London: Lana Del Rey says while writing new material, she believes in penning down the first and last tracks of a potential album.
The singer said the two songs are essential in deciding the direction of her record.
“I always say that if you have a closer and an opener, then you know where you are going,” Del Rey told Q magazine.
She said it took her four years on creating the closing track of her latest LP, ‘Norman F***ing Rockwell’, but the song — “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have – but I Have It” came together when she met collaborator, singer-songwriter Jack Antonoff.
“Not because it was special but it wasn’t piecing together. So I sang that to Jack a capella the day I met him and we did ‘Norman’ (titular opening track) the next day. Just a series of chords that he played that I freestyled over.
“And I thought, ‘I’ve got the first song and I’ve got the 13th song. And then I pretty much knew what to do in between, I just didn’t know how long it’s going to take. I have the same thing for this next album but it’s actually going to take longer than I want if it’s going to be as good as this one,” Del Rey said.
The “Young and Beautiful” hitmaker added she already has decided on some song titles for her next album.
“It’s the words that make me feel confident about the next one. Every now and then a long phrase will come to me. Like, ‘Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have’, ‘Will You Still Love Me When I’m No Longer Young and Beautiful’…
“I have no idea where they’re going to go, but objectively, I’m like, ‘Oof I want to fill it in.’ So I have three of those. One in particular, ‘Let Me Love You Like a Woman’, there’s just something about it. I feel like it’s going to be really important but I don’t know why yet. That’s where the magic comes in,” she said.
PTI