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Lana Del Rey · S4 E3
Terrence Loves You
A Bowie tribute hidden inside a breakup song
Track 3 of Honeymoon opens with a piano and a whispered vocal, and for the first four minutes it sounds like a quiet breakup song. Then Lana sings six words borrowed from David Bowie, and the whole thing cracks wide open.
"Freak" ft. Father John Misty (Lana Del Rey, 2016). An eleven-minute short film set in a psychedelic commune, directed by Lana herself. Both "Freak" and "Terrence Loves You" come from the same album, but they're opposite poles of Honeymoon: one is spectacle, the other is solitude.
The Hidden Masterpiece
Most albums have an obvious centerpiece, the track that gets the video and the single push. On Honeymoon, that went to "High by the Beach." But ask any Lana fan which Honeymoon track keeps them up at night, and the answer is almost always track 3: a quiet, devastating breakup song that barely raises its voice.
Sources
NME
Pitchfork
“She is a one of a kind artist and keeps growing. She's such a natural writer and singer and has a real vision for who she is and what she wants to put out into the world.”
— Rick Nowels, producer, SongwriterUniverse, 2015
Freak ft. Father John Misty, Lana Del Rey (2016)
"Freak" runs over five minutes, with Father John Misty's voice orbiting Lana's over reverb-drenched guitars and a trip-hop pulse. The production is deliberately woozy, as if the entire song is being heard through haze. Listen for how the two voices never compete but circle each other like a slow dance. Lana directed the eleven-minute video herself, staging a psychedelic baptism in the California desert.
Sources
Pitchfork
Rolling Stone
TAP TO REVEAL: What happens when you listen closely to the bridge of 'Terrence Loves You'?
The Accidental Elegy
David Bowie dies on January 10, 2016, four months after Honeymoon's release. Overnight, "Terrence Loves You" transforms from a breakup song into an accidental tribute. Fans start sharing the track as a Bowie elegy, and Lana's private heartbreak becomes public mourning.
Sources
Rolling Stone
The Guardian
Billboard
Terrence Loves You: The Details
Religion, Lana Del Rey
From Honeymoon (2015). If "Terrence Loves You" is about losing someone, "Religion" is about worshipping someone who's still here. Lana sings about love as a spiritual practice over orchestral swells that feel like entering a cathedral. Two songs, two sides of the same devotion.
Religion, Lana Del Rey (2015)
"You're my religion" she sings, and the lyrics treat love with the same reverence that hymns treat God. It's the most nakedly sincere track on an album full of sincerity, and it proves that Lana's emotional range on Honeymoon goes far beyond sadness.
In which year was David Bowie's "Space Oddity," the song Lana references in "Terrence Loves You," originally released?
"Terrence Loves You" proves Lana can break your heart with nothing but a piano and a whisper. But she's also been teaching herself to direct films. Next: the story behind Tropico, the Honeymoon video, and the moment Lana decides the camera matters as much as the microphone.
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