because you got out of hand / We won’t survive, we’re sinking into the sand” – “High by the Beach”
There’s more to this song than the bowl-passing mantra of its chorus. In the second verse, Lana gets the upper hand on a lover who’s not worth it while alluding to the beach theme.
“Don’t you know, no one alive can always be an angel?” – “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
Lana didn’t write this one, of course, but she couldn’t have chosen a more lyrically appropriate song to take on.
“Come to California / Be a freak like me, too” – “Freak”
A lust for California has been in American pop music almost as long as there’s been American pop music. You know Lana’s Americana joy ride is going to stop there, and she doesn’t care if you think it’s cliché or not.
“When I’m down on my knees, you’re how I pray” – “Religion”
She’s made a lover her national anthem before, and now she’s calling one her religion. You better believe she’s going to juxtapose church with getting dirty.
“Calling out my name in the summer rain, ciao amore / Salvatore can wait / Now it’s time to eat soft ice cream”
– “Salvatore”
Lana is putting love on hold for the munchies. “Now it’s time to eat soft ice cream”: coming to a meme near you in fall 2015.
“Beatboxing and rapping in the summer rain / Like a boss, he sang jazz and blues.” – “Salvatore”
“Carry me home, got my blue nail polish on / It’s my favorite color and my favorite tone of song.” – “The Blackest Day”
When the singer premiered the tune, which she co-wrote with “Summertime Sadness” collaborator Rick Boyles, on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show earlier this month, she called it one of her favorites on the LP. In an interview with Los Angeles Times, she spoke on the song’s evocative nature. “The title lends itself to a visual of shadows of men passing by, this girl’s eyes, her face,” Del Rey said. “I can definitely see things.”
Del Rey put out Honeymoon earlier this month and, prior to its release, recently premiered another song, “Salvatore,” via BBC 1. “[It’s] the most different from all the other tracks on the record,” she said at the time. “It has a little bit of an old world Italian feel, it’s kind of a weirder song, but I love the chorus.”
Del Rey has compared the album as a whole to her first two releases, Born to Die and Paradise. “It’s growing into something I really like,” she said of Honeymoon in an interview with Billboard in January. “I’m kind of enjoying sinking into this more noirish feel for this one. It’s been good.”
If you’ve ever called up one of those numbers you see in a movie or on an album sleeve, the likelihood is you will be put through to an automated line or the number won’t exist. The chances of you speaking to anyone actually interesting are very, very slim.
Lana Del Rey’s doing things a little different. On her latest release,Honeymoon, she included a phone number on the cover: 1-800-268-7886. Surprisingly, if you call the number, it goes straight to Lana .
The Fat Angel Sings 