I first heard Lana Del Rey's sultry, syrupy croon in a smoky prius belonging to a very fabulous gay boy of German/Mexican descent, about a year ago. "Mmm chicka, dis is my gurl Lana. I be listening to her like, ev-er-y day now", he said verbatum (no words are at all are misspelled). I had seen his "gurl Lana" a few weekends before on Saturday Night Live in a performance in which she notoriously sounded like a dying moose and looked like she belonged in a fucking wax museum. Needless to say, I was intrigued. Who was this mannequin-like 60s poster girl claiming that her man was "fresh to death, and sick as cancer"? Since when was cancer an adjective and why did this woman make me doubt the existence of aliens and androids?
My music taste is hardly rigid, but when it comes to female artists I am very picky about who is good enough to grace my playlist. I'm a die-hard fan of the greatest female wailer of all time, Alanis Morissette. I also enjoy the opulence of Beyonce and Gwen Stefani from time to time (all the time). And I am always down for the pipes of Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, and Stevie Nicks. My favorite female rapper is a Youtube phenomena called Lady, known for her debut song 'Yankin' (I can't even lie/Fuck better when I'm drankin'/Ride dick like a pro/Throw the pussy like I'm famous) - When I get drunk and play 'Yankin' for a group of unsuspecting peers, I like to follow up with a four minute rant about how Lady is the biggest feminist rapper of all time. Lately though, I've replaced all of my go-to-girls with Lana Del Rey, who I totally hate to love for the reason that she is exactly as she claims to be: "fucking crazy". Seriously, this bitch is out of her fucking mind and not even in a Lady Gaga way, either. At least Lady Gaga is a semi-normal person who kept her twisted Polish nose and maintains an uplifting personality and her philanthropic duties as a role model for young girls and the gay community. Lana freaks me out while simultaneously thrilling my ears with whatever the fuck it is she thinks she's doing for the following reasons:
Common Controversial Themes in Lana Songs -
Death: The title of Del Rey's debut album is called 'Born to Die', which she comfortably explores in many of her songs. She seems to be enthralled with the idea of “dying young”, and it certainly seems like she’s going to achieve this goal soon enough with her self-proclaimed lifestyle that includes a love of alcohol, fast cars, and cocaine. But that’s no matter; she’ll go to heaven because she’s a devout Roman Catholic – Everyone knows nothing goes better with Catholicism than a couple of bumps, binge drinking, and the rapidly increasing needle on the dashboard of a Chevy. That’s a recipe for death if I’ve ever heard one, thanks Lana! Yayo!
Americana: Don't get me wrong, if some guy told me I was his National Anthem, I would probably be totally flattered. That's like, bigger than love, right? Lana’s ever-present ballads praising American culture make us all patriots again! It’s finally cool to be American! The next time I go overseas I will stop claiming to be Canadian because of Lana Del Rey. I feel a sense of pride for my country when Lana tells me to “be young/be dope/be proud/like an American”. I feel old, uncool, and ashamed on most days. Sarcasm aside though, Lana is perhaps just a modern-day Andy Warhol, profiting on our mass-produced consumerist society with lyrics claiming that her “pussy tastes like Pepsi-cola”. And really, what is more patriotic than “fall[ing] asleep in an American flag” and wearing “diamonds on skid row”? Pretty much fucking nothing.
Daddy As a Lover/Lolita: "Light of my life. Fire of my Loins" is notoriously the first sentence in Vladamir Nabokov's Lolita, a novel concerning the life and times of pedophile Humbert Humbert, as he recounts several years of the wooing and sexual abuse of twelve year-old Dolores "Lolita" Haze. If you haven't encountered this book yet, or at least seen the Stanley Kubrick Film, you are missing out on perhaps the most disturbingly pleasurable literary experience of your life. This isn't a critical analysis of Lolita, but rather a question as to why Del Rey seems to be weirdly obsessed with not only the novel, but the whole idea of the Electra Complex. She begins her song 'Off to the Races' with the aforementioned Nabokov lines, painting an image of her Gangsta Daddy, drippin' in gold chains (My old man is a bad man/ But I can't deny the way he holds my hand). The song is catchy and creepy as fuck. Even if the older gentleman she sings about isn't her biological father, there is something incredibly unsettling about her calling him "Daddy". For fucks sake, Lana has a ballad called 'Lolita' on her album. If you've read Lolita, the comparison between Lana Del Rey's personal appearance and Nabokov's twelve year-old "Nymphet" is uncanny. The summery frocks and girlish accessories she adorns herself in look as if she plucked them from the pages of Lolita's wardrobe. No girl, ever, has fantasized about being sexually abused, so Lana's obsession with Lo is fucking weird, to say the least. It's quite possible she's an idiot and overlooked all of the awful instances of child rape in the novel and chose to favor the beautiful prose instead. Regardless, I really don't think Nabokov intended for Lolita to be idolized as an American dream-girl in the 21st century. Del Rey is essentially the religion of modern hipster America: Art, literature, and music concerning serious issues, like the mental illness and pedophilia seen in Lolita, are suddenly cool! Ubiquitous! Original! Beautiful! Maybe she's just a fucking genius, maybe.
Sex:
“In the land of Gods and Monsters
I was an angel
Looking to get fucked hard
Like a groupie incognito
Posing as a real singer
Life imitates art”
Yeah, girl. I love the Oscar Wilde quote. Nice fucking touch. She is so blatantly conscious of her sexual desires. It is refreshing. Aren’t we all just looking to get fucked hard?
She's a Race/Class Neutralizer:
She truly is. She claims to be hella wealthy, dripping in ice and swaddled in name-brands, while being forced to live life on the road as a homeless baby prostitute in the music video ‘Ride’. She has massive plumped lips and a ski-jump nose – that’s her Beverly-Hills-Plastic-White-Gurl look. She rocks a Hispanic Chola-like style with her fake nails. Her glossy brown hair is wigged out, lookin’ all Brooklyn, like she hit up every neighborhood salon. And she got a phat ass. She is so rich yet so impoverished. A true melting pot! Or just the Queen of Cultural Appropriation. Lana, the Anti-Race!
Del Rey is challenging everything we know about music - She’s taking pop, shoving it down her throat, and purging a new innovative type of 60s-esque blues mixed with Bling and Hennessy. This is what America needs right now, man.
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