“Paris, Texas” by Lana Del Rey (ft. SYML)
“Paris, Texas”, which was made public on 24 March 2023, marks Lana Del Rey’s first official collaboration with SYML, aka Brian Fennell, a musician from Washington. Apparently, SYML doesn’t contribute any vocals. Rather, besides being credited as a co-writer and co-pianist of “Paris, Texas”, this song samples “I Wanted to Leave”, an instrumental he dropped in 2020.
Del Rey, who produced this track alongside Jack Antonoff, is its other writer. And “Paris, Texas” can be found on the songstress’s studio album “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd”, which also came out on the aforenoted date.
The Lyrics of “Paris, Texas”
The poetic motif of these lyrics revolve around the vocalist referencing a number of US localities – “Paris, Texas” as well as Spain, Georgia, a part of Alabama known as Florence and Venice, California – which are named after prominent places found in Europe.
To note, this approach and the song’s title were apparently inspired by the fact that SYML wrote the aforementioned “I Wanted to Leave” in Paris, France.
But what those are meant to illustrate is the vocalist’s recent travels. All lyrics considered, she apparently set off from her home in California, ventured east to Texas, then further east Georgia, then going southwest to Alabama and full westward again, back to Cali.
But more to the point is why she did so. As implied in the first verse, that would be because of a troubled relationship she is in with the addressee. We can presume that said addressee is a romantic interest, but such is never specified.
Either way, the way the situation reads is as if Lana got so frustrated for whatever reason that she just grabbed her suitcase and bounced, enjoying some me time traveling across small-town America. Or as poetically put forth in the post-chorus, it’s as if she was feeling so depressed that she had to make some kind of move to free her spirit.
“When you know, you know
When you know, you know
It’s time, it’s time to go
When you know, you know
That it’s time to leave
Like the summer breeze”
But unfortunately the story seems to end on a sad note, as upon returning home, now it appears as if the addressee too has decided to bounce. So there’s a lot of different ways in which this story can be interpreted in terms of theorizing as to what Lana’s sentimental intent would be.
But we can come to our own theoretical conclusion by putting forth that this relationship she’s in is sort of a no-win situation. In other words, the vocalist evidently did what she felt she needed to do, i.e. get away for a while, in order for her relationship with the addressee to continue. But the other party probably didn’t see it that way, rather being offended by her sudden departure, thus potentially making matters worse than they were beforehand.
Singles from “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd”
These are the singles Lana used in supporting this album:
