Lana Del Rey just debuted two new tracks from her upcoming third album Ultraviolence. Also, in a recent interview, she discussed the sad truth behind the making of another Ultraviolence cut, “Brooklyn Baby,” which was originally meant to feature Lou Reed.
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna
With several dates remaining on her 2014 tour, Lana Del Rey has released even more music from her new album Ultraviolence. “Cruel World” and “Is this Happiness” come after “West Coast,” “Shades of Cool,” and “Ultraviolence” as previews of the record.
Musically, “Cruel World,” the first track of the new album, sounds like something we could expect from Lana Del Rey but the lyrical content invokes the image of a someone recounting—through a drunken haze—all the reasons they left an ex behind. “Get a little bourbon in ‘ya, get a little surburban and go crazy” is a common refrain in a song filled with lyrical impressions of infidelity and devastating indifference.
“Is this Happiness,” a bonus iTunes track for the album, isn’t much lighter in terms of tone, and perhaps even more devastating. The lyrics focus on two people, one we might imagine as Lana herself, “writing songs about my cheap thrills,” and an unnamed lover with serious delusions of artistic grandeur: “You think you’re Hunter S. Thompson, and I think you’re fucking crazy as the day is long.” The bridge of the song, featuring the line “One gun on the table, Headshot if you’re able” seems like a less straightforward reference to Thompson, who took his own life in 2007.
In a recent interview, Lana Del Rey revealed that Lou Reed died on the same day she was meant to record her song “Brooklyn Baby” with the former Velvet Underground frontman, and the effect it had on her.
Check out the two new tracks below, on Youtube and Soundcloud.
Lana Del Rey
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