While it’s been consistently ranked last by fans, Lust for Life (2017) has been my favorite Lana Del Rey album for years. With standout features, incredible album cohesion, and an overall curated aesthetic, I am Lust for Life’s biggest defender.
Opening the album with “Love” sets the tone for what’s to come. Lana always knows how to use her lyrics to create a specific vibe while also getting her message across. The chorus of “Love” is dreamy, with Lana’s vocalization and humming creating a beautiful rhythm. As she says herself, “it’s enough just to make me go crazy.”
The following transition into the title track, featuring The Weeknd, initiates the album’s inclusion of elements from the trap and R&B genres. Still, “Lust for Life” furthers the dream-like vocalizations from “Love,” with Lana and The Weeknd’s voices complementing each other perfectly.
Her characteristic references to California and the Hollywood sign also add to the Coachella aesthetic as seen in the album’s cover and music videos, including the flowers in her hair and flowy white dress.
With “13 Beaches,” Lana’s typical melancholia enters. Following the romanticized view of Hollywood in the previous song, here Lana details her struggles with fame and the paparazzi. She wants to escape back to “something real” —a less curated version of herself and her life.
The trap influence in the album becomes even more apparent as we transition into the song “Cherry.” The only song from Lust for Life that remains on her current setlists, “Cherry” features more typical pop rhythms and receives a lot of attention on TikTok.
So did the next track, “White Mustang,” with its multidimensional lyrics and interpretations making it popular on social media. While these two songs aren’t my personal favorites, I feel that their additions to the album are calculated and necessary.
My favorite songs follow soon after. I’ve especially been obsessed with “Summer Bummer,” “Groupie Love,” and “In My Feelings” for years (although my top genre is rap, so maybe this is a bit biased). A$AP Rocky features on the first two songs, a collaboration that was long-anticipated following his appearance in Lana’s “National Anthem” music video. Lana and Rocky have incredible chemistry and are flirtatious in nature, making the duo unrivaled among all her other features. Their voices overlay one another in the choruses, a combination that I can’t help but love!
Playboi Carti plays a smaller role in “Summer Bummer,” too. And while “In My Feelings” is less blatantly influenced by trap, those elements are still very present and are complemented by the song’s themes. Specifically, Lana delves into the struggles of her relationship with G-Eazy, portraying their relationship as an unhealthy habit she struggles to escape.
The next three tracks, “Coachella – Woodstock In My Mind,” “God Bless America – And All The Beautiful Women In It,” and “When the World Was At War We Kept Dancing,” are grouped together in my mind. Beyond their extensive titles, they’ve been the butt of many jokes as the songs shift to wider issues beyond Lana’s romantic life. She expresses fear for future generations, desires for freedom, and frustration with others’ apathy and lack of political inclinations.
“Beautiful People Beautiful Problems” and “Tomorrow Never Came” introduce two iconic features: Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Sean Ono Lennon, son of The Beatles’ John Lennon and Yoko Ono, respectively. These songs capture the jubilance of spring and summer, and the feeling of running carefree in a field of flowers. These songs are on repeat when the weather gets warmer.
Finally, we fall back into melancholia one last time in this album. “Heroin” highlights Lana’s struggles with drugs, a usual theme of her music. However, heroin is also used as a metaphor for fame, tying back into the themes of “13 Beaches.”
“Change,” the slowest song on the album, speaks to the progression of maturity Lana experienced while writing the album. While referencing back to the typical themes of her earlier albums, Lana speaks on them with a new perspective and places herself into the realm of modern pop, alternative, and hip hop.
At last, we end with “Get Free,” a song that I believe characterizes the entire album. Lana calls back to her struggles with mental health, describing how she aims to finally escape her destructive path. The track concludes with a minute of peace with sounds of the ocean, allowing the listener to reflect on the entire album.
As a whole, Lust for Life explores Lana’s usual themes from a new, more mature perspective. Its aesthetic is ironically curated, and I love it.
That’s why this album never escapes my rotation!
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