Mixtapemotions

"Without You" by Lana Del Rey, Thursday, May 19, 2022 (Trigger Warning: Discussion of Domestic Abuse)

In Lana Del Rey‘s first interview with Zane Lowe, she talked about her inspiration for the 2012 record, Born to Die. She talks about the collaboration between her, hip-hop producer Emile Haynie, and string arranger Larry Gold to create an album that sounds classic and fresh. Although Del Rey has moved away from the Brooklyn-style hip-hop beats in albums after Born to Die, the album still feels relevant ten years later. In fact, when Pitchfork re-examined the record last year, the review bumped the score from 5.5 to 7.8. While pop cynics may argue that music has gotten worse rather than being misunderstood at the time, the young adult escapism, the post-modern life she sings about makes more sense among the younger artists Del Rey influenced such as Lorde and Billie Eilish. 

I EVEN THINK I FOUND GOD. “Without You” appears as the thirteenth track on the Target Bonus Tracks edition of Born to Die. The album’s standard edition ends with “This Is What Makes Us Girls,” a semi-autobiographical song about when Del Rey was sent off to boarding school to straighten up. Will all of the songs of Born to Die would eventually find a home on streaming services, Del Rey’s fandom started at the tail end of physical releases. Del Rey’s 2012 pop star persona was just gimmicky enough to thrust the singer into a cult level of fandom. While the indie scene obsesses over authenticity, Del Rey offers a carefully cultivated, manufactured image. Appearing on the scene like a highly-vetted industry plant, as people said of pop stars like Britney Spears, and Lana Del Rey in 2012 was a satire of what a pop star is. But this satire is more in the vein that some critics call The Great Gatsby a satire of the roaring ’20s. Del Rey’s use of satire is contemporary and often over-the-top. In this satirical world, she shows us that alcohol, drugs, sex, and a search for a deeper meaning link us to our grandparents’ time. 

LIVED ON THE DARK SIDE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM. Today’s song, “Without You,” is a B-side from Born to Die, and if it were cut, most of the themes and motifs exist in the album without this additional chapter. But Born to Die is far from a cohesive concept record or a rock opera. What “Without You” does after “This Is What Makes Us Girls” reflects on the themes presented in Born to Die. Del Rey has spent the whole album talking about the “bad man” she falls in love with. He’s a type of unhealthy, often sexist, sometimes violent, virile man who makes a girl like Del Rey weak in the knees. This is one major point of contention with the singer-songwriter as many have called her music anti-feminist, glamorizing abusive relationships. The singer also has a slew of controversial statements from social media and interviews. In “Without You,” Del Rey also sings about being fragile “like a china doll.” She finds her worth through him and by being so beautiful that she is adored by “the lights of the camera” where she even thinks she “found God.” The speaker has become part of the old-time glitterati. The line that sticks out the most to me, though, is the commentary about “the dark side of the American Dream.” Del Rey was clearly influenced by American literature when novelists such as F. Scott Fitzgerald set out to write the definitive American novel and ultimately solidified American literature. What the American novel strives for is to define what the American Dream is. Fitzgerald shows that even with all of the wealth that Jay Gatsby acquires, he can’t have the one thing that he wants. And while not all Americans want a brutish hunk, as listeners may think that’s all that Del Rey wants, I can’t help but think that the superficial glamour of Del Rey’s lyrics which harken back to A Street Car Named Desire’s toxic masculinity and strict ’50s-gender roles is a Stepford Wives or Twilight Zone level of satire. But I could be wrong.