Don”t be fooled. At first glance, Lana Del Rey”s video for her slinky, retro new single, “West Coast,” looks like it”s the same video as the audio video that came out three weeks ago.
To be sure, it opens with Del Rey frolicking on a Santa Monica beach with her boy toy, but then around the 1:30 mark, it takes a darker, creepier turn. It turns out that while she”s playing with her her tattoo love boy, she belongs to another man, a much older sugar daddy. In glamorous footage that recalls vintage movies of the past, we see Del Rey in the back seat of a chauffeured car with a man who is clearly keeping her in a style to which she has become accustomed. He touches her, but she”s thinking of her beach baby, and he knows it.
The video, directed by Chris Sweeney and Sophie Muller, switches to color, which is, quite frankly, a mood killer, to show Del Rey with flames behind her to symbolize the lyric about her seeing “fire in the sands of love” It would have worked better to stay in black and white.
It”s a time-told tale in Hollywood, but the video is so well realized, it”s also easy to see how tif it had kept going, it could play out in “Double Indemnity” or “The Postman Always Rings Twice” fashion.
The west coast beaches and the slowed-down, dream-like images all work perfectly together to match song, scene, and singer.
“West Coast” is from Del Rey's new album, “Ultraviolence.” No word on a release date for the project, which includes production by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach.