“If You Lie Down With Me” was originally written for her album Ultraviolence about her relationship with then-boyfriend Barrie James O'Neill.
She counters and acknowledges this through a taunting song about the only thing fitting is a single article of clothing. She’s also likely addressing the multitude of comments made on her body as social media has torn her outward appearance apart in recent months. Because of this, the interlude gives a more badass edge to the album’s otherwise softer tune, reminding us of the duality of Del Rey.įollowing the interlude, “Black Bathing Suit” harks back to the term “bad girls” from her album Born To Die, showing her growth by poking fun at this past persona. Fully instrumental, “Interlude-The Trio'', intertwines “Il Triello” by Ennio Morricone with trap beats that nods to the hip-hop influence Del Rey often draws inspiration from in her music. This stream of consciousness is broken by the album’s interlude. She essentially was brought down for many of the same ideas and storylines in her early works that had originally gained her popularity. “They built me up three-hundred feet tall just to tear me down”, a line from the song addressing her staunt following juxtapositions those trying to “cancel” her for years since her career took off. Although not her hometown, she adopted Los Angeles after her rise to fame in 2012. The “thesis” of the song can be seen through the lines “Most men don’t want a woman with a legacy, it’s of age” depicting how relationships are extraneously complicated when fame is a factor.įinally, Arcadia is an ode to LA of sorts. The title track, “Blue Banisters”, features subtle instrumentals that give room for Del Rey’s vocals to shine as she tells the story of her most recent ex-lover. “Text Book” tackles her difficult relationship with her parents and how fame shifted her life and how she was perceived drastically through the line “do you think if I go blonde, we could get our old love back?” alluding to her old alias, Lizzy Grant, and how differently she was treated back then.
The first three songs were all originally released prior to the full album, and because of the focus on the lyrics being more talk-based than rhythmic, they can be seen as somewhat of a stream of consciousness. Though lines like “Push me out of the black and into the blue” from her song “Get Free” and “Paint me happy in blue” from her song “Venice B*tch”, Del Rey seems to see blue as a color for new beginnings, so it’s fitting that an album like this features the color in its title.Īn album that encapsulates one of an artist’s most noteworthy symbols only makes sense to be as raw and emotive as Blue Banisters, but to truly understand the depth of how sincere Blue Banisters is, let's take a deeper look into the songs that makeup the album. She has taken a color that has long been associated with sorrow and fragility and twisted it throughout the years into something flush with aspiration and optimism.
Symbolism is persistent throughout Del Rey’s music one of the most prominent forms coming from her affinity for the color blue.
This angle positions these 15 tracks apart from her past works as they give an intimate sense of the struggles Del Rey has faced while unveiling exactly how she has grown in the process. She pairs her unmatched lyricism with the raw stories and emotions that culminated into her being. Lana Del Rey’s latest studio album, Blue Banisters, delves into the complexities of her life and offers her listeners a real look into who she is, far exceeding what she’s revealed to us for so many years.īeing in the light since 2012, a mass of misconstrued aesthetics, lack of transparency, and the brutality of social media culture had left the 36 year-old artist, Lana Del Rey, separated from those who support her and lacking a narrative for exactly who she is.ĭel Rey’s eighth studio album Blue Banisters bridges the gap that so many had been flailing to fill.