Today, FACT magazine posted a quote from an interview Lana Del Rey did with Vogue UK saying:
“I don’t think I’ll write another record”, claims Del Rey. “What would I say? I feel like everything I wanted to say, I’ve said already.”
The recently Essential-ed singer also revealed that, like Adele, the majority of Born to Die’s songs were inspired by a specific break-up. “Even though I can’t be with that person any more, I still want to honour those memories. I felt like falling in love changed me, neurologically, and the record is about being faithful in my mind to the memory of a particular person.”
When pressed on the issue of who the mystery man was, Del Rey simply stated that “I’m in contact with his mother. He’s somewhere else but he’s, um, around.”
This is super crazy for multiple reasons. The main one being that the bad boy that Del Rey spent over half her album singing about is supposedly real and not a mishmash of a bunch of different dangerous dude signifiers or a cartoon version of Dark Fonzie that she met in her wild days. This is also super crazy because Del Rey, at 25, is claiming that she’s done. I can’t tell if this is because she genuinely believes she has nothing more to say, has been completely scared off by people’s reactions to her, or is going to use this quote to create an aura of mystique around her for like five years before releasing a long-rumored second album. Ultimately though, the idea that any single artist has nothing more to say at any age, let alone 25, is a huge let down. Like, really? That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? The peak of your understanding of life and emotions already happened and you already conveyed that to the listening public in the best way possible? Your broken heart is whole now? You know what love isn’t? Born to Die is not a perfect album. That would be weird. What it is, is a decent debut with some rough missteps. To not try again would mean that getting it wrong the first time is the ultimate death knell, instead of just a stumbling block right out of the gate. Lana Del Rey, don’t give up, you only just got an SNL parody.
Publicity, brother. It’s publicity at its finest. She’s stoking the fire for future albums (like you hypothesized), if anything.
Yeah I think in 18 months we will see a new Lana Del Ray album… besides didn’t she just sign to a major record deal… what major label only lets you release one album and then your done… yeah not happening… she is a media wh–re and she will continue making music oh and did she just compare her self to Adele? Really?
@Reuben: The Adele comparison comes from the website that the story is from.
GOOD JOB SHS
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I think her decision carries some weight. There is no rule as to how long a musician/singer has to continue their craft PUBLICLY. She had an idea, shared with her audience, now she is comfortable with moving on to other things. Maybe there will be other singles or albums in the future but who cares. I’m a little clouded in the business of publicity and so forth but I still find singers who stay true to the actual art of music refreshing.
She may be stoking the fires of buzz.., but I still look forward to her contributions. It is hard when you are in the limelight, and even the slightest missay can be used against you.
Maybe we are looking at this from the wrong angle. Lana claims to be a “pop” singer. It’s not always that pop singers are also pop singer/songwriters (with some exceptions, see: Swift, Taylor). Maybe what she meant is that she will not write HER OWN record but instead sing songs that someone else writes. It happens a lot. Some person who works for a record company writes and composes songs that someone else sings and makes money off of and then they make money too but just behind the curtain.
Maybe I am giving LDR the benefit of the doubt but I kind of have the same questions Sam does. Could she have possibly said all she wants to say in just one record? Has she stopped experiencing things? Is she going to be the flash in the pan that everyone thinks she already is? Either way it’ll be interesting to see how it all turns out with Lana Del Rey. She’s got some supporters and distractors which is excatly what you need to be a successful pop star.
@A.T.
*detractors not DIStractors. Trying to get a comment off before the boss comes in.
Becareful what you wish for Lana.
I don’t understand why people keep running with this quote – she said she may not “WRITE” another album – she has not said she will not RECORD another album. Writing is very hard for most people, and this album, as more comes out about it, was a very personal portrait for her, possibly a painful one – she’s just putting it out there that she probably doesn’t have another album in her right now. That does not, by any stretch, mean that she is DONE recording albums!
@Bob: That’s definitely a possibility as well, but I think my questions still stand. I think, if you’re an artist shooting for a pop music career, it’s not a bad idea to experiment with different songwriters—but the way the quote was phrased makes it seem like she’s giving up. Even if she puts out an album a year for the next five years and every song is written by someone else, the end result feels the same for me. Del Rey made what she feels is a singular personal statement, and to not even attempt to follow up on that in her own words feels like a cop out. A reasonable cop out to make, but one that she might be turning to a bit too early.
Shel crash her lambo coked out and need to pay for the lawyer fees of two small Indonesian def children’s vehicular murder. But dam those lips.
Take her at face value: she’s got nothing worth saying. I could’ve saved you some time with that one right after hearing “born to die”. Stop stoking a fire that isn’t burning.