Lana Del Rey releases 14-minute 'Norman F***ing Rockwell' video featuring 'Bartender' and 'Happiness is a butterfly'
The song 'Norman F***ing Rockwell', originally released with Lana Del Ray's album of the same name, August 30, and today we can sit back and relax with her new video of the song. Shot in Los Angeles, the 14-minute video plays out in sequence over three scenarios.
The avant-garde video features the title track from the album with a mix of the album's 'Bartender' and 'Happiness is a butterfly.' The entire video comprising of three songs from the album coaxes us into a deeper look.
Opening with a solemn Del Rey playing piano in leisure with a subtly romantic call-out to the "man-child" who has captured Del Rey's fantasies, the video garbs a fashionably retro grainy effect and we casually stroll through the entire video with Del Rey and her two friends, who we will meet later.
Del Rey appears crestfallen yet intrigued by the possibility of a soulmate, with all his tattered mistakes and faults, as she saunters to an outside garden. Del Rey taunts and romanticizes in her lyrics as we see her relaxing in a hammock and by the poolside.
Wearing large-lensed sunglasses, we get a look at what Del Rey envisions graphically added to the lenses: scenes of a newly-wedded couple, nature and more rather enigmatic images.
Playing on the theme of a stuck vinyl record (for those who remember such horrific events in those days), we dive into her sunglasses and we slide to the next scene with Del Rey and her friends meditating. The added graphics gradually increase and imply a subconscious manifestation of Del Rey's thoughts of love and pain and everything in between; we see Disney's animated Bambi approach the troop of friends as they meditate, large explosions going off, floating quaver notes and more throughout the video.
The second scene moves over to the sisterhood riding in the back of a pickup truck and getting up to shenanigans while messing around with a pair of policemen. The policemen helplessly trying to issue some legal discipline, but are quickly enticed to join in the antics with the group of beautiful women.
We transition gracefully (in typical Lana Del Rey fashion) into the final sequence with the confrontational line "Do you want me or do you not", and this time her friends partner with her in addressing this lover. Lana Del Rey teases her listeners, or rather listener, with the line "If he's a serial killer, then what's the worst that can happen to a girl who is already hurt", and we attempt to muster a clearer picture of the story this magnificent video holds.
The entire piece cleverly merges the three songs and scenes and Del Rey has successfully managed to capture a world of wonder, romance, bittersweet conviviality and nothing less than layers of relaxed fun. It is "Lana Del Rey in Wonderland", a psychological playground of sorts and the art is left for us to imagine and wonder about, leaving an emotionally freeing aftertaste in this successfully portrayed video piece.
Watch Lana Del Rey's 'Norman F***ing Rockwell' here.