Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence (REACTION) | Best Friends React
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
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Original video: • Lana Del Rey - Ultravi...
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never ceases to amaze
Lana is known to play with words and sounds alot, in the part where she says “i can hear violins violins” its meant to also sound like “i can hear violence violence” .. i love that part so much
I always thought she was saying “i can hear the sirens sirens”
@@tonypena5324 that’s a different line
And also the sound of violons sounds like sirens
Also how violins represents the drama and sorrow she’s felt. I can hear the sirens sirens… we do too with Lana’s mermaid voice!
Lana has faced a lot of criticism with this song, especially the lyrics “He hit me and it felt like a kiss” (which is taken from a song by The Crystals) because some believe that she is glamorizing abuse. Yet, I think what her intent was to explain an abusive relationship from the perspective of someone being abused but not being able to see it for what it really is. Cult leaders are usually extremely charming yet manipulative people, similar to abusive partners. They show this side to you that seems so loving and genuine, but other times they are nasty and cold. I once heard a domestic abuse survivor say “When you are in an abusive relationship, you don’t realize you are being abused. It feels like you are in a complicated relationship with a complicated person.” The mind wants to justify the situation. I think Lana’s writing is not only beautiful but it challenges you to stop and think. To be into Lana’s music, you have to be willing to listen closely and go deeper. Great reaction, guys! Keep it up!
this was mentioned before.... i think its sad when an artist gets criticized for portraying their point of view.... most of the time the people that complain are offend on behalf of someone, and not actually in a position to be offended themselves, but the people that could relate to that POV arent offended at all... take things for what they are and let art be free of offence
“I can hear violins / violence “ - tryna overshadow toxic abusive relationship and confusing it with LOVE.
"Jim" is in reference to Jim Beam (alcohol). "Ultraviolence" is a term coined from the Anthony Burgess novel where violence against oneself is the worst kind of violence. The song is about alcohol abuse, personified. "You're my cult leader" might refer to cult leader Jim Jones. Lana was an alcoholic when she was younger but she stopped now and doesn't drink alcohol anymore
100% accurate
actually she had a friend named jim
Nicely said beautiful human ❤
will forever be my fave Lana song! 😍😍😍
I completely understand
This is one of my favourite songs by her! The line "he hit me and he felt like a kiss" is a song from the Crystals in the 60s and I think that can sum up the entire song. It's a beautiful and tragic story, but I love that she can portray such emotions in a unique way
Lana is brilliant. One of the best singer/song writers out there.
Lana filmed this amazing video with her iphone 6,greetings from Ecuador 🖐
Great reaction 🔥
iphone 5
It is amazing what she can do in just a few minutes. I've listened to her songs so many times, but I always get caught up in it - like I'm reading a book or a movie. The only difference (and advantage) is - I can read a book, or watch a movie only once in a few years and enjoy it, and that's if it is really really good, which is rare. With Lana's music it can be several times a day if I am in a mood.
I completely agree
ultraviolence vibes just gets better every time i hear this album religiously is an atmosphere not many albuns have
🤣 “she seems so innocent and like she will throw a knife at you at 2:am” I swear I come to you for top tier quotes on Lana lol
And she is so charming and spontaneous, you always want to be around her because how she makes you feel
y’all’s reactions are free serotonin
There was actually a lot of controversy when this song came out. Many people criticized her for glamourizing violent or abusive relationships. She says she no longer sings the line "He hit me and it felt like a kiss" when she performs this song live...
I think outrage over expression is getting to be too much... I firmly believe that most outrage is someone being offend on behalf of someone. And to top that off, the people they defend wouldn't be offended, If anything they can relate and take it as is.
It's like when people get mad about jokes, but the people who get made fun of like it because it normalizes them as long as it isn't filled with hate.
Intent means more than the actual words pretty much 100% of the time
@@BestFriendsReact I agree. As an artist, she should be free to explore any topic she wishes. Some of the elements of Ultraviolence were pulled from her own life. It’s almost like people are more upset about a song that describes an abusive relationship, more than they are about domestic abuse itself!
