By the time Honeymoon arrived in September 2015, Lana Del Rey had already cemented herself as a master of melancholic, cinematic storytelling. Emerging from the gritty grandeur of Ultraviolence (2014), a guitar-driven descent into noirish rock, Honeymoon marked a return to the lush, orchestral soundscapes of her debut, Born to Die (2012), but with a newfound patience and depth. It wasn’t a reinvention—it was a refinement, a distillation of her most potent themes: doomed romance, faded glamour, and the inescapable passage of time.
At its core, Honeymoon is a mood piece—an immersive, slow-burning experience that places atmosphere above conventional pop structures. Gone were the hip-hop beats that once underpinned her early work; in their place, sweeping string arrangements and languid jazz influences took center stage. The result? A dreamlike, almost hypnotic album that felt like the soundtrack to a lost European art film, dripping in longing and poetic despair.
Sonic Exploration
From the very first notes of its title track, Honeymoon establishes itself as one of Lana Del Rey’s most sonically opulent records. The album is drenched in sweeping orchestral arrangements, cinematic strings, and delicate jazz flourishes, creating an atmosphere that feels both expansive and intimate. The production, helmed primarily by Lana and longtime collaborator Rick Nowels, is pristine—each note lingering like a sigh in the heavy air of a late-summer evening. Unlike the rougher, rock-inflected edges of Ultraviolence, Honeymoon embraces a softer, dreamlike quality, opting for a clarity that allows every instrumental texture to shimmer.
Musical Arrangements
The arrangements lean heavily into classical Hollywood romanticism, with strings swelling like waves against Del Rey’s smoky, distant vocals. Tracks like “Terrence Loves You” weave in haunting woodwinds and jazz-inflected piano, while “The Blackest Day” builds from sparse, forlorn verses into a slow-burning emotional climax with bluesy undertones. The decision to strip away heavy percussion on much of the album further reinforces its weightless, hypnotic quality—this is music that floats rather than drives forward.
Genre Elements
Genre-wise, Honeymoon is an intoxicating blend of dream pop, baroque pop, and jazz noir. It borrows from torch songs and film scores as much as it does from modern indie and alternative music. The eerie, Lynchian “Salvatore” even flirts with avant-garde exotica, featuring playful, surrealistic lyrics over an off-kilter melody. Meanwhile, “24” and “Swan Song” carry the ghostly echoes of Bond themes, their cinematic grandeur hinting at longing and espionage.
Lyrical Analysis
If Honeymoon is Lana Del Rey’s most cinematic album, its lyrics serve as the script—evocative, poetic, and rich with imagery that paints scenes of doomed romance, existential yearning, and melancholic escapism. The themes Del Rey explores here are familiar to her world: love as both salvation and destruction, the passage of time as an inescapable force, and the tension between longing for freedom and surrendering to fate. However, on Honeymoon, these ideas are distilled into their most delicate and introspective form, making for some of her most haunting and poetic lyricism to date.
Themes
At the heart of the album is a fixation on love as an unattainable ideal. In the opening title track, Del Rey sings, “We both know it’s not fashionable to love me,” setting the tone for an album filled with lovers who are distant, unreliable, or tragically doomed. In “Terrence Loves You,” she mourns a love lost, slipping into a dreamlike haze with the heartbreaking admission: “I lost myself when I lost you.” This sense of loss permeates the album, making it feel like an elegy for something beautiful but transient.
Recalling the noirish storytelling of classic poetry and literature, Honeymoon is filled with cryptic allusions and layered meanings. “God Knows I Tried” finds her grappling with fame and disillusionment, mirroring the weary self-awareness of a tragic Hollywood starlet: “I’ve got nothing much to live for ever since I found my fame.” On “The Blackest Day,” she references Billie Holiday, using the jazz legend’s name as a symbol of sorrow and heartbreak, while “Salvatore” plunges into surrealist territory with its nonsensical, escapist imagery (“Catch me if you can, working on my tan, Salvatore”)—a rare moment of levity in an otherwise solemn record.
The lyrical complexity of Honeymoon lies in its ability to be both deeply personal and universally poetic. While some tracks, like “Religion” and “Swan Song,” take on a direct, almost devotional tone, others—like “24”—cloak their narratives in metaphor, requiring careful unraveling. The recurring motifs of water, death, and fleeting beauty reinforce the album’s overarching meditation on impermanence.
