Last week, Lana Del Rey said in an interview: 'I wish I was dead already,’ and explained how ‘fucked up’ her life is. So no wonder oodles of people are taking the piss out of her on the song title Generator, but all that said and done, not all of her music is about being a lost damsel obsessed with her own demise. In her latest video for Shades Of Cool, which throws back to Disney and picks up where West Coast left off – as the fictional Lana now seems to have ditched her bad-boy boyfriend for a stern-looking, sexy older badman – she doesn't even drown when she goes swimming. Which, if you remember the Blue Jeans video, where she was throttled at the bottom of a pool, is total progress.
She flounces about in a 1960’s dress, fully resembling the sort of hazy drugged-up dream Mad Men's Don Draper would have had if he'd dropped acid when he went to LA. The song is still a little bit dark, like all Lana songs: ‘He lives for love, he loves his drugs/He loves his baby, too’ – but it makes a refreshing departure from what we were expecting of her when she released the audio for Ultraviolence, which includes the lyrics: ‘He hit me and it felt like true love.'
The soft-rock track features the heavily-eyelinered older man pursuing Lana through the streets of Hollywood in his old car. The shot then cuts away to Lana lit up by fireworks, pirouetting around and going green and red, a lot like in that Cinderella song, where she gets refracted through bubbles and goes red and green as she wipes the floor for her evil stepmother and gurgles: ‘Sing sweet nightingale.'
It’s no accident that Lana’s done this. First of all, she did cover Once Upon A Dream as the official song from Maleficent, and we now can’t imagine any fairytale Disney song being done by anyone else, ever. Secondly, as much as her persona is consistent – the classic Hollywood damsel, fallen slightly from grace – we all know by now it’s all cleverly crafted as an act. Don't believe us? See how much she dresses down when she’s not an ‘on-duty’ pop star. That’s not a bad thing, but it is a thing. Just like Lady Gaga has a million personas, Lana has just got one. That's why it's so easy to identify and take the mick out of it.
We’re haven't entirely made up our minds on her yet, but, especially considering how much of a flap people used to get into over her, we're starting to understand the persona she plays. Mainly we're just jealous because we'd love to be in that pool in LA right now. Eyelined old man, optional.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.