Lana Del Rey is again in all her glory on her newest album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Below Ocean Blvd, a 16-track victory lap round a outstanding profession apex that’s lasted for years and doesn’t appear to be coming to an finish any time quickly.
It’s been stated earlier than, however the March 24-released report is peak Lana: sprawling melodies, caustic lyrics perfumed with wilted roses and cigarette smoke, and most significantly, little regard for pop music’s guidelines. It’s her ninth studio album and third solo LP in two years — a feat she selected to create with seasoned collaborators Jack Antonoff, Mike Hermosa and Drew Erickson — unshakeable proof that whereas a technology of aspiring anti-pop stars might attempt to mimic her complexity, Del Rey will at all times be inimitable.
“Eleven years in the past I wished it to be so good,” this 12 months’s Ladies in Music Visionary Award honoree advised Billboard earlier this 12 months. “Now, I simply sing precisely what I’m considering. I’m considering rather less massive and bombastic. Possibly in some unspecified time in the future I can have enjoyable making a world once more, however proper now, I’d say there’s no world constructing. This music is about thought processing. It’s very, very wordy. I’m positively dwelling from the neck up.”
She actually wasn’t kidding when she stated she’s leaning wordier than ever, by the best way. The tracks on Ocean Blvd usually stretch longer than 5 minutes, no hint of a filler lyric in sight, filled with susceptible lamentations on household, legacy and obligation, along with her common noir musings on love and intercourse.
Maintain studying to see Billboard‘s 10 favourite lyrics from Lana Del Rey’s new report under, in no specific order.
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“The Grants”
Lyric: “My pastor advised me once you depart, all you are taking is your reminiscence/ And I’m gonna take minе of you with me”
Why It’s So Nice: Not solely is that this lyric only a easy, stunning method of claiming “I really like you,” it’s additionally a candy evolution of one of many strains in Lana’s 2013 Nice Gatsby hit “Younger and Lovely”: “Expensive Lord, after I get to heaven/ Please let me take my man.”
“The Grants,” nonetheless, isn’t nearly romantic love — it’s about household, buddies and lineage, one thing that makes the sentiment much more layered and significant. This Lana additionally sounds extra confident than the 2013 model who begs and barters with God, this time staring her maker within the face with out a lot as a blink of concern.
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“Did You Know That There is a Tunnel Below Ocean Blvd”
Lyric: “I can’t assist however really feel considerably like my physique marred my soul/ Handmade magnificence sealed up by two artifical partitions”
Why It’s So Nice: Lana’s ninth report might have earned some chuckles when its atypically prolonged title was first introduced, however the title observe actually does pull collectively the whole album with one easy metaphor, defined by this lyric. It’s her, she’s the bridge underneath Ocean Blvd — tarnished by trauma, insecure spots within the general construction, however standing robust nonetheless.
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“Candy”
Lyric: “For those who wanna go the place no person goes/ That’s the place you’ll discover me/ Within the candy north nation”
Why It’s So Nice: It’s an easy reference to Bob Dylan’s “Woman from the North Nation,” however it’s additionally a romantic, picturesque method for the singer-songwriter to take satisfaction in who she actually is: a fantastically misunderstood loner who received’t compromise herself for the essential trappings of a humdrum life. You both meet her the place she’s at, or lose her for good.
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“A&W”
Picture Credit score: Lia Clay Miller Lyric: “Your mother referred to as, I advised her, you’re f–kin’ up massive time”
Why It’s So Nice: “A&W,” which stands, sure, for “American whore,” is considered one of Lana’s biggest feats of innovation, marked by two distinct halves. The grim, lyrical first part deteriorates right into a devilish, hedonistic free-for-all, guided by this straightforward, repeating, splendidly bratty lyric.
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“Fingertips”
Lyric: “Discover your astral physique, put it into my arms/ Offer you two seconds to cry/ Take you house, I’ll provide you with a blanket/ Your spirit can sit and watch TV by my facet”
Why It’s So Nice: This six-minute stream of consciousness touches on grief, household, heartbreak and trauma. There’s loads of nice strains, however essentially the most stunning one must be this one. Lana brilliantly illustrates the ache of longing to easily sit subsequent to a cherished one who’s handed away by juxtaposing the non secular with the odd.
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“Grandfather Please Stand on the Shoulders of My Father Whereas He’s Deep‐Sea Fishing”
Lyric: “I do know they assume that it took 1000’s of individuals/ To place me collectively once more like an experiment/ Some massive males behind the scenes/ Stitching Frankenstein black desires into my songs/ However they’re unsuitable”
Why It’s So Nice: She’s has spoken at size earlier than in regards to the criticisms she’s acquired for the reason that very starting of her profession, lots of which questioned her creative authenticity and message. With this lyric, she asserts her energy and affect with all the arrogance she deserves.
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“Fishtail”
Lyric: “I see in technicolor/ Possibly I’ll take my glasses off so I cease portray purple flags inexperienced”
Why It’s So Nice: The artist usually performs with colour in her songs — “You’re only a man … head in your arms as you colour me blue” on Norman F–king Rockwell, for example — this music being no exception. On “Fishtail,” she cleverly and calmly confronts her personal tendency to romanticize individuals who don’t deserve it.
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“Kintsugi”
Picture Credit score: Lia Clay Miller Lyric: “I can’t say I run when issues get arduous/ It’s simply that I don’t belief myself with my coronary heart/ However I’ve needed to let it break slightly extra/ ‘Trigger they are saying that’s what it’s for”
Why It’s So Nice: This line — and many of the music, for that matter — serves as a stupendous, timeless little metaphor. Like cracked pottery, the breaks in her coronary heart are what “let the sunshine in” regardless of of the ache they initially induced. (Kintsugi is the Japanese follow of repairing damaged ceramics in a method that celebrates the issues.)
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“Candy”
Lyric: “Would you like youngsters? Do you wanna marry me?/ Do you wanna run marathons in Lengthy Seashore by the ocean?/ I’ve received issues to do, like nothing in any respect/ I wanna do them with you/ Do you wanna do them with me?”
Why It’s So Nice: This sentimental lyric echoes the heart-shatteringly easy line from Every part All over the place All At As soon as: “In one other life, I’d have actually appreciated simply doing laundry and taxes with you.”
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“A&W”
Lyric: “Do you know a singer can nonetheless be/ Trying like a sidepiece at 33?/ God’s a charlatan, don’t look again, babe”
Why It’s So Nice: The best, most Lana-esque method ever of claiming “I’m tremendous scorching.” Cheers.
