Lust for Life recalls the gloomy pop laid down by the Walker Brothers in their mid-Sixties heyday, only with trap-era touches, allusions to modern problems and a penchant for songs that drag on just a little too long. It’s dense yet spacious, and there are surprising flourishes buried within: “When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing,” on which Del Rey worries about the fate of the country, buries bachata guitars in its anxious haze.

For much of the record, Del Rey sounds at her most contented when she’s indulging nostalgic impulses, whether her own or borrowed. Allusions to her previous records dot the lyrics; the spacey, surprisingly touching “Heroin” is littered with references to Charles Manson and Mötley Crüe. The hiccuping “Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind” portrays being in the moment as an impossible dream, with the watercolor portraits of the distant past as an ideal to match. From it’s title on down, “Tomorrow Never Came” reaches for the “Beatles-esque” tag, and it largely succeeds: Sean Ono Lennon produced the track, performed the “Across the Universe”-echoing instrumental and provides a vocal track that brings to mind his dad’s shaggier outings.

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Stevie Nicks drops by for the mournful “Beautiful People, Beautiful Problems,” which could be a thesis statement for Del Rey’s career up to this point. The flashy cameos by A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti on the spiky “Summer Bummer” and the fever-dreamy “Groupie Love” seem to underscore this point – their verses aren’t in dialogue with their host as much as they are using her as a platform for self-promotion. (At least the Weeknd sounds intrigued by the idea of being in Del Rey’s orbit on the glittering, glacial title track)

The implied wink of the Del Rey-Nicks duet makes one wonder how much of the younger singer’s bummer quotient is rooted in a camp impulse: Is it meant to be self-serious like Valley of the Dolls, or is she implicit in the ridiculousness, like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls? Del Rey’s po-faced delivery and the lush arrangements suggest the former, but moments like the moaned “why-why-why-why-why-whyyyy” on “Tomorrow Never Came” and songs like the preening, awkwardly slang-stuffed “In My Feelings” hint at a slowly blooming desert flower of self-awareness.

The sweeping, girl-group-echoing closer “Get Free” might be a clue. A “modern manifesto,” it outlines her planned move perhaps away from gloom, or at least “out of the black, [and] into the blue.” Whether that “blue” is a cloudless California sky or a place defined by sadness is what she’s going to figure out: “I never really noticed that I had to decide/To play someone’s game or live my own life/And now I do/I wanna move,” she declares on one verse. It’s an optimistic ending for a singer whose career has been defined by discomfort, and for an album that, at times, can get lost in its own mythology.

"Lust for Life" is the second single by San Francisco indie rock group, Girls, released on September 9, 2009. The song is a single from their debut album, titled Album.

Critical reception[edit]

Pitchfork gave the song the title of "Best New Music" with writer Ryan Dombal says the song has "baldly aspirational lyrics" and calls it "the background to chasing good times". Samuel Tolzmann of WRMC-FM wrote "Lust for Life", a "basically perfect 2009 beach-bum anthem". Spin named "Lust for Life"

4 on their list of "20 Best Summer Songs of 2009". DIY Magazine called the track, "possibly one of the most perfect indie anthems of the last decade".

Joe Colly of Pitchfork reviewed "Life in San Francisco", calling it a "simple, sunny ode to the group's beloved homebase", and says there's an "undercurrent of sadness to the track" but also noting it is not as "emotionally rich as most of Girls' material".

Music video[edit]

The music video was released on August 10, 2009 and was directed by Aaron Brown; who also directed music videos for "Hellhole Ratrace" and "Morning Light".

For those who haven’t paid attention to Del Rey’s career since its first flourish – the sighing, sorrow-drenched Video Games – the Californian artist’s music has remained locked within a small range of emotions, most of which revolve around awful men (often elderly bikers or gangsters) doing awful things and Del Rey remaining belligerently in love with them. However, the world has changed considerably since 2015’s Honeymoon, and, much like Katy Perry’s ambition to make “purposeful pop”, Del Rey has decided to puncture her long-running narrative and reflect the troubled times we are in.

Here, her political approach is rooted in escapism. Del Rey’s longtime producer Rick Nowels recently declared When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing a “masterpiece” for its lyrical message about finding pleasure in the Trump era. Meanwhile, Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind is a sedated trap track; one that attracted derision for its title, given that Del Rey is the patron saint of wearing a flower garland at a celebrity-filled festival. It is a sweetly innocent song about observing an audience of young girls dressed just like her, and praying for their safety amid a period of global terror.

The triumphant God Bless America was written before the Women’s Marches of earlier this year and is a response to the Republicans’ attack on women’s rights – a relief for parents who’ve fretted over their children’s obsession with a singer who has a habit of romanticising toxic relationships. (Del Rey recently admitted that she no longer sings the Crystals-sampling lyric, “He hit me and it felt like a kiss” from her song Ultraviolence.) You can hear the pleasure in Del Rey’s vocals on Beautiful People Beautiful Problems, a piano ballad she shares with Stevie Nicks, which is comparable to Harry Styles’s vague, state-of-the-nation balladry.

But, for every socially conscious sentiment, she paints another pastel coloured paradise full of feted actors (“I’m flying to the moon again / Dreaming about heroin”), doe-eyed infatuation, and 50s girl-group appreciation (“My boyfriend’s back ... and he’s cooler than ever”). Groupie Love is spoken from the perspective of a devoted fan and features quintessentially Del Rey-like lines such as: “This is my life, you by my side / Key lime and perfume and festivals.” 13 Beaches is inexplicably about the time Del Rey travelled to 13 beaches before she found one with nobody on it. It’s surface-level stuff, but perhaps there’s a deeper message in there somewhere: the overwhelm of fame? Overpopulation? Climate change?

Still, Del Rey’s music has always been more about a feeling than an explicit lyrical message. This album features some of the most sophisticated production and shifting of moods from her four-album career. A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti feature on the lazy rap track Summer Bummer, its eerie production and futuristic melancholy sounding closer to a track from Frank Ocean’s Blonde than her usual 50s and 60s enthralled shtick. The Beatles-referencing Tomorrow Never Came features vocals by Sean Lennon. It’s a strange, melodic reworking of the Beatles’ Something, a vintage glow that rubs up against the sleek contemporary-sounding soundscapes elsewhere. The Chris Isaak school of monochrome melancholy echoes around icy production. The old and new entwine throughout.

While many of the song titles and clumsy references may have a discerning music fan scoffing at Del Rey’s predictability, there remains an admirably unflinching quality to this record (even if it is five tracks too long). She has evolved elements of her once disturbing narrative, and her ardent fanbase will detect clear leaps made since her debut. But, in the current climate of laborious genre-hopping and guest vocals on throwaway chart tracks, Del Rey has remained a mystery. She is consistent in her aesthetic, adding zeitgeisty elements to her sound without being dictated by them. And for that reason she exists in a lonesome, luxurious league of her own. It’s not why she’s smiling, but it should be.

Does Lana Del Rey have a kid?

The 38-year-old singer and famed Waffle House “employee” told The Sunday Times she doesn't have kids because there is “more to explore” in her life. “That's why God didn't give me children yet,” she said. “…I know people who've tested every water.

Is Lust for Life about Peg Entwistle?

Analyzing the lyrics, Chris Mench of Genius commented that Lana seems to reference the infamous suicide of Peg Entwistle, who killed herself by jumping off the "H" of the Hollywood sign in September 1932, at the age of 24.

How rich is Lana Del Rey?

As of 2023, the acclaimed singer is estimated to be worth a staggering $30 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Del Rey's journey to stardom was not an overnight success. Born in New York City in 1985, she began her music career in 2005, performing in clubs under various names.

Why Lana Del Rey Waffle House?

Why was Lana Del Rey working at Waffle House? According to the star, a casual morning visit to the diner chain turned into an hours-long hangout and snowballed into a viral moment. “We were on our third hour, and the servers asked, 'Do you guys want shirts? '” Del Rey recounted to the Hollywood Reporter.