Just in time for a drive by the coast as the sun sets for the evening (go hop in your Bugatti Veyrons, y’all), Lana Del Rey has graced our ears with an absolutely stunning new offering off of Ultraviolence: “Shades Of Cool,” co-penned by Born To Die collaborator Rick Nowels. (The song will be made available as a promo single with the pre-order of Ultraviolence, but as with all things on the Internet, it arrived a bit early.)
Like a dreamy Bond theme meets the swirling, psychedelic sound of “West Coast” (and just a touch of Paradise‘s haunting “Yayo”), “Shades Of Cool” sees our beloved Queen Of Coney Island longing for her bad baby with more than a few questionable vices: “When he calls, he calls for me and not for you/He lives for love, he loves his drugs, he loves his baby too,” she sighs.
As always, Lana remains fiercely enamored with her man — in paradise and dark times: “I can’t fix it, can’t make him better/And I can’t do nothing about his strange weather,” she laments above a lonesome guitar.
And then, the song bursts into its heaven-sent chorus: “But you are invincible,” Lana flutters, “I can’t break through your world/’Cause you’re living shades of cool/Your heart is unbreakable.”
Like “West Coast,” the production on “Shades Of Cool” is a shift from the “Off To The Races” days, as the speakers fill with live arena-sized rock instrumentation as opposed to Emile Haynie‘s tripping hip-hop-beats. The last few minutes are especially majestic, as Lana’s voice is drowned in a delirious cacophony of searing guitar and aggressive pounding drums, jam session-style — a moment that ought to go down big live on tour.
As with “West Coast,” “Shades Of Cool” is a massively impressive production that retains Lana’s essence while delving into deeper, more experimental sonic territory. Together, the two tracks already suggest that Ultraviolence will be best served as a start-to-finish experience, as opposed to a set of radio-friendly singles. (If it wasn’t clear enough already, it should be by now: Lana might be popular, but she’s not a trying to be a radio-friendly pop star — this is not a complaint.)
Get ready to get lost in Lana’s shades of cool.
‘Ultraviolence’ will be released on June 16. (iTunes)