According to Brenna Ehrlich of MTV News, "Ultraviolence" tells the story of a "typical Lana Del Rey romantic relationship: broken, failed and painful." The song contains a reference of The Crystals’ 1962 single "He Hit Me " in its chorus. Kevin Rutherford of Radio.com remarked that "Ultraviolence" maintained the theme of songs previously released from the album, it "ups the lilting, low-tempo, strings-heavy form" Del Rey had established in her earlier work. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine described "Ultraviolence" as a "laconic, string-laden torch song". In the line "I can hear sirens sirens, he hit me and it felt like a kiss," Del Rey references the 1962 The Crystals song "He Hit Me ", and, according to Harriet Gibson of The Guardian, "appear to romanticise brutality". A writer for the Music Times commented that the "violins, lightly thumping drums and Del Rey's angelic singing" gave the song a "church-y" feel, pointing out that the track presented her "title sound".
Critical response
Nolan Feeney of Time criticized the song for its glorification of domestic violence, mentioning Lorde's comment on Del Rey's music, "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." However, Feeney also stated that Del Rey would "likely" not endorse the "screwed-up tales of vice and luxury" her character, Lana Del Rey, sings about. While noting that Del Rey did not offer a positive or negative opinion on domestic violence, Harley Brown of Spin said that the lyrics to the song could generate controversy, especially since Del Rey dismissed feminism in a recent interview with The Fader, saying "For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept. 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." By the end of 2014, NME named "Ultraviolence" the 32nd best song of the year.
Music video
A music video, shot entirely on an iPhone on the 8mm Vintage Camera app, was released on July 30, 2014 by Noisey. It was directed by Francesco Carrozzini, and shows Del Rey wearing a white wedding dress with a veil and a bouquet of flowers in her hands, wandering around an outside setting and later entering a church. The video is set at Portofino, in Italy, and the church where Del Rey enters at the end is San Sebastiano Church.
Track listing
;Digital download
"Ultraviolence" – 4:41
;Digital download
"Ultraviolence" — 5:29
Credits
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Ultraviolence. ;Performance credits
