Tear Jerker / Lana Del Rey

• ''Blackest Day." Everything about this song wants to punch you in the face with emotions.
• It's rare that Lana focuses her songs on joyful, happy times at all, but particular songs such as "Old Money", "Honeymoon" and "Terrence Loves You" have been noted among fans for being some of her most saddest, tear-jerking ballads.
• Hell, most of her discography counts. Even if she sings a simple song about love (Lucky Ones) it sounds utterly tragic due to her overall sound. Her unreleased content for that matter is either 1: MORE depressing or 2: Slightly less so.
• "Ride" and its video.
• "Terrence Loves You", dear God.
• "Dark Paradise," about mourning The Lost Lenore.
  And there's no remedy for memory,
  your face is like a melody. It won't leave my head.
  Your soul is haunting me,
  and telling me that everything is fine,
  but I wish I was dead...
• "Carmen"
• On her Dublin performance 'meltdown' which doubles as heartwarming:
  "I’d been sick on tour for about two years with this medical anomaly that doctors couldn’t figure out [...] It was just heavy. It’s just heavy performing for people who really care about you, and you don’t really care that much about yourself sometimes. I thought it was sad. I thought my position was sad. I thought it was sad to be in Ireland singing for people who really cared when I wasn’t sure if I did."
• The song "13 Beaches" is in itself a very melancholic, poignant track, but it gets worse when Lana stated during an interview that it was based on the time in Summer 2016 where she had to drive to 13 different beaches before she could find one with no paparazzi or fans, so that she could be alone to read. She also mentioned in another interview that fans have once or twice broke into her house and she's had to ring the police on them. It really hits hard to think that Lana's had to deal with this, that people will go so far to overstep these boundaries and violate Lana's privacy in order to get a photo of her. Unfortunately, Lana isn't the only one who has had to deal with this, and it's a harrowing yet unfortunately not-new part of fame and celebrity life.
• "Old Money" is a tearjerker in more ways than just Lana lamenting on a lost relationship, a trope not new to her. The narrative also seems to portray Lana mourning over her younger years, and how she's aware that she's no longer the youthful, free-spirited "Lolita"-type person "Born to Die" invokes. This is especially noticeable in the lines "The power of youth is on my mind; sunsets, small town, I'm out of time", and how the first part "The kids were young and pretty" appears again at the end, only this time she says "and we were young and pretty", implying that she and her lover were the aforementioned kids. The reality of growing up and loss of youth is a rite of passage that we all go through, and for this reason it hits home particularly hard.
  • Thankfully, Lana seems to feel more optimistic about growing up, since the release of "Love", in which she directly says "It doesn't matter if I'm not enough, for the future or the things to come - cos I'm young, and in love."
• "Change", a last-minute addition to the album Lust For Life has to be the most saddest yet most hopeful and thought-provoking song on the entire album, even Lana's career so far. With a piano packing and Lana's hypnotising vocals and harmonies, the song mostly details the political climate of 2017 as well as the turbulent events throughout the world both positive (the woman's march in January, breakthroughs in ALS research, the world banding together in tough times to help those who are less fortunate or have been struck by disasters around the world) and negative events (despicable acts of terrorism throughout the world, the Humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, tensions between North Korea, Russia and the US at an all time low). 2017 was a scary year for many reasons and times are still just as scary today. The song is mostly a cry to the youth of today to be ready for the future where change is bound to come and step forward to be role models and leaders for this positive change. Even with all the bad stuff happening around us that we can't escape, we have to be ready to be one with our future.
  • The song also shares similarities with the graphic novel and animated short film When the Wind Blows, which tells the poignant story of a couple being futilely optimistic in a nuclear holocaust, despite doom being unavoidable. The film is a heavy anti-nuclear-war message that was made during the time of the Cold War.
  • Lana even makes direct references to the aftermaths of nuclear conflict, though they may be reflective metaphors.
  "There's something in the water, I can taste it turning sour; It's bitter, I'm coughing, but now it's in my blood."
• Her cover of "The Other Woman."
• "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it" has Lana referencing the poet Sylvia Plath, as well as her own experiences with depression.
  "Don't ask if I'm happy - you know that I'm not, but at best I can say I'm not sad."
  "It's the only thing that's got this black narcissist off my back; she couldn't care less, and I never cared more, so there's no more to say about that."
• "The greatest" counts in that it's about a generation that has given up, and the overall song sounds so desperately hopeless. There's a fair few references to recent tragedies and political events. This song is so political that it could be mistaken for being on Lust For Life.
  "The culture is lit, and if this is it, I had a ball - I guess that I'm burned out after all."
  "If this is it, I'm signing off. I miss doin' nothing the most of all. Hawaii just missed a fireball, LA's in flames and it's getting hot. Kanye West is blond and gone."
• In response to the back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso in August 2019, Lana released a song titled "Looking For America". There's no reason to explain why this one is a tearjerker.
  "I'm still looking for my own version of America: One without the gun, where the flag can freely fly. No bombs in the sky, only fireworks when you and I collide. It's just a dream I had in mind."
• "Summertime Sadness", a tragic lost relationship between women, inspired by Lana's real life best friend who had committed suicide. Be it the fact that they are apart, or that they are 'kindred spirits,' the two lovers commit suicide separately.
• "White Dress" has Lana looking back on simpler times as Lizzie Grant the waitress, particularly with lines like "I felt seen" and "It kind of makes me feel like maybe I was better off". Consider how misunderstood and criticized Lana has been over the years, accused of being fake, accused of being a bad role model, all just for creating the art she wants. She yearns for a time when she didn't face such harsh judgment.
• The two-punch "Kintsugi" and "Fingertips" qualifies. The former deals with Lana coping with the loss of many of her relatives over the last few years and the impact her schedule had on her familial relationships while the latter retells a number of traumatic experiences she experienced growing up, including two suicide attempts, a boyfriend who died in an accident and a poor relationship with her mother. The latter hits particularly hard at around 3:48 where she deliberately self-censors the line "What kind of mother was she to say I'd end up in institutions?" as though "mother" was a slur.

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