“I made my first 4 albums for me, but this one is for my fans and about where I hope we are all headed [...] I would say [the album's aesthetic is] retro sensibility with a futuristic flair.”
Lana Del Rey, NME
Alt-pop chanteuse Lana Del Rey is back to enthrall everyone with her vintage stylings - evocative string arrangements, lyrics about life and love, an easily recognisable jazzy contralto vocal range - with the release of "Love", the lead single from her upcoming fifth album. This time, however, her subject matter has shifted from personal melodrama to an ode to her young fans' (idealized) first forays into romance:
'Look at you kids with your vintage musicComin' through satellites while cruisin'You're part of the past, but now you're the futureSignals crossing can get confusingIt's enough just to make you feel crazy, crazy, crazySometimes, it's enough just to make you feel crazyYou get ready, you get all dressed upTo go nowhere in particularBack to work or go the coffee shopDoesn't matter cause it's enoughTo be young and in love (ah, ah)To be young and in love (ah, ah)'
Lyrics: Genius
While the ballad - which was co-written with ‘Born To Die’ collaborator Emile Haynie, ‘Summertime Sadness’ songwriter Rick Nowels and Katy Perry producer Benny Blanco - is lush, soothing and reassuring, it does little to innovate Del Rey's sonic template from her past two albums, Ultraviolence (2014) and Honeymoon(2015). But why temper with something that with a proven track record of pleasing her fans (especially when it continues to stand apart from an EDM-heavy pop landscape)?
The Rich Lee-directed music video does gorgeous poetic justice to Del Rey's tribute to young romance by depicting a West Coast couple embarking on a road trip to the beach. The familiar rituals of youth eventually take on a celestial significance, however, as Del Rey shifts from performing on a simple stage to singing on the moon. This should not come as a surprise; she has expressed her interests in space travel in a 2014 interview with : "I’m more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what’s going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities".
Will this futuristic interest gel as coherently with her trademark vintage influences on the upcoming album as it does in this music video? We can certainly hope so.