Emotional Impact
Emotionally, Honeymoon is one of Del Rey’s most affecting works. It doesn’t beg for sympathy—it invites the listener to sink into its sadness and make peace with it. The lyrics, paired with the album’s dreamy production, evoke a sense of longing that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. Whether recounting a lost love, disillusionment with fame, or the fantasy of escaping into an imagined world, Honeymoon lingers in the mind like a half-remembered dream—aching, beautiful, and impossible to grasp fully.
Cohesion and Flow
Track Progression
One of Honeymoon’s greatest strengths lies in its meticulous pacing and immersive flow. From the sweeping orchestral introduction of the title track to the haunting fade-out of Swan Song, the album unfolds like a slow-moving film—each track blending seamlessly into the next. Unlike Born to Die, which balanced cinematic ballads with hip-hop-infused energy, or Ultraviolence, which thrived on sharp contrasts between soft and aggressive moments, Honeymoon maintains a languid, dreamlike quality throughout.
The album’s track progression mirrors an emotional descent. It begins with the hopeful yet doomed romance of “Honeymoon”, then gradually slips into heartbreak and disillusionment with songs like “Terrence Loves You” and “God Knows I Tried.” By the time we reach “The Blackest Day”, the record is at its emotional nadir, drenched in sorrow and longing. The final tracks, “24” and “Swan Song,” act as a quiet resignation, as if Del Rey has accepted her fate, whispering her way into oblivion. This narrative arc makes the album feel less like a collection of songs and more like a poetic, cinematic experience.
Thematic Consistency
Honeymoon is perhaps Lana Del Rey’s most thematically cohesive album. Every track is steeped in the same motifs—loss, nostalgia, longing, and fleeting beauty. The orchestral arrangements, reverb-heavy vocals, and jazz-influenced melodies create a unified sonic palette, reinforcing the album’s hypnotic atmosphere. Even the more experimental moments, like the playful surrealism of “Salvatore”, don’t disrupt the overall mood; instead, they add depth to the escapist fantasies that run through the record.
However, the album’s unwavering commitment to its dreamy, slow-burning aesthetic may be a double-edged sword. While it ensures a cohesive listening experience, it also risks feeling monotonous for those who crave variety or dynamic shifts. The absence of sharp contrasts means that, without careful attention, some tracks can blend together, making the album feel like a single, sprawling reverie rather than a collection of distinct songs.
Standout Tracks and Moments
While Honeymoon functions as a cohesive, immersive experience, certain tracks stand out as particularly striking—either for their artistic ambition, emotional depth, or innovative sound. These moments define the album’s essence, encapsulating its dreamlike melancholy and poetic grandeur.
“Honeymoon”
The album’s opening title track is a masterclass in setting the tone. With its sweeping orchestral arrangement and slow, hypnotic pacing, “Honeymoon” feels like the overture to a tragic love story. The lyric “We both know that it’s not fashionable to love me” immediately introduces themes of doomed romance and self-awareness. The way Lana’s voice lingers over each syllable—delicate yet distant—adds to the song’s cinematic quality, making it one of the most transportive moments on the album.
“Terrence Loves You”
Perhaps the most emotionally devastating track, “Terrence Loves You” is a hushed, jazz-inflected ballad built on sparse piano, airy woodwinds, and ghostly echoes. Its heart-wrenching refrain, “I lost myself and I lost you too”, captures the album’s overarching sense of loss and longing. The song also features a subtle interpolation of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, adding another layer of nostalgia and alienation to its dreamy sorrow.
“The Blackest Day”
Clocking in at over six minutes, “The Blackest Day” stands as one of Honeymoon’s most dynamic tracks. It starts in a hushed, confessional tone before swelling into a brooding, blues-tinged lament. As Lana sings, “Looking for love in all the wrong places, oh my God,” she captures the desperation of heartbreak in a way that feels raw and unfiltered. The slow build of the instrumental—layering subtle percussion and ghostly guitar riffs—makes the track one of the most intense emotional journeys on the album.
“Salvatore”
Amidst the album’s heavy sadness, “Salvatore” is a bizarre, sun-drenched escape. It stands out for its unusual, almost nonsensical lyrics (“Limousines, blue mandarins, and the waters of Venice”) and a melody that shifts unexpectedly between whispered verses and an airy, falsetto-laced chorus. The track flirts with elements of exotica and trip-hop, showcasing Lana’s ability to weave surrealist imagery into her storytelling. It’s a moment of levity that still feels oddly haunting.
“Swan Song”
Closing the album’s narrative arc, “Swan Song” feels like a whispered goodbye. The track’s theme of renouncing fame and disappearing from the world (“I will never sing again”) echoes the escapist fantasies that run through Lana’s work. The instrumentation—gentle synths, cinematic strings, and ethereal harmonies—creates an otherworldly, weightless atmosphere. Whether taken as a literal farewell or an abstract meditation on artistic mortality, it’s one of Honeymoon’s most haunting moments.
