Lana Del Rey’s sadness strikes a chord with fans

Singer/songwriter Lana Del Rey’s mercurial mood has taken her down yet another fork on her melancholy path.

The 32-year-old chanteuse, whose somber, ethereal voice provides a ghostly complement to the old-Hollywood image she reflects, released her latest album, “Lust for Life,” in July. Considering that two of her previous albums were titled “Born to Die” and “Ultraviolence” — names that might be expected from a punk rock or heavy metal band — that title could have been seen as representing a sea change in attitude.

But Del Rey, who performs at the Waikiki Shell on Wednesday, doesn’t fully embrace romantic euphoria. Many of her songs still feel ominous, like the title track, with its lines, “They say only the good die young / That just ain’t right / ’Cause we’re having too much fun / Too much fun tonight.”

In “13 Beaches,” a song prompted by her experience trying to get away from paparazzi, she sings, “It hurts to love you / But I still love you / It’s just the way I feel / And I’d be lying / If I kept hiding / The fact that I can’t deal.”

Del Rey’s career trajectory, in terms of record sales and chart positions, has skyrocketed since her breakout single “Video Games.” But along the way, she’s faced an inordinate amount of criticism, ranging from inauthenticity and overcommercialization — her cinematic, richly orchestrated sound seems overproduced to some — to being an anti-feminist, because of a sense of passivity that some saw in her songs. (Her response is simply that she is expressing her own experiences and views and not offering advice to anyone.)

In an indication of how modern-day musicians become stars, much of her popularity was gained through YouTube. In a June 2014 feature, The New York Times wrote that Del Rey has “gathered an adoring worldwide audience that takes her every lyric to heart.”

Her YouTube videos are distinctively emotive. They’ll include effects like grainy video of carefree youths frolicking on the beach, evoking nostalgia even in people who have never shared the experience.

Del Rey herself appears in romantic images that are dreamy but not explicitly steamy, her songs expressing a winking sexuality occasionally jarred by some rough street language.

“I want one of two things,” she told the New York Times, explaining her songwriting style. “I either want to tell it exactly like the way it was, or I want to envision the future the way I hope it will become. I’m either documenting something or I’m dreaming.”

Del Rey was born Elizabeth Grant and grew up in Lake Placid, N.Y. She played in clubs and coffee shops as a teen, but it wasn’t until college that she signed a recording contract, producing an EP under the name May Jailer and then an album, “Lizzy Grant a.k.a. Lana Del Ray,” before adopting Lana Del Rey as her regular stage name.

“Lizzy Grant” contained songs like “Kill Kill” and “Bad Disease,” an indication that she was hardly a pop princess who would sing and sway to happy tunes while others shaped the sound. Over the years, she’s demonstrated that she would be deeply invested in her work, getting involved in production work like mastering and mixing.

“She’s very clear about what she wants and doesn’t want,” said Rick Nowels, who co-wrote “Young and Beautiful,” a Del Rey hit that was part of the soundtrack for “The Great Gatsby,” in the 2014 Times story. “She is the captain of her own ship.”

Her debut album as Lana Del Rey, “Born to Die” (2012), included “Video Games” and started her off on a string of chart-topping, platinum- and gold-selling recordings. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart.

The next album, “Ultraviolence” (2013), peaked at No. 1, with The New York Times commenting that it “reaches deeper into her slow-motion sense of time, her blend of retro sophistication and seemingly guileless candor.” Her 2015 album “Honeymoon” reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.

“Lust for Life” — which features collaborations with Stevie Nicks and Sean Lennon, as well as rappers A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti, The Weeknd and other accomplished artists — reached No. 1 a month after its release. Her work is extremely popular in Europe, with gold and platinum sales in Germany, Italy, the U.K., France and Italy. Moviegoers might recognize her voice in Disney’s “Maleficent,” where she sang “Once Upon a Dream.”

Her popularity has come at a price. She had to drop out of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington because so many fans were following her rather than getting involved in the cause, and her home has been broken into several times over the years. Earlier this month, a man was arrested near one of her performances in Orlando, Fla., after online posts were seen as a threat. He had a ticket to her concert and a knife. She’s trying to take all that in stride.

“The way I’ve come to see it over the last seven years is, I think the people who are interested are very interested,” she said in a recent interview with NPR. “They would love to just be in the house. It’s not like they take anything — it’s like they love to see what’s on the wall. … I just really have come to terms with the fact that I am in such a unique situation.”