New Lana Del Rey Song Channels Sylvia Plath

Lana gives a glimpse of mental health struggles on this stripped down track.

Indie pop queen Lana Del Rey has released a new song following a week-long game of Instagram tease. After posting a clip of the song last week, the queen of emotional detachment ruthlessly deleted it, before later announcing that her new album, Norman Fucking Rockwell, is finished and set to drop March 29.

The new song, breathlessly titled “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing For a Woman Like Me to Have, But I Have It” is the second single off the forthcoming album to be released, following the 9-minute psychedelic-pop odyssey “Venice Bitch.” 

“Hope” (we’re just gonna call it that for short) is a slight departure from the folky twang of “Venice Bitch,” featuring a simple piano melody and minimal production—allowing her poetic-as-ever lyrics to shine. They paint a surprisingly raw picture of the notoriously aloof singer’s struggles, alluding to a struggle with mental health that may continue to haunt her. 

She sings, “Don’t ask if I’m happy, you know that I’m not/But at best I can say I’m not sad, except hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have/Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman with my past.” Del Rey also references Sylvia Plath, the seminal 20th-century poet who died by suicide and one of the singer’s key influences.

It’s not the first echo of Plath we’ve heard from Del Rey; she’s reportedly working on a book of poems, tentatively titled Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass. While her poetic debut has no set release date, fans will surely find plenty more stoner-Plath lyricism on Norman Fucking Rockwell when it hits this spring.

LANA DEL REY PHOTOGRAPHED BY KARIM SALDI FOR V75
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