With his strong arms, fast car and sexy patter, he seems more like an action-movie screenwriter’s construct than a living, breathing human. These seemingly trivial pursuits are given meaning by the presence of the man in her life. “This is my idea of fun,” she sings at the end of the verse in a voice somewhere between deadpan and narcotized. Her days and nights are filled with beer, darts, billiards and, of course, video games.
In the verses, Del Rey paints scenes of domestic tranquility and socializing with friends, 21 st-century style. “The verse was about the way things were with one person, and the chorus was the way that I wished things had really been with another person, who I thought about for a long time,” she said. When it came to the lyrics, the singer-songwriter looked to a pair of recent relationships, as she told the website. Lana Del Rey experienced both sides of that coin with her 2011 song “Video Games.” With her career flailing a bit at the time, she uploaded the song to her YouTube page, where it gained a following, helped her gather a record deal and eventually became an indie-rock sensation.ĭel Rey wrote the song with Justin Parker, who came up with the eerie, seesawing piano chords at the heart of the instrumental backing.
It can propel you to the heights one minute and then weigh you down so much that you crash and burn the next.