My appreciation for this song is half fueled by a love for Lana Del Rey‘s voice, and half fueled by nostalgia.
Admist her new tour announcement and working with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys on her new album, Ultraviolence, Lana Del Rey managed to score a gig singing the title track to what’s sure to be a major summer blockbuster, and remake of a timeless classic.
“Once Upon A Dream“ is a classic fairytale-associated tune that, upon hearing, will take you way, way back to pigtail years when you would lay on the floor and figure out which richly-colored, animated Princess you liked most. Hearing it through the hazy, haunting voice of Lana Del Rey makes it all the more magical. Adding a dark side to this classic track makes sense when you consider how the song us applied:
This track appears on the soundtrack of Maleficent, a new film by Disney hitting theaters May 30, 2014, and starring Angelina Jolie as the evil queen, herself.
I love the epic slowness that the song projects. It takes forever to get the song started, then Lana’s droning vocals slowly drag the song along in a dazed but delighted way. Her signature nonchalant confidence shines through perfectly through the slide-ridden verses that sound about half asleep and half stoned. That effect definitely compliments the spooky dreaminess that Maleficent and Disney villain-ship conjure.
Lana was reportedly selected by Angelina, herself, to cover the title song for Maleficent. The two of them seem like they probably see eye to eye on a lot of different potentially-disturbing topics… I would love to ask them about this song and also about lip products. I can’t think of two better mouths.
Maleficent is (obviously) a riff on Sleeping Beauty – a film with a focus on the perceived villain, directed by Robert Stromberg (his directorial debut! He’s done visual effects for Hunger Games, Avatar, Boardwalk Empire and others). Elle Fanning will play Princess Aurora, and Juno Temple will play Thistlewit. I’m digging and searching for other hints of other songs on the soundtrack, but am coming up with air.
Check out the Maleficent trailer:
Listen to “Once Upon A Dream” Online
Purchase this song
- Amazon, $1.29
- Google Play, $1.29
- iTunes, $1.29
If you have faith in Stromberg’s vision of Maleficent, and want to put in your The soundtrack will drop on May 27th, but you can score a $15 pre-order of the soundtrack on Amazon.
Lana Del Rey’s album, Ultraviolence (which references a phrase in author Anthony Burgess’s 1962 book A Clockwork Orange), will hopefully be out around May 1, but there’s no confirmed date. She announced the album at the end of the premier of her short film, Tropico.
View Lana Del Rey’s short film, Tropico, here:
Past Tunesday features can be found here.
Or just listen to the Tunesday playlist on Spotify: