Skip to content
Premieres

Lana Del Rey Shrouds ‘Bel Air’ in Smoke

lana del rey bel air video smoke clouds

Lana Del Rey is always spinning — from her meme-making Saturday Night Live onstage pivot, to the romanticized yarns about her bohemian origin story, and now in the tinkling lullabye waltz “Bel Air.”

We first brought a snippet to your attention via an album sampler for the Paradise Edition re-release of Born to Die, and noted then that the track’s “jewelry box ballerina” fragility calls to mind Elliott Smith’s dreamy piano vignette “Bye.” Co-written by Dan Heath, who worked on the luxuriously dour “Blue Jeans,” the song can be heard in full in a smoke-filled video posted to YouTube last night. The looping footage of Del Rey bathed in billowing, white clouds is repurposed from the video for “Summertime Sadness,” her same-sex retelling of Romeo and Juliet.

The clip popped up with the message, “i lost my reputation, i forgot my truth. But i have my beauty and i have my youth. TROPICO the film, coming next year.” Does that mean another 10-minute short film slash music video is on the way? During her 2012 shows, Del Rey performed on a lush, foliage-filled stage meant to evoke “The Garden of Evil,” and appears on the Paradise album art in a bathing suit. Sensing a theme here!

Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die: Paradise is out November 13 via Interscope. She’ll embark on a short U.K. jaunt next spring.

Lana Del Rey’s 2013 U.K. tour dates
May 12 – Birmingham @O2 Academy
May 15 – Glasgow @ O2 Academy
May 19 – London @ Hammersmith Apollo
May 23 – Manchester @ O2 Apollo
May 26 – Dublin @ Vicar Street