Lana Del Rey released her latest video on her Twitter account last night with the caption "new video," and it turns out the description signaled a pared down aesthetic for the chanteuse. After a series of music videos marked by their retro melodrama (or tigers or A$AP Rocky or aged bikers), Lana del Rey might be moving towards the simple.
The video shows a straightforward, but lovely/haunting cover of Leonard Cohen's song about his brief affair with Janis Joplin—"Chelsea Hotel #2" from his 1974 album New Skin for the Old Ceremony.
Del Rey's got that cigarette-smoked sultry voice thing going on, with nothing more dramatic than feather earrings, talon nails, spidery fake eyelashes, and Marlboro Reds as props. And you know what? This video comes without a heartfelt introduction ripped straight from a feeling-fueled diary and this works for her. Her last release, Born to Die—Paradise Edition was an expansion of her 2012 album Born to Die.