Project Mentor: Lana Del Rey
By far, my all-time top inspirator is Lana Del Rey, who I discovered when I was in high school. I feel an artistic connection to her through her aesthetics, writing, and themes. I think it is pretty special to have someone who is sort of a best friend in your head because then you never really feel alone in your art; you always have an artist saint to communicate with. On a level of poetry and lyrics, I think she is particularly masterful in terms of devices, especially her imagery and iconography. Her navigation of rhyme as well, I find particularly beautiful.
"Likes to watch me in the glass room, bathroom
Chateau Marmont
Slipping on my red dress, putting on my make up
Glass film, perfume, cognac, lilac
Fumes, says it feels like heaven to him"
from "Off to the Races" on Born to Die
"Elvis is my daddy, Marilyn's my mother
Jesus is my bestest friendWe don't need nobody, 'cause we got each other
Or at least I pretend"
from "Body Electric" on Born to Die: The Paradise Edition
"Blue hydrangea, cold cash divine
Cashmere, cologne and white sunshine
Red racing cars, sunset and vine
The kids were young and pretty
Where have you been?
Where did you go?
Those summer nights seem long ago
And so is the girl you used to call
The queen of New York City"
Cashmere, cologne and white sunshine
Red racing cars, sunset and vine
The kids were young and pretty
Where have you been?
Where did you go?
Those summer nights seem long ago
And so is the girl you used to call
The queen of New York City"
from "Old Money" on Ultraviolence
"Carry me home, got my blue nail polish on
It's my favorite color and my favorite tone of song"
from "The Blackest Day" on Honeymoon
"Baby, I need this
White lines and black beaches
White lies and black beaches
And blood red sangrias"
"Carry me home, got my blue nail polish on
It's my favorite color and my favorite tone of song"
from "The Blackest Day" on Honeymoon
"Baby, I need this
White lines and black beaches
White lies and black beaches
And blood red sangrias"
from "Summer Bummer" on Lust for Life
Her use of concrete images texture the lyrics and make them vivid, tangible, cinematic, narrative, and more intriguing. Her rhyme and other sonic devices can become complicated which also provides lyrical texture, dimension, and extra meaning. I have found inspiration in this when crafting my own poems because I am obsessed with sonic devices like rhyme.
__________
"I think the album was called Ultraviolence before I even had the songs. That’s because I just really love words. I’m kind of inspired by just a one-word title. For this one, I had a motif of hydrangeas in mind. Mainly because these flowers I love are in shades of blue and violet, and when I was talking to [producer] Dan [Auerbach of the Black Keys] about inspirations and color tones, this sort of high violet vibration was on my mind. Maybe because blue is connected with jazz and also sorrow."
- Lana Del Rey, in interview with Radio.com
__________
This synesthetic notion of thinking about songs in certain colors or images is really beautiful to me, and I think this type of thinking is a central strength of poetry: describing the world and experiences in a way that can be at once using every sense (sight, sound, taste, touch, and scent). I think poetry lends itself to a sort of hypersense that Lana is getting at here and that I really love.
Overall, I am inspired by these poetic, lyrical aspects of her work.
Her use of concrete images texture the lyrics and make them vivid, tangible, cinematic, narrative, and more intriguing. Her rhyme and other sonic devices can become complicated which also provides lyrical texture, dimension, and extra meaning. I have found inspiration in this when crafting my own poems because I am obsessed with sonic devices like rhyme.
__________
"I think the album was called Ultraviolence before I even had the songs. That’s because I just really love words. I’m kind of inspired by just a one-word title. For this one, I had a motif of hydrangeas in mind. Mainly because these flowers I love are in shades of blue and violet, and when I was talking to [producer] Dan [Auerbach of the Black Keys] about inspirations and color tones, this sort of high violet vibration was on my mind. Maybe because blue is connected with jazz and also sorrow."
- Lana Del Rey, in interview with Radio.com
__________
This synesthetic notion of thinking about songs in certain colors or images is really beautiful to me, and I think this type of thinking is a central strength of poetry: describing the world and experiences in a way that can be at once using every sense (sight, sound, taste, touch, and scent). I think poetry lends itself to a sort of hypersense that Lana is getting at here and that I really love.
Overall, I am inspired by these poetic, lyrical aspects of her work.
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