Lana Del Rey - she of bouffant hair, pouty lips and that crooning voice - surprised fans last night by debuting a new eerie video on her Twitter in the most Del Rey way possible with an all-lowercase simply tweet that read "new video." The 26-year-old sultry and melodramatic singer provides vintage visuals for her gentle acoustic rendition of an already gentle Leonard Cohen's classic ballad, "Chelsea Hotel No. 2," that tells an old story of Cohen's brief relationship with the late Janis Joplin.
The Chelsea Hotel, in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, is a famous New York musician breeding ground and cultural landmark with a storied history, and is where Cohen lived when he wasn't at his home in Montreal or his cottage on the Greek Island of Hydra. He chose the Chelsea because he heard he would meet people with a similar artistic bent, which he did. For some years, Cohen would often tell a story about meeting a famous singer Janis Joplin in an elevator of the Chelsea, which led to the sexual encounter he describes in this song, a reveal that he later came to deeply regret.
Redone in a typical Del Rey fashion, a feather-light slow jam, Del Rey is well-suited for Cohen's lyrics, given her often husky and surprisingly agile voice and how much she trucks in nostalgia. She's done '50s Hollywood glamor, been a prim '60s First Lady, and now she is taking on the role of '70s folk period troubadour. All she needs is a guitar and her voice for the soft-spoken cover and sends chills down our collective spines. The forlorn lyrics about the illusory tryst are perfect fodder for romantic fatalist Del Rey, whose feather-light purr captures the uncomplicated tenderness of Cohen's original. The beautifully drifting cover fits rather nicely into Del Rey's continual effort to spin an image of tragic glamor.
Del Rey keeps it simple and tame in her vintage-styled minimal clip, just relatively stripped-down Del Rey herself, singing a faithful version of Cohen's reflective ode. The clip is filled with grainy, sepia-colored footage to give forlorn vibes as Del Rey sitting on a couch in a gloomy dimly-lit room and fumbling occasionally with a Marlboro cigarette and matchbook, Del Rey strikes the same spare, wistful tone as Cohen, and croons lyrics describing a sexual encounter between two lovers in the Chelsea Hotel, many dubbed as New York City's most famous Bohemian hostelry.
The Chelsea Hotel, in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, is a famous New York musician breeding ground and cultural landmark with a storied history, and is where Cohen lived when he wasn't at his home in Montreal or his cottage on the Greek Island of Hydra. He chose the Chelsea because he heard he would meet people with a similar artistic bent, which he did. For some years, Cohen would often tell a story about meeting a famous singer Janis Joplin in an elevator of the Chelsea, which led to the sexual encounter he describes in this song, a reveal that he later came to deeply regret.
Redone in a typical Del Rey fashion, a feather-light slow jam, Del Rey is well-suited for Cohen's lyrics, given her often husky and surprisingly agile voice and how much she trucks in nostalgia. She's done '50s Hollywood glamor, been a prim '60s First Lady, and now she is taking on the role of '70s folk period troubadour. All she needs is a guitar and her voice for the soft-spoken cover and sends chills down our collective spines. The forlorn lyrics about the illusory tryst are perfect fodder for romantic fatalist Del Rey, whose feather-light purr captures the uncomplicated tenderness of Cohen's original. The beautifully drifting cover fits rather nicely into Del Rey's continual effort to spin an image of tragic glamor.
Del Rey keeps it simple and tame in her vintage-styled minimal clip, just relatively stripped-down Del Rey herself, singing a faithful version of Cohen's reflective ode. The clip is filled with grainy, sepia-colored footage to give forlorn vibes as Del Rey sitting on a couch in a gloomy dimly-lit room and fumbling occasionally with a Marlboro cigarette and matchbook, Del Rey strikes the same spare, wistful tone as Cohen, and croons lyrics describing a sexual encounter between two lovers in the Chelsea Hotel, many dubbed as New York City's most famous Bohemian hostelry.
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