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Lana Del Rey will release ‘Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass’, a previously announced album of spoken word poetry, on July 28. The 14-track album will see Del Rey’s poetry set to the music of Jack Antonoff.
Antonoff and Del Rey previously teamed up on her sixth studio album, ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’, co-writing the bulk of the album’s songs together.
Alongside the album, Del Rey plans to release the poems as a hardback book later this year. The 112-page book will hit shelves on September 29.
Per a press statement, Del Rey says that “some [poems] came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem.”
“They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.”
Poems featured on the album include “LA Who Am I to Love You?”, “The Land of 1,000 Fires”, “Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving”, “Never to Heaven”, “Tessa DiPietro”, “Happy” and the titular poem.
In addition to her album and book of poetry, Del Rey will release her seventh studio album, ‘Chemtrails over the Country Club’ on September 5.
Lana Del Rey received social media backlash earlier this year after publishing a post which fans claimed glamorised abuse and was racist.
In an Instagram post, Del Rey name-checked several women of colour who she said “have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating, etc”.
“can I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money – or whatever i want – without being crucified or saying that I’m glamorising abuse???????”
Several high profile figures, including Doja Cat, called Lana Del Rey out for her comments.
In June, Del Rey once again caused a stir online after uploading footage from a Los Angeles Black Lives Matter protest to social media. In a since-deleted video, Del Rey allegedly zoomed in on protesters, revealing their identities.
Social media users and artists, including Tinashe and Kehlani, urged Del Rey to take down the video.
“DO NOT endanger people with your very massive platform,” Kehlani wrote.
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