Fans have never had to look to hard to find the melancholy, fatalism and nihilism in Lana Del Rey’s many, many songs about doomed love (with retro gender dynamics) in a stylized, sun-drenched and nostalgic California setting. She has made her intentions for a more optimistic departure in her fourth album Lust for Life (forthcoming, 2017) clear, however.
There was the giddy and dreamy paean to young love as the lead single; a witchy announcement that her contribution to the world in ‘these dark times’ will be to affirm her fans, her music, Hollywood, life and her lust for life with an aesthetic direction which is ‘a little more socially aware’ ; the uncharacteristic full-blown smile on the album cover (which has already earned a lengthy commentary). And now, a radio-friendly Max Martin produced duet with The Weeknd:
“So basically, ‘Lust for Life’ was the first song I wrote for the record, but it was kind of a Rubik’s Cube. I felt like it was a big song but... it wasn’t right. I don’t usually go back and re-edit things that much, because the songs end up sort of being what they are, but this one song I kept going back to. I really liked the title. I liked the verse. John Janick was like, ‘Why don’t we just go over and see what Max Martin thinks?’ So, I flew to Sweden and showed him the song. He said that he felt really strongly that the best part was the verse and that he wanted to hear it more than once, so I should think about making it the chorus. So I went back to Rick Nowels’ place the next day and I was like, ‘Let’s try and make the verse the chorus,’ and we did, and it sounded perfect. That’s when I felt like I really wanted to hear Abel sing the chorus, so he came down and rewrote a little bit of it. But then I was feeling like it was missing a little bit of the Shangri-Las element, so I went back for a fourth time and layered it up with harmonies. Now I’m finally happy with it. (laughs)”
Lana Del Rey, Dazed
Tesfaye’s falsetto are a pleasing - albeit slightly underwhelming - contribution to the track. The sonic expansiveness, the life-affirming message of the track’s chorus and lust-inducing repetitions of ‘take off your clothes’ lends the song a mainstream catchiness that rewards multiple listens, even though the lyrics indulge in a few lyrical cliches and feel-good platitudes.
There are hints of the signature ominousness of Del Rey’s oeuvre (‘Then, we dance on the H of the Hollywood sign, yeah/ 'Til we run out of breath, gotta dance 'til we die’), but there’s no mistaking her newfound optimistic bent (or the retro '60s girl group influences):
'And a lust for life, and a lust for lifeAnd a lust for life, and a lust for lifeKeeps us alive, keeps us aliveKeeps us alive, keeps us aliveAnd a lust for life, and a lust for lifeAnd a lust for life, and a lust for lifeKeeps us alive, keeps us aliveKeeps us alive, keeps us aliveMy boyfriend's back and he's cooler than everThere's no more night, blue skies foreverI told you twice in our love letterThere's no stopping now, green lights foreverAnd I was like...'
Lyrics: Genius
Dedicated aesthetes may be somewhat sceptical of this new direction, but perhaps the promises of endless blue skies and green lights are what world-weary music listeners genuinely need at the moment.