@@CAMinYYZ gotta love misplaced anger.... said no one ever lol
When you'll watch "Freak" music video just know that video was supposed to be music video for this song,but in 2014 her music label didn't let her release it as a music video for Ultraviolence (idk why). So she filmed new music video with het iPhone 5 and you know what, I'm really happy for it, because i adore this song and video,yeah the lyrics is sad, but it have dreamy feeling to it.
It involved a cult and mass death + she was dealing with the "I wish I were dead already" controversy so they pulled the plug on it
LYRICS EXPLANATION part 1:
“He used to call me DN
That stood for Deadly Nightshade”
He nicknamed Lana after a poisonous plant called Atropa Belladonna or Deadly Nightshade. It was used mainly as a poison to kill or cause delirium or hallucinations.
Deadly Nightshade was also used to treat alcoholism and drug dependency. This method was famously used by William Griffith Wilson, better known as Bill W., the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Bella donna in Italian also stands for pretty woman and or beautiful lady. He nicknames her Deadly Nightshade to resemble that her beauty is alluring but she is destructive and poisonous.
“’Cause I was filled with poison
But blessed with beauty and rage
Jim told me that”
He compares her to the aforementioned flower , since she shares the same qualities. She is beautiful and alluring, yet extremely dangerous and highly destructive - a true femme fatale.
She was “filled with poison” which could mean her previous addiction to alcohol and other drugs.
The sirens in greek mythology were dangerous women who ensnared men that couldn’t resist their beauty, just like Lana.
On an art print from the Ultraviolence: Deluxe Box Set “poison” is transcribed as “passion”.
But I believe this is an error.
“He hit me and it felt like a kiss
Jim brought me back, reminded me of when we were kids”
The line “Hit me and it felt like a kiss” was also used in her unreleased song “Beautiful Player”. It originates from The Crystals' “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)” which was recorded in 1962.
Saying that being physically hurt felt like a kiss, like something good, could mean that she just wants to feel something. Even if it’s pain, she feels it’s still better than feeling nothing. It also could mean that her mind is so twisted, because of the relationship, alcohol, or just because that’s the way it is, that she mistakes the abuse for affection.
Lana is describing an abusive relationship. A technique by abusers is love-bombing, or surrounding the victim with a feeling of undeserved love. This love is then taken away to confuse and gain control over the victim.
Jim (Jimmy, J., Jimmy Gnecco) is a recurring name in Lana’s songs, mainly unreleased, including Hundred Dollar Bill and Jimmy Gnecco. Jim could also refer to “Jim Beam,” an interpretation that would make the song about Lana’s relationship with alcohol.
Jim could be trying to sober her up, which raises him to the level of “savior” in her eyes - someone she comes to rely on for sobriety - but then he uses this status in a dishonorable way, by hitting her. She tells herself that he is only trying to help her, thus a kiss.
This explanation is strengthened by a recent interview:
In the title song of your second album “Ultraviolence” you sing “I love you forever”. Is this a Barrie (Lana’s boyfriend) song?”
“No, “Ultraviolence” looks back on my time in New York. I was, for a while, part of a sloping underground scene, which was dominated by a guru. He believed in the concept of destroying his followers first and then rebuilding them. I fell for him because at that time, I longed for security.”
Jim, could be referring to Jim Morrison from The Doors.
“With his ultraviolence
Ultraviolence
Ultraviolence
Ultraviolence”
The name of the album Ultraviolence, is a phrase coined in the classic novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
This isn’t the first time Lana has quoted the classics, shouting out Nietzsche in “Gods And Monsters”.
Ultraviolence also potentially echoes “ultraviolet,” a type of blue light, possibly linking to the “Shades Of Blue” this man wears.
The parallel with Ultraviolet light extends to its harmful, destructive nature while being invisible and unperceptible - just like Jim’s violence towards her.
“I can hear sirens, sirens
He hit me and it felt like a kiss
I can hear violins, violins
Give me all of that ultraviolence”
She finds pleasure in being abused, and clearly has masochistic tendencies. The violence between them is addictive to her, and she asks Jim to give her all he’s got.
