Music Review: Lana Del Rey "Dark Paradise"

Lana Del Rey

Dark Paradise

Album: Born To Die

Year: 2013

                     Lana Del Rey grieves her boyfriend’s death  in the elegizing  “Dark Paradise.”

                    A desolated orchestra opens the single, setting a tragic tone. Weightless, she floats in the middle of the once vibrant sea. In the distance, her friends’ voices call to her, wondering where she is  and yelling her name to get her to return. She opens her mouth and her boyfriend’s voice comes out, a rough timbre. She lowers the notes, remembering his gentleness of his words. He is a part of her and someone she can’t replace in her heart. She will continue to rest on the sea, hoping he will hear her.  (“All my friends tell me I should move on/I'm lying in the ocean, singing your song/Ah, that's how you sing it/Loving you forever, can't be wrong/Even though you're not here, won't move on/Ah, that's how we play it.”)

            In the pre-chorus, she sees a series of pictures of them together above her, lining the sky. With each flash, she lingers on the memory and reaches out with her hand, trying to grab it. In her waking hours, he murmurs she’ll be ok. It’s torturous to have within her. She bursts into tears, her eyes on the set of knives sitting out in the kitchen. (“And there's no remedy for memory/Your face is like a melody/It won't leave my head/Your soul is haunting me and telling me/That everything is fine/But I wish I was dead.”)

              In the chorus, sleep is the most livable thing she can do, knowing he will be there. A shadowy version appears of him before turning into flesh. She runs to him. At her last breath, it is him she hopes to see standing beside her, letting her know she can join him now. (“Everytime I close my eyes/It's like a dark paradise/No one compares to you/I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side/Everytime I close my eyes/It's like a dark paradise/No one compares to you/I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side.”)

            Several months after his death, she is managed to make herself function. Her friends remark to her she’s doing much better and they have missed her laugh. They want to know what helped her. She tells them it’s his strength. Her dreams are the respite from her loneliness. (“All my friends ask me why I stay strong/Tell 'em when you find true love it lives on/Ah, that's why I stay here.”)

                  The pre-chorus is sung again.

                   In the second chorus,  he doesn’t exist. His form showing up to her is when she can see him. (“Everytime I close my eyes/It's like a dark paradise/No one compares to you/I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side/Everytime I close my eyes/It's like a dark paradise/No one compares to you/But that there's no you/Except in my dreams tonight.”)

               In the bridge, he has her hand on the small of her back as they share an inside joke. It replays a couple times from different angles. His loss is felt in his undershirts still waiting to be washed in the laundry, the full box of his favorite cereal on the kitchen counter. His presence doesn’t ever leave her. People, even some she doesn’t know very well, are coming over with plates of food and hugs. But it’s his hand she feels on her back. (“Oh oh oh, ah ha ha ha/I don't wanna wake up from this tonight/Oh oh oh, ah ha ha ha/I don't wanna wake up from this tonight/There's no relief, I see you in my sleep/And everybody's rushing me, but I can feel you touching me/There's no release, I feel you in my dreams/Telling me I'm fine.”)

           The second chorus is sung again.

           Part of the bridge ends the single. (“Oh oh oh, ah ha ha ha/I don't wanna wake up from this tonight/Oh oh oh, ah ha ha ha/I don't wanna wake up from this tonight.”)

               Del Rey’s mournful vocals cope with his death, the shock reverberating inside her as she relives it over again the next day. Living is no longer real to her, the people figments of her imagination. She wonders why it wasn’t her instead. In her dreams, she’s alive again once she is able to reunite with him.

              The funereal “Dark Paradise” is a heartfelt tribute to loved ones who have passed on too soon.