A&W by Lana Del Rey is one of my favorite songs by her, even though it’s incredibly dark and heartbreaking.

Here’s a portion of my lyrical analysis of the masterpiece she created.

Okay, so we’ll dive into verse one’s opening line where she says, “I haven’t done a cartwheel since I was nine.”

A child doing cartwheels represents how carefree and innocent they feel in their youth before they’ve faced anything truly traumatic or potentially even abusive.

After that, she says, “I haven’t seen my mother in a long, long time.”

Over the years, many reports of Lana’s strange relationship with her mother have come to the surface, including the time Lana said, “My father never stepped in when his wife would rage at me, so I ended up awkward, but sweet,” in her 2021 song Wildflower Wildfire.

That line always stood out to me because Lana didn’t even call her mother her mother in that line. She called her his father’s wife, which created a lot of energetic distance between her and her mother.

So in A&W, when she says, “I haven’t seen my mother in a long, long time,” it’s as if she’s describing the emotional abandonment she feels toward her mother and the disdain she feels for being put in a position to navigate life as a woman without a soft, loving, and accepting mother figure.

What are your thoughts on this song by Lana? Is A&W one your faves by her as of now? Let us know in the comment section below.