The “ultraviolence” between them is getting so rough that someone called police or an ambulance (hearing sirens). This song is focused on a past relationship, and Sirens is also a 2006 demo album of hers, around the time she knew a Jimmy.
She is comparing the pleasure she receives from being manhandled to the pleasure she gets from hearing music. Violins also represent romance and sadness.
Violence and violins are nearly homophones. The words are next to each other in the dictionary, something Nabokov notes in “Lolita,” a book Del Rey often mentions. She uses the words to emphasize the thin line between love and pain.
It could also be that she is experiencing tinnitus following a head injury during the fight, and the ringing in her ears sounds like sirens and violins.
Sirens could also refer to the mythological creature from Greek mythology by the same name. In the Odyssey by Homer they sirens song was so incredibly luring that the men aboard the ship abandoned ship to get to the beautiful sirens. However this only lead to their deaths. Much in the same way that alcohol can call to an alcoholic. It could also refer to the sirens of an ambulance due to alcohol poising. However if “Jim” is considered to represent a physical person he too could be so alluring that she gives in even though he his harmful to her.
Ultimately she gives in and begs for all of the ultraviolence, which could refer once again to her alcoholic tendencies and thirst for it.
She first uses this line in the unreleased track “Beautiful Player”:
“Hit me and it felt like a kiss
You know it hurts so good, when you do me like this”
Yeeeeeeees i was just checking your videos! Thank you guys!
OMG I LOVE UR LANA REACTIONS PLEASE KEEP THEM GOING
I love getting your Twice's and Lana's reaction on the same day. 2 completely different artists, opposite vibes and just my favorite artists of all time. Thank you really, this song just hit different. ❤
We try to do this everyday, have two completely different types of songs... we also like a balance of dark and light, heavy and catchy... i think if anyone stays in the same lane for too long they get burnt out and start overlooking the precious moments from artists..... i think everyone needs a calm before a storm
@@BestFriendsReact i understand that, it's nice to balance between the 2
Finally!!! Love you guys ❤️
❤
From Genius.com:
In a Kulturnews interview, Lana said that “Ultraviolence” was about a cult leader she met as a member of underground group in New York.
“I used to be a member of an underground sect which was reigned by a guru. He surrounded himself with young girls. He thought that he had to break people first to build them up again. At the end I quit the sect. It sounds kind of weird, but that is what it’s about, and having romantic feelings entwined with the idea of being led and letting go and surrendering. That’s always a concept to me, like I’m wavering between independence and falling into lifestyles and being led.”
- Interview with CultNoise Magazine
It is speculated that she is talking about Atlantic Group, a part of Alcoholics Anonymous, which she joined in the past. They were notorious for their cult behaviour and poor treatment of older men and young women. The Pacific Group (which AG is a branch of) is partly run by a man named Jim, which is name of the character referenced in the song. The lyric could also reference Jim Jones, an infamous cult leader who led a mass suicide of his followers in 1978.
we love to see lana del rey here, more pleaser
LYRICS EXPLANATION part 2:
“He used to call me poison
Like I was Poison Ivy”
Poison Ivy is a toxic vine that causes blistering, itchy rashes upon contact.
Poison Ivy is also that name of a super-villain rival to Batman who lures her enemies with love potions.
Jim feels that Lana has put him under her spell. Despite her poisonous nature, he finds himself incapacitated.
The plant also appears in Driving In Cars With Boys:
“Call me poison ivy ‘cause I’m far from good”
“I could have died right there
'Cause he was right beside me”
The trope of dying alongside a loved one recurs in “Summertime Sadness”.
In Shakespearean poetry, “to die” can also mean “to have an orgasm.”
In 2011 Lana said on Twitter:
“Speaking strictly for me- we both could have died then and there”
This tweet is a quote from Joan Baez’s 1970 track “Diamonds and Rust”. Lana’s 2014 Rolling Stone cover story states that the track inspired this “Ultraviolence” lyric.
