Lana Del Rey – “Venice Bitch” Video
One of the best songs from last week was Lana Del Rey’s new Jack Antonoff-produced track “Mariners Apartment Complex.” It was a soft, orchestral trip back to the stylings of Born To Die, the dramatics that put her on the map.
Yesterday, Del Rey teased another Antonoff-produced single, “Venice Bitch,” and today we hear the full song, which turns out to be a 10-minute epic. She shared the song today on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show. Its lyrics, again, capture the classic tongue-in-cheek, Tumblr-core Lana with lyrics like “Fresh out of fucks forever” and “Ice cream, ice queen, I dream of jeans and leather” over a quiet guitar.
Lana tells Lowe:
I played it for my managers and I was like, “Yeah, I think this is the single I want to put out.” And they were like, “It’s 10 minutes long. Are you kidding me? It’s called ‘Venice Bitch.'” Like, “Why do you do this to us? Can you make a three minute normal pop song?” I was like, “Well, end of summer, some people just wanna drive around for 10 minutes get lost in some electric guitar.”
Del Rey also says her forthcoming album will be called Norman Fucking Rockwell:
Working with Jack, I was in a little bit of a lighter mood because he was so funny. So the title track is called “Norman Fucking Rockwell” and it’s kind of about this guy who is such a genius artist but he thinks he’s the shit and he knows it and he like won’t shut up talking about it. So often I ended up with these creative types or whatever, and you know, they just go on and on about themselves, and I’m like, “Yeah, yeah.” But there’s a little bit of merit to it also. They are so good. I just like the title track so much that I was like, “OK, I definitely want the record to also be called that.”
In the song “Venice Bitch” there’s like another little reference to Norman Rockwell, which didn’t have to be in there. I don’t even remember if I threw it in there intentionally just to pop that message in a little further. I can’t even remember what I was thinking, but I think when I was writing this song, it was a more happy take on love and it was just sort of about like, “I tour, you write. We make it work.” And also you know I love having painter references because I think sometimes when you’re writing you’re sort of trying to paint these ideas into existence, because I’m very visual too. So yeah, I don’t know. I know it’s a crazy title, but that’s just the title of the record.
Additionally, during the interview she said she’s getting her pilot’s license (37 hours to go!) and learning to sail. She hopes to release a collection of poetry and short stories with the working title Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass. It’s a very busy time to be Lana Del Rey.
Watch the “Venice Bitch” video and listen to the Zane Lowe interview below.
Norman Fucking Rockwell is out in 2019 on Interscope.