Her new album is entitled “Honeymoon”, but for Lana Del Rey such romantic sojourns are bleak in the way of classic film noir.In her highly anticipated fourth album released Friday, Del Rey returns to the somber, cinematic sound that has made her among the most unique and complicated recent pop sensations. With every lyric, photo and gesture, she adds another piece to her inspiration board: she has Priscilla Presley’s hairdo and Julie Christie’s eye makeup. “I love this song because it encapsulates all of the things that come naturally to me”, Del Rey said via her website in July.
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“Several rumors have suggested that Lana Del Rey was in the running to contribute the theme to the new Bond movie, Spectre“. “Music To Watch Boys To”, with its understated progression and stunningly interweaved vocals, is one of the finest songs Del Rey has crafted, while “Swan Song” reflects British singer Jessie Ware ” s minimalistic material to a tee. Her voice is wrapped in gauze; she sounds stunned, nearly concussed, amid the soft, slow, frosty music – chiefly strings and woodwinds – which, on her Instagram, she likened to exotica composer Les Baxter’s early-’60s work. It is the ideal Lana Del Rey lyric because I know that it will never truly give up its secrets, and I know deep down that it means nothing, yet I can not stop staring into that abyss. A honeymoon is wonderful, but it’s also brief.
The NY Post isn’t the only one who agrees with that statement, as reviews across the internet have generally been favorable toward this new Lana Del Rey opus. While Ultraviolence saw Del Rey play with tongue-in-cheek lyrics about the way she is perceived, she is much more direct here.
It’s enough to make you wonder: How is it possible that critics once accused Del Rey of being a puppet for aging record-label execs who recast her as an old-fashioned ideal of femme-fatale seduction? Like Del Rey herself, Hval has a fully realized stage persona and an impenetrable poker face, so it was hard to tell if the whole thing was a jab or an homage to the artist formerly known as Lizzy Grant. It’s her most outright jazzy and most musically complex release to date; there are the same indelible choruses, but they take a bit longer to reveal themselves. Whatever her intentions, they’ve led to her most genuinely thrilling music ever. It’s Lana’s own style, and in a world where the biggest pop acts construct their own universe, hers could be the most distinct and untouchable.
The album opens up with the haunting song for which the album is named: “Honeymoon“.
As I have often experienced listening to Del Rey, I could see myself reflected in her voice.
In terms of lyrical content, Honeymoon offers the expected psuedo-intellectual trappings: a dramatic crooned reference to Billy Holliday, a dead-eyed Nina Simone cover (“Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”), quotations from T.S. Eliot, a dramatic bridge built from the chorus of Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, a song called “Art Deco“, and lines like “screw your anonymity” that you might have – at a low point – reasonably written in whiteout on your high school Trapper Keeper.
If last year’s “Ultraviolence” felt like it shunned the singles-first pop approach, “Honeymoon” takes that mantra and runs into the distance.
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“Honeymoon” cradles Del Rey in her most comfortable range-mostly low tones. When she first appeared on the scene with her DIY-crooner anthem “Video Games”, the indie-rock underground treated her like a threat to its very existence. Lana’s characteristic trills have a large presence, possibly explaining why the singer likes it so much.
