To red, blue, and yellow lights Lana Del Rey – God Knows I Tried
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No more sunrise days for Lana. She has to go onto stage first thing, whether for a morning news show, or an early-bird live show.
The spotlight’s red, blue and yellow frightens Lana more than the sunrises, as it’s an occupational obligation, rather than a natural nicety. At least the mornings go easy for her every once and the while, but the weeks don’t let up.
To red, blue, and yellow skies
It's so crazy, I could drink it like tequila sunrise Lana Del Rey – God Knows I Tried
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Occasionally Lana wakes early and enjoys the colorful sunrise. Her fame-filled life rarely gives her this opportunity, as it demands her to focus on her craft.
Tequila sunrise is a cocktail that takes its name from the natural phenomenon. “Tequila Sunrise” is also the name of a song by The Eagles. It centers around an absent lover, which Lana relates to younger days.
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But, I don't know if I care
Yes, I know it's not there
But, I don't know if I care NERO – The Thrill
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The “it” is the thrill that the romance used to have. Alana and her lover used to love each other, but now the passion’s left. It leaves them at that stage where neither person knows whether they should rekindle the relationship or leave.
Alana’s conflicted over this decision. Does she still care about their love, or does she not care? This ambiguity drives the album.
I'm rising up, rising up
My hot love's full of fire
Love's full of fire
La, ah Lana Del Rey – Freak
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Her burning desire’s still firing up. Not only is Lana’s man like an angel, but he’s like a firey angel, as he embodies both good manners and a bad boy passion.
Result: she feels like she’s rising up to heaven.
Tear it up, tear it up
And let's dance by the ocean
Ah, ah Lana Del Rey – Freak
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Said ocean is the west coast, which Lana wants to bring her baby to.
The phrases “tearing it up” and “dance in slow motions” both associate with energetic group dancing, as Lana craves energetic movement that make time seem to go slow. This’d result in a beach party with a nightclub vibe.
Palms reflecting in your eyes
Like an endless summer
That's the way I feel for you Lana Del Rey – Freak
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Lana’s feelings are so strong for her man, the resulting arousal feels like a much hotter blue, opposed to the regular red flame that other people might feel. (For reference, the chemical dicyanoacetylene can ignite a blue-white flame at almost 5000 degrees Celsius.)
Meanwhile, her lover’s eyes reflect the palm tree, which draws even more parallels with the ocean blue and the beach, which summer is most at home with. Later verses suggest Lana’s imagining these reflections, since she wants to take her lover to palmy California. So while her love is passionate, it’s also temperamental. For Lana, passion and hurt are not far from each other.
Endless summer is also a reference to Lana’s 2015 “Endless Summer Tour” across the United States in support of Ultraviolence, accompanied by Grimes and Courtney Love.
Also, this might be a reference to Endless Summer, a 60’s movie about traveling surfers (like Easy Rider which is referenced in the second verse).
Sun reflecting in your eyes
Like an easy rider Lana Del Rey – Freak
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An allusion to the 1969 movie, an “easy rider” effortly cruises on a motorcycle in the daylight. A black-leather jacket is a requirement.
It’s like the “Ride” music video all over again, as Lana craves a biker-esque man. Not to mention she loves singing about the color blue.
A similar line (“Is the sun in your eyes, easy rider?”) pops up in “Angels Forever”.
Also, her boyfriend at the time fitted the description:
When it was all just fun and games
Never had a care in the world
When it all began to change Jess Glynne – You Can Find Me
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Nursery rhyming days include not only her childhood, but her pre-fame life. Like how nursery rhymes require little from its singers, her life was more about enjoying it and the music without fixating about the work.
And then she became a professional musician, and the nursery rhymes turned into publically performed songs. She had to care about her life.
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Art Deco evokes the 1920s and 1930s and the sleek, futuristic aesthetic that was the epitome of coolness and luxury at the time.
Art Deco created the counter-cultural flapper: a glamorous yet provocative woman.
The club queen rocks her metallic dress and jewelry in the dance club, which attracts Lana’s femme fatale comparisons. Lana sees beneath the exterior of the girl’s flashy, sleek façade of coolness to the uncertain yearning for something more in her life.
Gunmetal is a type of bronze alloy associated with the machine aesthetic of Art Deco. Although it is no longer used to make guns, Lana’s choice of the word evokes a danger and power in the girl.
Art deco in the ‘20s was everything but cold and cheap. Especially in architecture, Art deco did have a modernistic, geometrical design; however, the relatively simple outline was almost always combined with the use of expensive materials (ivory, silver, gold, marble) and interesting, new textures (exotic leather and innovative synthetic materials). In furniture design, fashion and jewellery, it made use of elaborate, luxurious shapes. It was the coolest and most fashionable style but unluckily, it ended up portraying the picture of an insatiable, consumistic, empty society, and put the foundations to pop culture, a theme Lana deals with in many of her songs.