Black Bathing Suit

Album: Blue Banisters (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song takes place in the COVID lockdown. It starts with Lana Del Rey romantically frustrated. She wants a boyfriend to eat ice cream and watch TV with, someone to walk home with from the mall, but she's stuck inside quarantining.
  • The rest of the song finds the singer dealing with the criticisms she's faced throughout her career, accusations of antifeminism, glamorizing abuse, and white privilege. She asks a potential boyfriend if he can cope with dating a so-called bad girl.

    And what I never said, why there's a price on my head
    It's nothing to do with them, it's my karmic lineage
    So I'm not friends with my mother, but I still love my dad
    Untraditional lover, can you handle that?
  • The title comes from Del Rey's wish that any prospective lover see beyond her body. Rather than focusing on her outside (her black bathing suit) and celebrity status, the songstress wants him to see she is attractive inside, too.

    I wish you could see to my soul through this black bathing suit
    You don't know me any better than they do, baby
    'Cause I sing like an angel, my heart's like one, too
  • Lana Del Rey wrote the song with:

    Wyes Blood collaborator Drew Erickson. He contributed to six Blue Banisters tracks, including the single "Arcadia."

    Zach Dawes, the bassist for side-project outfits the Last Shadow Puppets and Mini Mansions.
  • Zach Dawes produced the song with frequent Del Rey mixer and engineer Dean Reid.

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