“Jim raised me up, he hurt me but it felt like true love
Jim taught me that, loving him was never enough”
The name “Jim” could be a reference to famous The Doors frontman and vocalist Jim Morrison, who Lana has previously name-dropped in her discography, most notably in her 2012 song from Paradise, “Gods and Monsters”. In “Gods and Monsters”, she compares her spirit and Hollywood lifestyle to Jim Morrison, signing:
“No one’s gonna take my soul away
I’m living like Jim Morrison
Headed towards a fucked up holiday”
More likely, “Jim” could be the whiskey, Jim Beam, with the overall theme of Lana’s previous alcohol addiction, such as in the first track of Ultraviolence, “Cruel World” where she uses the metaphor of a man for her alcohol addiction.
“We could go back to New York
Loving you was really hard
We could go back to Woodstock”
Lana grew up in upstate New York and moved to the city to start her career as a singer.
“When I got to New York City when I was 18, I started playing in clubs in Brooklyn,” she told Vogue. This is when she became a Brooklyn baby and a hippie nostalgist.
The 1969 rock music festival, Woodstock was a pivotal moment in hippie counterculture. Del Rey wasn’t born then, but she seems to wish she was. She references the “summer of love back in ‘69” in Summer of Sam.
Del Rey often expresses a feeling of belatedness, as if she belongs in an earlier era (e.g.“the freedom land of the seventies,” referenced in Brooklyn baby). She addressed this once in an interview:
“XL.: What were you searching for when you got into this business?
L.R.: I was looking for an artistic community like Dylan’s, Joan Baez’s or Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg’s beat generation…in the sixties, where they spent their nights writing novels or folk songs. I also sought respect as a writer within that community. And, truthfully, I found neither.”
“Heaven is on Earth”
Lana used a similar lyric to describe a passionate relationship on October 2011’s “Video Games”:
“It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you
Everything I do
I tell you all the time
Heaven is a place on Earth with you”
“Blessed is this union”
She pronounces ‘blessed’ as ‘bless-ed’, paralleling the scriptures:
“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. - Psalm 32:1”
“Yo soy la princesa, comprende mis white lines”
In English: “I am the princess, understand my white lines”
‘White lines’ likely represents lines of cocaine. It could also mean white scars, which are scars that are old and are slowly fading. It could also be a play on “white lies” (i.e. understand me when I’m not telling the truth).
This could also be referring to the phrase “read between the lines”. She is asking her audience to “understand her white lines”, and between the lines of her lyrics are physical white lines. She references literally reading between the lines, and asks her audience to understand the deeper meaning behind her songs.
“’Cause I'm your jazz singer and you're my cult leader
I love you forever, I love you forever”
Lana will always be his muse, he will always be her master.
According to her Grazia’s interview, she was a part of an underground sect controlled by a manipulative guru.
Fans speculate in online forums such as Reddit and Lana Boards that the sect might be Atlantic Group, partly ran in New York by a guy named Jim B by the time Lana lived there. There are many reports that Atlantic Group is an Alcoholics Anonymous group with cult-like tendencies. In her fake twitter account kept since her New York days, Lana has tweeted in 2009, the year when she supposedly attended the sect: “Atlantic Group”. Moreover, considering Lana Del Rey has already struggled with alcoholism, the speculation seems reasonable. Also, Freak music video is about a cult leader and his girls and it was supposed to be Ultraviolence’s music video in the beginning.
The name ‘Jim’ may also be an allusion to infamous cult leader, Jim Jones. In her “Freak” music video, which was supposed to be the Ultraviolence music video but was later discarded, she drinks Kool-Aid, a reference to the Jonestown Massacre, when Jim Jones called a mass suicide by leading over 900 cult members to drink Kool-Aid with cyanide.
“(Lay me down tonight)
(In my linen and curls)
(Lay me down tonight)
(Riviera Girls)”
These lines come from another of Lana’s songs on the album, “Fucked My Way Up to the Top”.
Riviera girls most likely refers to the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino The Riviera, which hosts a topless show called Crazy Girls.
