A couple of weeks out from the release of her new album Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana Del Rey has released a powerful new song, “Looking For America.”
Videos by American Songwriter
The singer-songwriter originally teased the song on Instagram, posting a video of herself and producer Jack Antonoff together in the recording studio. In a caption accompanying the post, Del Rey shared that she wrote the song in response to the deadly shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, writing:
“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.”
“Looking For America” is a pointed and poignant case against gun violence, with lyrics like, “Pulled over to watch the children in the park / We used to only worry for them after dark.” The chorus expresses desire for an America “without the gun, where the flag can freely fly.”
Del Rey also released a cover of Donovan’s 1966 Sunshine Superman classic “Season Of The Witch,” which appears in the trailer for Guillermo Del Toro’s new film, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.
Norman Fucking Rockwell! drops August 30. Listen to “Looking For America” and “Season Of The Witch” below.
