One thing Lana Del Rey‘s fans adore about her is that she is incredibly vulnerable in her lyrics.
She sings about topics that others wouldn’t daydream of covering in public settings. Here’s a deep dive into some of the hot topics Lana has openly written lyrics about over the course of her music career.
Dating older men.
In Lana’s song “Cola,” she sings, “I gots a taste for men who are older. It’s always been so it’s no surprise.”
In the past, Lana has dated men of all ages, but in her twenties, she certainly gave most of her attention to men who were significantly older than her.
The older men featured in her music videos for “Ride” and “Shades of Cool” are good examples of the type of men she was interested in.
California beaches.
Lana sings about California in many songs including “F It I Love You,” “Nectar of the Gods,” and ” “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.”
She even has an entire song called “California.”
Lana further references her love of California beaches in songs like “West Coast,” “Arcadia,” and “Freak.”
Her volatile relationship with her mother.
Lana’s relationship with her mother seems to be a toxic one, based on lyrics she’s written over the years.
In ““Wildflower Wildfire,” she sings, “My father never stepped in when his wife would rage at me.” Pretty heartbreaking.
Struggles with depression and sadness.
Several Lana songs tackle the heavy-hitting topics of depression and sadness including “Pawn Shop Blues,” “Is This Happiness?,” and “Pretty When You Cry.”
In “Dark Paradise,” Lana’s lyrics get extremely heart-wrenching when she sings, “I wish I was dead. Every time I close my eyes, it’s like a dark paradise.”
Unrequited love.
Lana sings about unrequited love in songs like “Blue Jeans,” “Shades of Cool,” and “Million Dollar Man.”
She also sings about loving someone who doesn’t quite love her back the same way in “Blue Banisters,” with lyrics that say, “‘Cause I met a man who said he’d come back every May just to help me if I’d paint my banisters blue.”
The man she sings about in “Blue Banisters” does not actually come back for her.
Abusive relationships.
“Ultraviolence” by Lana is a prime example of a song she wrote about abusive relationships. In one line, she sings, “He hit me and it felt like a kiss.”
The line has been labeled so controversial that she no longer performs this song on stage in concerts.
Being a beautiful woman.
Lana isn’t the type of woman to pretend she doesn’t know how divine she is. In “Young and Beautiful” she sings about the fact that she’s presently young and beautiful and hopes her partner will still love her the same when she ages.
Being a sexual woman.
Lana’s lyrics occasionally touch on her sexuality as a woman as well. In “Gods and Monsters,” she sings, “I was an angel, looking to get F’d hard.”
In “Freak,” she sings, “Come to California, be a freak like me too.”
In “Lust For Life,” she sings, “Take off all your clothes.”
In “Yayo,” she sings, “Let me put on a show for you, daddy.”
And her song “F’d My Way Up to the Top” is self-explanatory. Just to name a few.
Situationships.
Lana is no stranger to the complexities of love, including the messiness of situationships. A situationship occurs when one person is ready to commit while the other strings them along without agreeing to a real commitment, btw.
In “Diet Mountain Dew,” Lana sings, ““You’re no good for me, baby you’re no good for me. You’re no good for me. But baby I want you.”
Being a mistress.
Lana’s lyrics about being in love with a man who was already married are quite painful abd not for the faint of heart.
In “The Other Woman,” Lana sings, “The other woman will always cry herself to sleep. The other woman will never have his love to keep. And as the years go by, the other woman will spend her life alone.”
God and religion.
Lana sings about God and religion in several different songs. Most notably, she sings about God in “God Knows I Tried” and “Chemtrails Over The Country Club.”
In other songs like “Tulsa Jesus Freak,” “Religion,” and “Say Yes to Heaven,” she references both God and religion as a whole in metaphorical ways.
Addiction.
Lana’s songs about addiction are pretty emotional and thought-provoking. In “Heroin,” she sings, “I’m flyin’ to the moon again, dreamin’ about heroin. How it gave you everything and took your life away.”
The lyrics are clearly about someone she loved who died of an overdose.
Heartache and difficult breakups.
There’s an endless number of breakup songs to reflect on from Lana’s discography.
“The Blackest Day,” “Breaking Up Slowly,” and “In My Feelings” are three prime examples. In “Without You,” she sings the line, “Tell me life is beautiful, they all think I have it all. I’m nothing without you. All my dreams and all the lights mean nothing without you.”
Nostalgia.
Lana often uses her songs to reflect on warm memories of the past as well as sad memories from the old days.
In “White Dress,” specifically, she sings about the days when she was 19 years old before rising to fame in a way that makes you feel sad and reminisced about that simple and beautiful era of her young life.
She sings, ” I would still go back. If I could do it all again, I’d fly. Because it made me feel, made me feel like a god.”
Later in the song she sings, “It was such a scene, and I felt seen.”
Feeling seen is such a beautiful experience and the idea of that would make anyone yearn for those nostalgic moments of the past.
Falling head over heels in love.
Lana’s songs about falling passionately in love are just as beautiful as her heartbreak songs.
Songs like “Let Me Love You Like a Woman,” “Cinnamon Girl,” “Summertime Sadness,” “If You Lie Down With Me,” and “American” all fit the bill.
In “Old Money,” she sings, “If you send for me, you know I’ll come. And if you call for me, you know I’ll run. I’ll run to you, I’ll run to you. I’ll run, run, run. I’ll come to you, I’ll come to you. I’ll come, come, come.”
In her song titled “Love,” she sings, “It doesn’t matter if I’m not enough for the future or the things to come. ‘Cause I’m young and in love.”
In “Lucky Ones,” she sings, “Every now and then, the stars align. Boy and girl meet by the great design. Could it be that you and me are the lucky ones? Everybody told me love was blind. Then I saw your face and you blew my mind. Finally, you and me are the lucky ones this time.”
In “Blue Jeans,” she sings, “I will love you ’til the end of time. I would wait a million years. Promise you’ll remember that you’re mine. Baby, can you see through the tears? Love you more than those Bs before. Say you’ll remember.”
In “Video Games,” she sings, “It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you. Everything I do. I tell you all the time. Heaven is a place on earth with you. Tell me all the things you wanna do.”
New beginnings.
Lana’s songs about starting over fresh and pursuing new beginnings are the best. In “Get Free,” she sings, “Sometimes it feels like I’ve got a war in my mind. I wanna get off, but I keep riding the ride. I never really noticed that I had to decide, to play someone’s game, or live my own life. And now I do. I wanna move. Out of the black. Into the blue.”
Although these lyrics might sound confusing to anyone who doesn’t understand her poetic nature, the song is about escaping her old life for new beginnings.
She’s moving out of the black, which is her dark past, into the blue, which is her bright future.
She’s overcoming the war in her mind and the scenarios where she once allowed herself to be manipulated by others and their game. These lyrics describe her ascent to freedom in living her own life.
What do you think of all these Lana lyrics? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
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