Lana Del Rey has built an entire empire on the aesthetics of sadness, but some songs feel less like a performance and more like an open wound. If you’ve spent any time digging through the deluxe editions of her discography, you’ve probably stumbled upon is this happiness lana del rey. It’s not just a bonus track. It’s a haunting, piano-driven skeleton of a song that appeared exclusively on the iTunes Store deluxe version of her 2014 album, Ultraviolence.
Why does this one song still keep people up at night?
Maybe it’s because it feels like a secret. It wasn't on the standard CD. It wasn't on the vinyl for years. It was tucked away, almost like she didn't want everyone to see it, or perhaps she knew only the most dedicated fans would bother to find it. Honestly, it’s one of the most raw things she has ever put to tape.
The Sound of Mid-Century Melancholy
Most of Ultraviolence is heavy. It’s thick with Dan Auerbach’s psychedelic rock influence, fuzzy guitars, and crashing drums. But is this happiness lana del rey strips all of that away. You get a piano. You get some atmospheric synth textures that feel like a cold fog rolling in over the Pacific. And you get her voice, which sounds tired. Not "I need a nap" tired, but "I have seen too much" tired.
The song was co-written and produced by Rick Nowels. Nowels is a legend. He worked on "Summertime Sadness," "Young and Beautiful," and "West Coast." He knows how to bottle Lana’s specific brand of nostalgia. In this track, he lets the silence do the heavy lifting. The chords are minor, repetitive, and circling a drain of indecision. It captures that specific moment in a relationship where you realize the "passion" everyone talks about is actually just high-functioning chaos.
What the Lyrics are Actually Saying
Lana is a master of the reference. In is this happiness lana del rey, she name-drops Hunter S. Thompson. She mentions The Hell's Angels. It’s classic Lana—linking her personal turmoil to the gritty, drug-fueled Americana of the 1960s and 70s.
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"One gun on the table, head on my shoulders"
That line is jarring. It’s meant to be. The song explores a dynamic that is frankly pretty toxic. She’s questioning whether the lifestyle she’s chosen—the "Bohemian" dream of writers, whiskey, and wildness—is actually fulfilling. The title isn't a statement. It’s a desperate question. Is this happiness? Or is it just a lack of boredom?
People often mistake Lana’s lyrics for a glorification of abuse. That’s a shallow take. If you listen to the way she sings "You think you're Hunter S. Thompson / I think you're crazy, kid," you can hear the eye-roll. She’s calling out the pretension of the men she surrounds herself with while acknowledging her own addiction to the drama.
Why the Song is So Hard to Find
Streaming has made us lazy. We expect everything to be on Spotify or Apple Music at the click of a button. But for the longest time, is this happiness lana del rey was a digital ghost. Because it was an "iTunes Bonus Track," it didn't always carry over to other platforms during the early days of streaming rights.
This scarcity added to the lore. Fans would hunt down high-quality rips on YouTube or Tumblr. It became a badge of honor to know the lyrics. Even now, while it’s more widely available, it feels like a "deep cut." It belongs to the Ultraviolence era, which many critics—including those at Pitchfork and Rolling Stone—now view as her most cohesive and artistically daring period.
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The Production Nuances You Probably Missed
If you listen with good headphones, you’ll hear the "room." You can hear the dampening of the piano strings. It’s not a "clean" pop vocal. There’s a slight grain to it.
- Vocal Layering: Unlike the lush, operatic layers on Born to Die, this track uses a very close-mic technique. It sounds like she's whispering in your ear from across a dimly lit bar.
- The Tempo: It’s slow. Draggingly slow. It mimics the feeling of being stuck in a cycle you can't break.
- The Bridge: The bridge doesn't offer a big emotional payoff. It just sinks deeper.
This song marks the bridge between the "Lizzy Grant" persona and the "Norman F***ing Rockwell" era. It’s the sound of an artist stripping away the artifice. She’s not "Lolita lost in the hood" here. She’s just a woman in a room with a piano, wondering why she feels so empty.
Comparing the Track to "Flipside"
You can't talk about is this happiness lana del rey without mentioning "Flipside." Both were bonus tracks. Both are devastating. While "Flipside" is more guitar-heavy and aggressive, "Is This Happiness" is the comedown. It’s the "morning after" the argument.
Most artists put their "leftover" songs on the deluxe version. Lana, however, often puts her most revealing work there. These tracks provide the context for the rest of the album. Without this song, Ultraviolence is a record about a chaotic relationship. With this song, it’s a record about the regret of that chaos.
Impact on the "Sad Girl" Aesthetic
Lana Del Rey basically invented the modern "Sad Girl" aesthetic that dominated the 2010s. You can see its fingerprints on everyone from Lorde to Billie Eilish to Olivia Rodrigo. But is this happiness lana del rey is different from the TikTok-ified version of sadness we see now.
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It’s not "aesthetic" sadness. It’s "my life is actually falling apart and I don't know how to fix it" sadness. It’s uncomfortable. It’s the kind of song that makes people want to check on their friends.
The track has seen a resurgence lately on platforms like TikTok, where users pair the audio with "cinematic" shots of their own lives. It’s ironic, considering the song is a critique of trying to turn pain into a movie. But that’s the Lana paradox. She makes misery look so beautiful that we all want a piece of it.
How to Fully Experience the Song
To actually "get" this track, you can't listen to it on shuffle while you're at the gym. It won't work. It’s a specific vibe for a specific time.
- Wait for the right atmosphere. Late at night, preferably when it’s raining or cold outside.
- Listen to it in the context of the album. Play "Old Money," then "The Other Woman," and finish with "Is This Happiness." That three-song run is a masterclass in atmospheric storytelling.
- Read the lyrics while listening. Pay attention to the way she says "Witch Hazel." It’s such a specific, medicinal image. It suggests healing, but also something stinging.
- Watch the fan-made visuals. Since there’s no official music video, the fan community has created some incredible montages using old 8mm film footage that perfectly match the song's energy.
Is this happiness lana del rey remains a cornerstone for the fanbase because it represents the moment she stopped trying to be a "pop star" and started being a poet. It’s a short, bleak, and beautiful window into a mind that is constantly questioning the price of fame and the cost of love.
If you're building a definitive Lana Del Rey playlist, this isn't optional. It’s the heart of the Ultraviolence era. It’s the question that defines her entire career. And the fact that she doesn't answer the question by the end of the song? That’s the most Lana Del Rey thing about it.
Next Steps for the Deep-Dive Fan:
- Check the Credits: Look up the work of Rick Nowels on the Honeymoon album to see how the "stripped back" sound of "Is This Happiness" evolved into her jazzier, more cinematic later work.
- Physical Media: If you're a collector, look for the Japanese CD release of Ultraviolence. It's one of the few physical formats that actually includes both "Flipside" and "Is This Happiness" on the same disc.
- Lyric Comparison: Compare the themes in this song to her poetry book, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass. You'll find the same obsession with the "cult of personality" and the search for authentic joy in a manufactured world.