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Following the horrendous tragedy of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton this weekend, Lana Del Rey has shared a poignant new song.
On Instagram Monday night, the singer shared a stripped-down video of a new track, which she calls “Looking For America.” Del Rey has sung about classic America, Coca-Cola and old cars and languid California landscapes, but this song is a more serious look at the country we live in. This weekend alone, 29 people lost their lives in mass shooting attacks, and with little being done to halt the easy sale and distribution of firearms, tragedies like this will continue to happen.
Del Rey introduced her song with a blurb describing what inspired her to write it. “Hi folks,” Del Rey wrote, “Came back early from Montecito with my brother this morning and asked Jack Antonoff to come into town because I had a song on my mind that I wanted to write. Now I know I’m not a politician and I’m not trying to be so excuse me for having an opinion- but in light of all of the mass shootings and the back to back shootings in the last couple of days which really affected me on a cellular level I just wanted to post this video that our engineer Laura took 20 minutes ago. I hope you like it. I’m singing love to the choruses I recorded this morning. I’m going to call it ‘Looking for America.'”
Over a spare guitar melody, Del Rey’s vocals are haunting. “I’m still looking for my own version of America / One without the guns, the flag can freely fly / No bombs in the sky, only fireworks and you and I,” she sings.
Lana Del Rey’s album Norman F*cking Rockwell is out August 30. Watch her video of “Looking For America” above.
