There’s been a growing chorus of female musicians, including Neko CaseIggy AzaleaLordeHaimSky Ferreira and Chvrches, all speaking out against misogyny and sexism in the music industry.

But you’re unlikely to find Lana Del Rey rallying to the cause given comments she’s made in a recent interview where she dismisses feminism as an uninteresting concept.

“For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept,” the American singer tells Fader. “I’m more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what’s going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities. Whenever people bring up feminism, I’m like, god. I’m just not really that interested.”

Kanye West’s wedding singer has long been a punching bag for feminists who have criticised her image and music for the “the way she seems to idealize powerlessness and servitude”, as Fader puts it for their cover story on the vocalist in the lead-up to the release of her new album, Ultraviolence. 

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When pressed upon her views, Del Rey replies: “My idea of a true feminist is a woman who feels free enough to do whatever she wants.” Quizzed about why she’s often portrayed being choked in her music videos and press shots, the singer says, “I like a little hardcore love.”

The interview is timed with the release of the title track from Del Rey’s new album, with lyrics that feature a “little hardcore love” of its own, following the narrative of a ‘Jim’, who “hurt me but it felt like true love.”

The chorus sees Del Rey singing “Ultraviolence/ I can hear sirens, sirens/ He hit me and it felt like a kiss/ I can hear violins, violins,” quoting from ‘He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)‘, the 1962 Phil Spector-produced song by The Crystals. (And while we’re at it, the ‘violins/violence’ double entendré recalls Pearl Jam’s ‘Daughter‘).

The song has already been interpreted by some as an ode to domestic violence, including TIMEwho interestingly reference another Fader interview with Lorde where the New Zealand sensation sates, “I listened to that Lana Del Rey record and the whole time I was just thinking it’s so unhealthy for young girls to be listening to, you know, ‘I’m nothing without you… This sort of shirt-tugging, desperate, don’t leave me stuff. That’s not a good thing for young girls, even young people, to hear.”

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The title track is the fourth and latest song to be heard from Ultraviolence, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and set to drop 13th June, following on from lead single ‘West Coast’, ‘Shades Of Cool’, and a snippet of ‘Brooklyn Baby‘, which features the line: “Yeah, my boyfriend’s really cool/ But he’s not as cool as me.”

Speaking about working on Ultraviolence, Auerbach calls Del Rey “a true eccentric, and, you know, extremely talented” in a recent interview with Rolling StoneShe has a definite vision of what she is and what she wants to be, musically and visually, which is cool… She didn’t really know my music, I didn’t really know her music, to be honest. I knew about her because, you know, she’s in the press so much. But we just hung out and we like talked about music and realized we had things in common.”

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