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Lana Del Rey “Norman Fucking Rockwell”

What must it be like to be a man in a Lana Del Rey song? It’s a lot of mixed messages, for sure. The subject of this song gets high praise at the top of the first verse – “you fucked me so good that I almost said ‘I love you’” – but almost every subsequent line drags him mercilessly for his mopey vibe, bad art, and tiresome intellectual vanity. The magic of the song is that the core emotion isn’t pettiness or anger, but rather genuine affection and empathy for this wounded mess of a man despite these flaws. She’s definitely frustrated with herself for caring about him, but even when she’s dismissing his behavior – “you’re just a man, it’s just what you do” – she won’t completely write off his humanity.

As with most Lana songs, she’s asking the listener to consider that contradictory thoughts complete each other more often that not. The “man-child” here is aggravating, but he’s interesting, and loving, and allows himself to be vulnerable with her. She probably can do better, but is “doing better” always the point of human relationships? And even if love is just a game to be won, if put under the same sort of scrutiny as the guy in this song would she or any of us come out looking good? Love can’t work unless you’re willing to deal with flaws, and “Norman Fucking Rockwell” is just asking if this guy is worth the trouble and not quite arriving at a conclusion.

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