Lana del Rey has been doing a flurry of press in recent weeks to promote the release of her (excellent) latest album Ultraviolence, and, in typical Lana del Rey fashion, the press tour has been characterized by Lana del Rey saying ridiculous shit. The latest round of Lana vs. The World involves an interview with a music critic wherein the artist formerly known as Lizzy Grant proclaims that she wishes she was dead already.
The following exchange leads Guardian music critic Tim Jonze’s profile of the hipster sadcore singer.
“I wish I was dead already,” Lana Del Rey says, catching me off guard. She has been talking about the heroes she and her boyfriend share – Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain among them – when I point out that what links them is death and ask if she sees an early death as glamorous. “I don’t know. Ummm, yeah.” And then the death wish.
Don’t say that, I say instinctively.
“But I do.”
You don’t!
“I do! I don’t want to have to keep doing this. But I am.”
Do what? Make music?
“Everything. That’s just how I feel. If it wasn’t that way, then I wouldn’t say it. I would be scared if I knew [death] was coming, but …”
This exchange, if set to music, would fit right in on Ultraviolence, which includes such tracks as “Pretty When You Cry,” “Sad Girl,” “Cruel World,” and “Fucked My Way Up To The Top.” I’d like to reiterate again here that as dumb as Lana del Rey sounds most of the time, that’s how good this album is. It is as sweet as Lana del Rey seems in this video. It’s really fucking good. I am as interested in it as Lana del Rey says she’s interested in space.
When I’m listening to it, I want to make it into a flower crown and wear it to Coachella, and I have no interest whatsoever in going to Coachella when I am not listening to this Lana del Rey album. I am as interested in this as Lana del Rey isn’t interested in feminism, despite the fact that like 3 of the songs on this album definitely explore gender tropes.
LDR wasn’t delighted by The Guardian story, though, and claimed in a series of now-deleted tweets snagged by MTV that they misrepresented her and asked her leading and “calculated” questions.
The Guardian‘s Tim Jonze fired back, saying that he did that thing that journalists do when they’re interviewing subjects, which is ask questions and then take things that the subjects said and make them into a publishable piece on the subject.
I cannot wait for a reference to Twitter and The Guardian to make it onto the next Lana del Rey album.