The hotel itself is named after the French Riviera, a wealthy vacation region on the Azur coast in southern France where millionaire jet-setters take their mistresses.
i think trying to explain the lyrics is a futile thing. This is nothing more than your interpretation bases on info you have gathered. It may be correct, it may not be... but trying to tell someone what a song means takes away their ability to draw their own inspiration from the words.
i have found that most the time people just want to apply songs they love to their own life.
@@BestFriendsReact exactly, i see that a lot esp. with Lanas song interpretations(maybe cuz she is sonewhat secretive and reveals not too much but ppl want to know lol), ppl come up w all kinds of weird stories without real backing information kinda out of nowhere but serving it like definite truth lmao(:
You guys need to check out cruel world by her for real. It's from the same album and theres no MV for it but you can find lyric videos on yt.
ruclips.net/video/H7_Vmomi4Ag/видео.html
Here's the link to one of the lyric videos
YEESS
One of the best if not the best song of uv!!!
@@DevKumar-dl5ny definitely the best for me!!
this song is amazing!
my fave duo 🥺
High by the beach next 🧡
You should listen to her live cover of Nirvana's Heart-Shaped Box!
thats been suggested a lot, i think we will check it out after we get done with her official MVs.... It has to be better than the original lol.... (im not the biggest Nirvana fan, i like them for what they are)
@@BestFriendsReact yess!
I love you lana reacts
Can't wait for LOVE
Could you activate the subtitles? Because I want to see your video but I don't know how to speak English, so thanks to the automatic subtitles in Spanish I can understand you

I’m sure I saw an interview out there somewhere where she actually explains this song draws from her brief experience as a member of a cult. It’s a toxic relationship, and can definitely be allegorical, but it’s also literal to an extent.
pls more lana reacts
why do I just realize that ultraviolence is like extra violence lolll, i was so dumb all this time, thinking ultraviolence is ultraviolet 😂
I believe Ultraviolence is the last video for the Ultraviolence album, the next official video is High By the Beach but I suggest to watch the unofficial Honeymoon video, this song is a very dark cinematic intro for the Honeymoon album. ruclips.net/video/JBjBjcBt3pQ/видео.html
Great video You should react to Venice Bitch next it’s one of Lana’s best!!
we are doing her videos in order of release!
“Comprende mis white lines” 👀
reacts to the entire album
My fav song ❤ will you react to Love?
We are doing all the videos in order
Please react to pretty when you cry by Lana it would mean a lot
DN or Deanne.... deadly nightshade lol.
💙
React Lana del rey- freak
Not the cult fanbase😂😂😩 ur not wrong
Can I come over?
She only has like 3 songs from each album to make music videos. It's ashamed bc all of her songs in each album deserve a video.
yeah it sucks when you feel like a song should have a video... i at least understand why they dont. It usually costs way more money to make a video than revenue it creates. Thats why videos are usually made 1 before an album release then 1 or 2 right as the album drops... the promotional aspect is the main reason most artists create videos. Also if you make too many videos, then people will feel like they heard enough of the album and not buy it... rendering the whole process pointless.
There was a band called "Dope", back in the day they made a video for every single song on their album and released it as a special edition... later in an interview they said doing that made it to where it took a few extra years to make another album because of how much it costs, and it made it to where the album never made profit, and their label almost dropped them because of it.
I also think that not every song should have a video.... i think the listener should have to imagine things when hearing a song, and sometimes a video can take away the imagination of the listener.
sry for novel of a reply, it just made me think of these things.
I’ve been binging your Lana journey. I’m wondering…have either of you listened to any Taylor Swift? There’s a lot of mutual respect between Lana and Taylor. Both are modern day lyrical poets, in my opinion. I’ve really enjoyed Taylor’s most recent albums, folklore & evermore. If you haven’t, they are worth a listen, if even in private, for the lyrical acrobatics that Taylor gives.
I like Taylor too, I think she is super talented.. I know a lot of her music but I'll browse around to see if there is any I don't know... Thank you for the suggestion!
It's a perfect abuse relationship