I’ve just covered Lana on my podcast! ✨✨✨ My episode with @FernStone goes down a surprising (and political) rabbit hole 👀listen to the episode here: linktr.ee/CriminallyUnderratedPod 🥰

JESUS IF ONLY I COULD HEAR THIS ALBUM AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY FIRST BOYFRIENDS CONVERTIBLE AHHHHHHHHH

Fucked my Way Up to the Top is satirical lol it’s basically Lana giving the middle finger to the people who said her talent didn’t get her where she is

Favorite Lana album ever. No other album of hers has matched the energy or moodiness in my opinion. Norman Fucking Rockwell is my second fav for different reasons. But this sad album is just a whole level of artistry.

Just doesn't feel like a complete reaction without Black Beauty, Guns n Roses and Florida Kilos.

Alot of people think she was romanticizing abuse with ultraviolence. But if there's one thing I've learned from domestic abuse survivors, a lot of them will somehow at some point justify the abuse or think they deserve it. And I think lana was just showing how much domestic abuse can mess up the victims head.

The term "ultraviolence" comes from the book A Clockwork Orange where the ultimate form of violence is violence to oneself. I think Lana actually is exploring a few ways she or people do that to themselves (consciously or otherwise) - by being in relationships with abusive people, through substance abuse, through working for "money power glory", through being the "other woman", etc.

a lot of lana's music should be viewed from the perspective of a broken woman. A woman who doesn't know how to be loved. It kinda explains a lot of her early music. Also fun fact, there's a theory that Shades of Cool is a metaphor for the life of Elvis from the perspective of his wife. The music video also is connected to the Born to Die Mv

THE DELUX TRACKS ARE SO WORTH LISTENING TO BLACK BEAUTY IS MY FAVORITE

Ultraviolence deserved 6 Grammys at least. 🖤

With more and more listens, I’ve realized how sarcastic this album is. This album came after the controversy of the SNL live performance and she’s taking a jab at critics, especially with every song being in one take. Songs like Brooklyn baby, money power glory, and fucked my way up to the top are main examples, the critics believed she couldn’t really sing so THEREFORE she must be f*cking a producer in order to be successful !! And same thing with Money power glory is about critics saying that she is just money hungry when she is very much the most down to earth artist I’ve come across :)

pretty when u cry is in your playlist so u have  passed this exam.

Fun facts:

-pretty when you cry was freestyled and recorded in one take
-brooklyn baby was supposed to feature Lou Reed but he died right before lana flew in to meet him
-the album cover inspiration was going for the beginning of a horror film

personally i think honeymoon is her darkest album its just not recognized in that way because the instrumentals are lighter and more dreamy, my fav lana album

I fully agree with your take that Lana is not romaticizing abuse, but rather she talks from a victim's perspective sharing all the dark thoughts and justifications one tells oneself to make sense of it. There's power in that honesty. It's stuff you don't ever hear about because you're only allowed to talk about it once you've gotten out and once you've dealt with it and came out on the other side.

Adding these as I go:

1:46 Cruel World
5:11 Ultraviolence
8:07 Shades of Cool
12:17 Brooklyn Baby
15:14 West Coast
18:17 Sad Girl
21:52 Pretty When You Cry
25:22 Money Power Glory
28:30 F*cked My Way Up To The Top
31:52 Old Money
34:42 The Other Woman

West Coast is about Lana moving from New York to California. She is leaving behind NY's rock music scene and preferring the glamour of Hollywood and all that the West Coast has to offer.  But it's also an analogy of leaving behind and breaking up with her "cold, neglected lover", her previous partner, the one she talks about in the song Shades of Blue ("that's why I'm leaving you for the moment, Boy Blue, yeah, you"). Then, during the chorus, Lana starts a new relationship in LA (a hotter place) with a Latin lover, a Cuban man ("te deseo, cariño, boy, it's you I desire"), in search of that flame that was missing in her previous relationship. By the end of the song Lana is in love again, she is on fire.

yes, I think the album is very dark, but I don't think that art has to be only positivity and nice things, it can also be about life's bad sides and perspectives

You should deffo listen to the extended version it has this incredible song called black beauty

i love this album because lana isn't afraid to talk about these dark topics and really explore the messed up emotions that come with them, it really shows the reality of these situations and shows the complexity of these feelings without over simplifying them