A decade ago Lana Del Rey burst on the scene with Born to Die, her breakthrough, but not her debut album. A widely panned performance on Saturday Night Live helped make her famous/infamous overnight (I would contend that this fell victim to the surprisingly misogynistic nature of SNL music performance critique where male musicians are praised for making weird and risky choices while female performers are always universally made fun of every time they try anything slightly outside-the-box).
The actual album was an amazing collage of Lana’s influences – millennial pop, indie rock, blue-eyed soul, singer-songwriter, spoken word, and even hip-hop (directly referencing Biggie Smalls in the title for example). At the time it felt like a breath of fresh air for both radio pop and indie rock. It’s an album that’s stood the test of time and become a classic. Not just for the music, but also for the world, Del Rey paints with the lyrics. Born to Die is the first piece of pop culture that I can remember from the Manic Pixie Dream Girl’s point of view, giving that girl an inner life.
It seems pretty clear throughout the album that Lana’s character is seen by most males in her life as Manic Pixie Dream Girl. And her character seems to be cultivating that to some extent. The chorus of the very first track goes like this:
Come and take a walk on the wild side
Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain
You like your girls insane (“Louder!”, “Alright!”)
Choose your last words, this is the last time
‘Cause you and I—we were born to die
Seems like a classic MPDG. And in “Videogames” the opening verse makes it seems like she’s willing to do whatever her man asks her:
Swingin’ in the backyard, pull up in your fast car
Whistlin’ my name
Open up a beer and you say, “Get over here
And play a video game”
I’m in his favorite sundress, watching me get undressed
Take that body downtown
I say, “You the bestest,” lean in for a big kiss
Put his favorite perfume on
Go play a video game
Which sounds pretty clearly like a man’s romance with a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. And more realistically, hints at potentially unhealthy one for a real woman.
But if Born to Die was just Lana acting like a needy girlfriend to the listener it would get pretty grating. Or if she only came across as a woman in an abusive relationship that would get very depressing. But that’s not the whole breadth of her character. Even if it seems like she’s just acting out just for a man, she’s not. She’s doing what she wants and having fun. For example, the chorus of “Videogames” goes like this:
Heaven is a place on Earth with you
Tell me all the things you wanna do
I heard that you like the bad girls, honey
Is that true?
It’s better than I ever even knew
They say that the world was built for two
Only worth living if somebody is loving you
And baby, now, you do
Lana’s character is getting attention and really enjoying it. She’s not just there to be there for the man, she’s also there for herself.
And it’s not just attention, every track explicitly mentions romance and love is a lyric in almost every song. Lana’s character seems to be immediately invested in each relationship. But none seem to be real lasting love. The impression is that the romances burn hot but short. The second track, “Off to the Races” paints what sounds like a dramatic, but not good for anyone fling.
My old man is a bad man
But I can’t deny the way he holds my hand
And he grabs me, he has me by my heart
He doesn’t mind I have a Las Vegas past
He doesn’t mind I have a L.A. crass way about me
He loves me with every beat of his cocaine heart
Light of my life, fire of my loins
Be a good baby, do what I want
Light of my life, fire of my loins
Gimme them gold coins
Gimme them coins
And I’m off to the races
Cases of Bacardi chasers
Chasing me all over town
‘Cause he knows I’m wasted
Facing time again at Rikers Island
And I won’t get out
Because I’m crazy, baby
I need you to come here and save me
I’m your little scarlet, starlet
Singing in the garden
Kiss me on my open mouth
Ready for you
Nearly every song relates a tale of seemingly obsessive romance. But Lana’s character is having fun, being showered with attention, and sometimes gifts as well. They don’t sound like good partners or even good guys in the long run but they’re fun boyfriends for a while. And maybe that describes every whiny male protagonist to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
On another track,” Summertime Sadness”, Lana explores the melancholy of summer. But again she talks about the charge she gets from getting others’ attention. And sometimes having fun can just be that it makes you feel good.
I got my red dress on tonight
Dancin’ in the dark in the pale moonlight
Done my hair up real big, beauty queen style
High heels off, I’m feelin’ alive
Throughout the album, Lana’s character seems to be there for men to look at, be their obsessive girlfriend, or be a toy for them. But that’s not actually what’s happening. She’s using them just as much for attention. And in some ways, it doesn’t even matter who the guy is. If she and her friends are getting attention and having fun together, the men are actually pretty inconsequential.
The album closes with “This is What Makes us Girls” which seems deliberate. It’s a tale of female bonding through teen shenanigans. Boys are in the stories, but that’s not the point.
There she was, my new best friend
High heels in her hand, swayin’ in the wind
Oh, she starts to cry, mascara runnin’ down her little Bambi eyes
“Lana, how I hate those guys”
Yeah, we used to go break into the hotel
Glimmering, we’d swim
Running from the cops in our black bikini tops
Screamin’, “Get us while we’re hot, get us while we’re hot”
(C’mon, take a shot)
The chorus talks about how their various romances do put rifts in their relationships but also ends with a confirmation that the women are rooting for each other.
This is what makes us girls
We all look for heaven and we put love first
Something that we’d die for, it’s a curse
Don’t cry about it, don’t cry about it
This is what makes us girls
We don’t stick together ’cause we put love first
Don’t cry about him, don’t cry about him
It’s all gonna happen (Happen, happen)
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl has become such a trope in the 21st Century and they are almost always portrayed as only there to help a man through his emotional journey. But what Lana posits on Born to Die is the man doesn’t actually matter much to the MPGD. She has her own life and her own friends. She seems like a shallow character but that’s only because you don’t get her side of the story. And maybe she’s just enjoying life, not trying to change someone else’s.