Video will appear as you scroll through the story
Lana Del Rey · S4 E1
High by the Beach
A pop single, a self-directed video, and the first time she shoots down a helicopter
July 2015. Lana Del Rey has spent months recording the jazziest, slowest, most uncommercial album of her career, and for the lead single, she picks the one track that sounds like a pop song and shoots down a paparazzi helicopter with a rocket launcher in the video.
"Honeymoon" (Lana Del Rey, 2015). Lana directed this one herself: vintage film grain, a convertible drifting through empty streets, and a woman who looks like she's the last person alive and doesn't mind. This is the actual sound of the album that "High by the Beach" was supposed to introduce.
The Bait and Switch
"High by the Beach" is the most accessible track on Honeymoon, which is exactly why Lana chose it as the lead single. It has a synth-pop pulse, a hook that sticks on first listen, and a music video where she literally shoots down a helicopter with a rocket launcher. But the rest of the album sounds nothing like it. Critics and fans who bought in expecting more pop got 65 minutes of jazz chords and trip-hop instead.
Sources
Billboard
Pitchfork
The Guardian
“At the very beginning of the Honeymoon record she said: 'I want to make a jazz album.' This turned into songs like 'Honeymoon' and 'Terrence Loves You.'”
— Rick Nowels, producer, Sound on Sound
Honeymoon, Lana Del Rey (2015)
The title track opens with a string arrangement that sounds like it was lifted from a Fellini film. Lana's voice floats above it, unhurried, barely above a whisper in places. Rick Nowels built the song around a descending chord progression that never fully resolves, creating a feeling of permanent, beautiful suspension. Listen for the way the strings swell and retreat like breathing, and how the vocal doubles create an almost ghostly echo of herself.
Sources
Pitchfork
Stereogum
TAP TO REVEAL: What classic literary text is hidden on Honeymoon?
Sixty-Five Minutes
Honeymoon runs nearly 65 minutes across 14 tracks, her longest album by far. She includes a cover of Nina Simone's 1964 classic "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," placing herself in a lineage of torch singers and jazz vocalists that most pop artists wouldn't dare claim. In a streaming era where albums keep getting shorter to game playlist algorithms, Lana makes one that demands you clear your entire evening.
Sources
Rolling Stone
The Guardian
Honeymoon by the Numbers
God Knows I Tried, Lana Del Rey
From Honeymoon (2015). Over swelling strings and a gospel-tinged melody, Lana sings like she's confessing to someone who already forgave her. The song captures the core feeling of the entire album: exhaustion that's somehow beautiful, surrender that feels like freedom. After the pop facade of "High by the Beach," this is the real Honeymoon.
God Knows I Tried, Lana Del Rey (2015)
"I can see the whole city from here" she sings, looking down from a height that feels earned after three albums of proving everyone wrong. The lyrics read like a prayer from someone who stopped asking for permission and started forgiving herself instead.
Which producer, known for co-writing Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is a Place on Earth," produced most of Honeymoon?
The pop single fooled everyone into expecting one kind of album. Next: 65 minutes of jazz, trip-hop, and orchestral strings, a Pitchfork about-face, and the moment Lana stops caring whether anyone calls it commercial.
0 XP earned this session