… You can look but you can’t touchI don’t think I like you muchHeaven knows what a girl can doHeaven knows what you’ve got to prove
The feral brainchild of Los Angeles-based multimedia artist and producer Sam An, Lana Del Rabies defies the confines of conventional genre. Del Rabies channels an avant-garde sensibility, drawing on the experimental post-punk of Fad Gadget and John Foxx, the eerie mystique of Delia Derbyshire’s BBC experiments, and a nod to Karlheinz Stockhausen’s radical compositions. These influences are infused with the atmospheric noise collages reminiscent of Puce Mary and Zola Jesus’s NIKA, pulsing with grief, loss, and despair. The result is an unsettling, emotional exploration of a fractured world, unapologetically raw and relentless.
As Lana Del Rabies gears up for her European tour with Pharmakon and Kollaps, she offers a bold, unnerving take on Garbage’s 1998 hit”I Think I’m Paranoid.” Sam An transforms Shirley Manson’s glossy pop hook into something far more sinister and unsettling—stripping away the 90s production polish to reveal the raw tension beneath within the actual lyrics.
The Lana Del Rabies cover trades the original’s radio-friendly sheen for a darker, more primal soundscape, where static, noise, and howls converge. The track feels like a descent into the subconscious, where the pressures of a hard world bubble up to the surface. It’s less of a cover than a full reimagining of the song into a fierce exploration of the fractured psyche, laden with the grit and pain that lurks behind the lyrics. In An’s hands, the fully deconstructed “I Think I’m Paranoid” transforms into a cautionary tale of survival in a brutal, unforgiving world and a magic spell conjuring divine protection.
The self-directed visualizer mirrors the track’s unsettling tone, filled with static-laden, glitchy transmissions and slow-motion shots of a woman grappling with anguish. It plays out like an exorcism, purging the weight of years of gaslighting, manipulation, and emotional suppression. The sluggish beat and cavernous echoes amplify the sense of suffocation, as the woman’s screams reverberate through an empty void. The video transforms the rawness of personal pain into something almost tangible—a palpable release of long-buried trauma. It’s a visceral confrontation with the ghosts of psychological warfare, using fractured imagery and dissonance to underscore the desperation for escape and liberation.
Watch the video for “I Think I’m Paranoid” below:
Lana Del Rabies made a grand re-entrance in 2023 with STREGA BEATA, her first record after a five-year game of hide and seek. With this album, she planted her flag firmly in the realm of dark electronic and experimental music, infusing it with a flavor of apocalyptic angst that’s more maximal than your uncle’s holiday light display.
Listen to Paranoid below and order here.
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