Memorable Moments
The opening strings of “Honeymoon” – Like the start of an old Hollywood film, the album’s lush orchestration immediately sets the mood for a grand yet sorrowful story.
The whispered falsetto in “Salvatore” – An unexpected, almost eerie vocal shift that adds to the song’s surrealist charm.
The lingering final notes of “Swan Song” – A moment of quiet finality, leaving the listener in a dreamlike state as the album fades into nothingness.
Artistic Contribution and Innovation
Lana Del Rey’s Place in the Music Landscape
By the time Honeymoon was released in 2015, Lana Del Rey had already redefined the landscape of alternative pop. In an era dominated by maximalist electronic production and chart-friendly hooks, she continued to resist industry trends, instead crafting a slow, immersive, and highly stylized body of work. While her earlier albums (Born to Die and Ultraviolence) had drawn from hip-hop, rock, and baroque pop, Honeymoon felt like a complete surrender to her most cinematic and poetic instincts. It wasn’t designed for radio—it was an art piece, a mood-driven experience that demanded patience and deep listening.
Within the realm of dream pop and baroque pop, Honeymoon pushed the boundaries of how an artist could use sonic space and restraint. While many of her contemporaries (such as Lorde and Halsey) were forging their own paths in alternative pop, Del Rey remained in a class of her own, blending torch-song romanticism with a modern melancholic lens. This album solidified her status not just as a musician but as a curator of aesthetic and mood, proving that she wasn’t bound by traditional pop structures.
Innovation
While Honeymoon doesn’t reinvent Lana Del Rey’s sound, it deepens and refines it in ways that feel distinctly innovative.
Orchestral and Cinematic Production
Unlike her previous albums, which relied on beats or rock instrumentation, Honeymoon leans heavily into sweeping, film-score-like arrangements. The way the strings, woodwinds, and subtle jazz elements are layered creates a feeling of vastness and intimacy simultaneously. Few pop albums in the 2010s embraced such an unhurried, orchestral approach.
Minimalist Song Structures
Many songs on Honeymoon reject traditional verse-chorus-bridge formats, favoring slow builds, spoken-word sections, and lingering instrumental breaks. This made the album feel more like a collection of vignettes rather than conventional pop songs, contributing to its cinematic atmosphere.
A Commitment to Atmosphere Over Accessibility
In a time when pop music was moving toward instant gratification, Lana Del Rey did the opposite. Honeymoon deliberately challenged listeners with its slow tempos, abstract lyricism, and dreamy, stretched-out compositions. The fact that she refused to craft obvious radio hits speaks to her dedication to artistry over commercial appeal.
A Surrealist and Literary Approach to Lyrics
While her past albums had played with Americana and Old Hollywood references, Honeymoon pushed further into the abstract. Songs like “Salvatore” introduced surreal, near-Dadaist lyrics, while “The Blackest Day” and “Terrence Loves You” adopted a poetic, stream-of-consciousness style that blurred reality and fantasy.
Closing Thoughts
Honeymoon is an album that exists on its own terms—slow, immersive, and drenched in melancholic grandeur. It showcases Lana Del Rey at her most cinematic and poetic, leaning into sweeping orchestral arrangements, abstract storytelling, and a dreamlike atmosphere that feels more like a film score than a traditional pop album. Its biggest strength lies in its commitment to mood and artistry, creating a fully realized world of doomed romance, nostalgia, and quiet introspection.
However, its greatest strength is also its biggest limitation. The album’s languid pacing and lack of immediate, hook-driven singles make it less accessible than its predecessors. While Born to Die balanced its lush sound with mainstream appeal and Ultraviolence brought a raw, rock-infused energy, Honeymoon is a slow burn that requires patience. For some, this makes it a masterpiece of mood; for others, it may feel overly drawn-out or emotionally distant.
That being said, Honeymoon stands as one of Lana Del Rey’s most artistically pure statements. It may not be the most commercially impactful album in her discography, but it remains a defining moment in her evolution as an artist—a record that prioritizes storytelling, atmosphere, and sonic elegance over industry expectations.
Official Rating: 8/10
Honeymoon is a beautifully crafted, deeply evocative album that showcases Lana Del Rey’s strengths as a songwriter and sonic curator. It loses points only for its inaccessibility to casual listeners and its sometimes meandering structure. However, for those willing to surrender to its hypnotic spell, it offers one of the most transportive and emotionally resonant experiences in modern alternative pop.