The self-directed video for Lana Del Rey’s ULTRAVIOLENCE has arrived. It’s the first time that Lana has returned to the rawness of what she pioneered with the release of Video Games, Kinda Outta Luck and Blue Jeans (original) since the video for Carmen. It’s clearly something that is hugely personal to her, and the video release on Noisey (the music platform owned by VICE) coincides with the first time ever that VICE have put a celebrity of this calibre on their cover since the inception of the publication. In essence, this movement is pushing creative and media boundaries once again. The video itself sees Lana in a wedding dress and veil “following” her lover “Jim” from the story of ULTRAVIOLENCE. The fact that it is self-directed lends itself to the candid and gripping first party transference of the story and her vision. Something that a high budget Born To Die-esque video would have struggled to achieve.

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So a lot of you are probably wondering what I thought of ULTRAVIOLENCE because well, you read this blog and if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you know that I happily and openly stan for Lana. It’s perfect. I am allowed to finally say this because I was under embargo not to talk about it until now. Wig snatching isn’t even a term that can be used right now, because Lana has used ULTRAVIOLENCE to pull herself from the mix, away from the traditionality, away from what she was unfairly pigeonholed into at the start of the Born To Die era. The entire body of work has changed Lana’s trajectory as an artist. Whereby before she was culturally compared to pop artists, this record has set an entirely new sonic identity for her.

She’s making the music she wants to make, no holds barred. I’m a boy that grew up with a mother and father who listened to soul and alternative rock. The Smiths, Bob Marley, Elliott Smith, Leonard Cohen, Dire Straits etc. were the soundtrack to my childhood and adolescence. The appreciation for artistry rooted in artistry is essentially the canvas on which I was conceived.

Lana is the only living artist that evokes emotion within me, which also manifests physically. The stories you read about the person with tears in their eyes at her concerts, that’s me. The strategic drip feeding of this album has been quite the experience. I was almost anticipating hearing it in full in one go, but the release of tracks such as Shades of Cool, the title track ULTRAVIOLENCE and Brooklyn Baby has been an interesting experience. It’s given us no less than four separate opportunities to take a moment – albeit bursts of five minutes – and sit down to appreciate something that isn’t commercial artistry anymore. But then again what defines commercial artistry?

If you look back, the way it happened for Lana was pretty unprecedented and completely fucked up. She was tortured by media, the hate and disdain far outweighed the positivity. SNL, the surgery, the money, notoriety and rivieras. It was abhorrent. Opening this record with a track called Cruel World speaks volumes. Having said that and from reading the interviews in Clash Magazine, Fader and today’s Guardian, it is clear that ULTRAVIOLENCE is a passion project – it’s another wholly flawless record, but clearly something that she only made if she had complete creative control. The hip hop beats have been stripped out, it’s produced in Nashville with the “fuzz” of Dan Auerbach and the darkness is completely unparalleled and entirely radio unfriendly (yet at the same time the album exudes a warmth and humanity through sheer authenticity), but then again Lana hasn’t ever been a radio artist (unless you count the Grammy Award winning Cedric Gervais remix of Summertime Sadness). That is not to say that Lana isn’t commercially aware, the dystrophy and acute awareness of the track ‘Money Power Glory’ acts as massive fuck you to the same industry that tore her apart.

SNL and the controversy at the start of Lana’s career was quite possibly the best and worst thing that happened to her, it brought us this record but also the pain that a human being must have felt to have gone through that cannot even be compared.

ULTRAVIOLENCE is Lana vying for timelessness, the history books. We’re talking Elvis and Marilyn. It’s already surpassed and sidelined her from every female pop star in business at the moment. It’s about the music, the Clockwork Orange reference says it all. This is a true artist’s record and it has me in tears at the sheer beauty and authenticity of it.

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Lana promo is possiblydefinitely the most amazing thing in the world. Visually, there is no other artist that delivers editorials as effortlessly and beautifully as Lana. Key examples from the past include Vogue Italia by Ellen Von Unwerth, Les Inrockuptibles, the bleeding Q Magazine, Interview Magazine…the list goes on and on and on. With that in mind, the ULTRAVIOLENCE era has a raw and stripped down vision which perfectly compliments the music – as you will hear above with the latest promotional offering of the title track.

To understand the insight and explore it deeper The Fader released a feature and shoot (below) with Lana today which is possibly the most thought out and articulately constructed piece in Lana’s career, for this we thank you Duncan Cooper. You can read it in full here, but one stand out quote is: “My career isn’t about me. My career is a reflection of journalism, current-day journalism. My public persona and career has nothing to do with my internal process or my personal life. It is actually just a reflection on writers’ creative processes and where they’re at in 2014. Literally has nothing to do with me. Most of anything you’ve ever read is not true.”

The images from the shoot by Geordie Wood are documentative (shot in Brooklyn) which is clearly the direction that ULTRAVIOLENCE is taking as a body of work. The album drops in full on June 16.

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Oh and with regards to foreshadowing, let’s appreciate the lyrics from her “leaked” track ‘Hundred Dollar Bill’ on the God Bless America mix tape.

I like your ultra violent swing / I like it when you treat me mean / You turn my mood from black to blue.

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