Lana Del Rey Wasn't Immediately Sold on the Idea of Working With Jack Antonoff on New Album

'Norman Fucking Rockwell' is out next Friday.

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Lana Del Rey's prolific songwriting sessions with Jack Antonoff, which ultimately shaped the majority of her new album Norman Fucking Rockwell, almost didn’t happen.

At the time, as Lana explained in a new Billboardcover interview, she wasn't exactly in the right head space for going deep.

"I wasn't in the mood to write," LDR said. "He wanted me to meet him in some random diner, and I was like, 'You already worked with everyone else; I don't know where there's room for me.'" Then Antonoff played Lana roughly 10 minutes of "atmospheric riffs" and she started seeing a vision for her next chapter, described here as "a folk record with a little surf twist."

It’s all part of Lana's uniquely inspiring approach to creativity, which places emphasis on following an instinct through its conclusion, wherever that may lead. Or, as Lana puts it in the cover story, it's the "longer, more arduous road," but one that leads you to the comfort of knowing who you truly are.

Among the Antonoff-produced cuts on Norman Fucking Rockwell is the closing track "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have — But I Have It." 

Lana said the song addresses things she’s seen in Hollywood after being in the business for years, though she never thought she’d be able to talk about them. "So I was writing a song to myself," she said. "Hope truly is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have, because I know so much."

Antonoff and Lana also worked together on "Fuck It I Love You" and "The Greatest," two tracks which Thursday received a dual video treatment from director Rich Lee:

View this video on YouTube

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The full Billboard interview by Meaghan Garvey also sees LDR discussing the recently released "Looking for America," her move toward a less isolating approach to writing, and much more. This is where you can find it.

Norman Fucking Rockwell, mercifully, is out Aug. 30.

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