‘hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it’
Depressed Americana tinged-nostalgia bop lovers, Lana Del Rey has done it again – the musician has dropped a new single “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it”. It’s off of her forthcoming record, Norman Fucking Rockwell.
“I’ve been tearing around in my fucking nightgown / 24/7 Sylvia Plath, writing in blood on the walls,” she sings on the sparse, slow track, accompanied only by a piano. Del Rey compares herself to American poet and author Sylvia Plath who died by suicide in 1963. Plath is known for her stark, acidic, confessional oeuvre that spanned themes of death, power, American madness, femininity and the patriarchy.
The line harkens to the fraught life of Plath, who once said she lived on an extreme spectrum of the “joyous positive and despairing negative”. Del Rey’s lyricism also recalls the protagonist of Plath’s only novel The Bell Jar, Esther, who goes weeks without changing her clothes as she battles depression.
Del Rey herself has also talked about her intentions to release a book of poetry.
It’s likely that this song was initially teased back in October, when Del Rey shared and subsequently deleted a song clip called “Sylvia Plath” from Instagram. “I think I’m just going to self-publish it and put it out beforehand. It’s kind of random. Which is kind of another one of those things I just want out there just for me,” she said previously.
“hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it” is the third single from her upcoming sixth studio album, produced by Jack Antonoff. Del Rey previously released “Mariners Apartment Complex” and “Venice Bitch”. Antonoff and Del Rey also performed some unheard songs at at a benefit concert for The Ally Coalition in December, reportedly named ‘Hey Blue Baby’ and ’I Must be Stupid for Being So Happy’.
Norman Fucking Rockwell is expected for release later this year.