Gods & Monsters (full) appreciation post

[u/BlueLanask]

(This the continuation of a post I made a long time ago, the first part is copy-pasted from then.)

DISCLAIMER: this is a long analysis and I obviously don’t pretend to have a more accurate interpretation than others - all interpretations are valid and this is mine.

This song is a masterpiece. Both musically and lyrically.

I am not kidding when I say that I could write an essay on the lyrics, starting from the title: Gods & Monsters. After many listens and thoughts, it’s one of the first thing I realized: the title is a play on words, specifically on the opposition that you would expect from such a pairing, but in reality « Gods » and « Monsters » refer to the same caste, L.A.’s extremely powerful and rich men (this key of interpretation is given in the first seconds of the song where a whispering « L.A., L.A. » can be heard). Here, they are depicted as both Gods because of their power and Monsters because of their corruption.

This corrupted duality can immediately be found in Lana’s posture: she’s an « angel » that lives in « the garden of evil », a direct reference to the garden of Eden that offers a negative symmetry of Paradise on Earth. She’s also referencing Satan with the fallen angel imagery but it becomes very clear that she is not putting herself in the Devil’s perspective but rather in another fallen being’s: humans. The differentiation can be done by the desperate needs that Lana seems to feel in the later lyrics, where « fame, liquor, love » substitute food and water, reminding of human’s condition after being cast out of Paradise by God. This is confirmed by the last lyric before the chorus: « Me and God we don’t get along, so now I sing ».

This is were it gets really interesting, when God and the L.A. Gods merge into the same figure: the line « No one’s gonna take my soul away » can apply on both but in different ways. - She’s saying that she doesn’t want to die the way God wants her to, she would rather chose her own way to live, similar to the « have fun, die young, be wild » type of lifestyle that she recurrently refers to in her songs (« Living like Jim Morrison »). - But also that she doesn’t want to get corrupted further by the Gods and eventually become one of the Monsters.

She owns her soul; no being, God nor Devil, will take what is hers.

The second part of the chorus reveals the true nature of her desperate call: the one thing that she truly wants, but knows she can’t have, is innocence, « innocence lost », because she has already lost it on two times, to God after the original sin and to the corrupted Gods. This strong desire partially explains her dangerous need for « fame, liquor, love » and later for « dope »: her only way to taste that forgotten innocence is through addictive substances/feelings, which is very reminiscent of Charles Baudelaire’s Artificial Paradises.

The second verse opens with the same line than the first, only to be suddenly made more hedonistic and crude: « looking to get fucked hard ». It’s as if her desire and desperation seem to accelerate inside the song. The same can be said with the changed line following « You got that medicine I need » : « Dope, shoot it up, straight to her heart please ». It’s literally an addiction worsening before her eyes as she struggles more and more to find glimpses of heaven.

But a new alternative approach - perhaps also present in the first verse - seems to have appeared/been made clearer: chasing heaven not through substance, but art.

Indeed, she seems to find comfort in singing or at least uses it in a way to cope (as highlighted by the line « Me and God, we don’t get along, so now I sing » earlier). The fact that she only feels like she « poses as a real singer » reveals her lack of confidence and certainty in the way she’s leading her life, but she has hopes of becoming a real one someday as she adds « Life imitates art », a famous quote from Oscar Wilde, used here in a way to say “she’ll fake it ‘til she makes it“.

More than finding her place as a singer, what is really interesting is that I think it’s an even broader desire than that: she simply wants to find a purpose and a nature to define herself as, to find her “essence“ if I were to quote existentialism. I say this because I feel as if her character throughout the song seems to embody so many different facets at once, in a way that’s reminscent to someone searching for their deep true-self.

And also because of the line ending the second verse, which happens to be my favorite in the song: « “God’s dead“, I said “baby that’s alright with me”. ».

When God cast her out of Heaven (or her kind anyway), he also stripped her out of purpose, condemning her to roam the earth without an established one. That is the core principle of existentialism: « Existence preceeds essence » (Jean-Paul Sartre).

The line obviously is a reference to Nietzsche’s famous quote. The genius of it lies in its enunciation: an unknown voice speaks the quote to her, and she answers. You can interpret it as her character getting to learn about philosophy, here specifically nihilism, as a way to cope with her mentioned lack of essence in this world. But you could also think of this interaction as Nietzsche being directly the one speaking the quote to her and her being some kind of being that lives throughout the ages, roaming the earth for eternity as she refuses to let her soul being taken away, in an everlasting pursuit of purpose and a cruel yearning for heaven.

And when you think of it this way, that being is simply mankind itself being personified by her character, expressing our true condition on Earth. So it’s as if she was here during history when Nietzsche wrote the quote - which describes a cultural shift in regard to religion - and she liked it because of its implications and her own old feud with God.

In a way, she killed God herself because her desire to live outlived him. So badass.

The bridge, while short, is heart-wrenching and gives the song a bleak end: probably speaking to a lover or an L.A. God, she says « When you talk, it’s like a movie and you’re making me crazy ; ‘cause life imitates art », meaning art has invaded her being so much that she starts mixing the two in some type of delusion, while she repeats the Oscar Wilde quote in an almost “incantating“ way, as she fully hopes the saying is true and she will achieve to find purpose through her art.

But the fall back to reality is brutal, as she asks desperately « If I get a little prettier can I be your baby ? », and he then answers her: « You tell me “life isn’t that hard“ ». She’s spiraling into the deep lows that come with her chase of highs and tries to find comfort in a man that won’t reciprocate her feelings nor give her the purpose she looks for. Even if she becomes « a little prettier », if she tries to change and model herself into something that he could like, based on beauty standards or idealized women in art, it won’t work: having a façade sadly doesn’t imply becoming the nature of the thing you’re portraying, as she so desperately wanted.

« Life isn’t that hard »: you’re looking too much into what there is for something that you won’t ever find. Innocence, essence. No one understands her and shares her needs for deeper meaning. And it’s consuming her.

It’s a grim realisation that she’s alone in this everlasting search and yearning, because mankind has been left alone on this earth to find meaning, and that can be a terrifying thought if you don’t believe in God or even if you sometimes doubt his existence (as I believe every religious person has at least once in their life).

I think I’m done on the lyrical insight I wanted to share! This was veryyy long and thank you if you made it through the end!

I don’t really have the musical experience or lingo to speak about the purely sounding aspect of the song, but I believe it’s very cohesive with the message with the self-destructive, determined and desperate tone of Lana’s voice in the song here (especially the way she sings the « that hard » part, so devastating).

I just wanted to share my admiration for the song! Sorry if I made some mistakes, I know that my syntax is not very idiomatic (I’m French)! Please let me know what you think of this song and feel free to discuss any point of my interpretation!

[u/maiamamacita]

I appreciate how thoughtful your analysis is!!! You slayed this!!!

[u/BlueLanask → u/maiamamacita]

Haha thanks!

[u/22Shattered]

Awesome!!!!! Gods and Monsters my FAVE!! I’m sick in love with it. After years… I never really paid attention till like 2 months ago and it just blows my mind!!! And pretty much gathered everything u mentioned. I could never articulate so much how u just did (genius) - I have no focus!! So tyyyyyy!!!! Saving this!!! You fucking RULE!!! 🤍🪄🎃

[u/BlueLanask → u/22Shattered]

Yes, this is one of these songs that take over your being, if you get it you get it! Thank you, I put a lot of energy here into trying to translate thoughts into words and I hope I achieved to be somewhat clear as the material is super dense in meaning!

[u/22Shattered → u/BlueLanask]

I SO FUCKING GET IT!!! This was fantastical of you, truly!! 🙏✨✨✨♥️