Family is a key theme on Ocean Blvd, with Del Rey processing grief, loneliness, and heartbreak in her familial history. She fittingly kicks off the whole thing ...
She flips the resigned clarity of “Paris, Texas” on its head in the chorus: “When you know, you know,” she sings, nodding at the beauty of expecting the unexpected on both sides of that phrase’s meaning. What she has done since — including Chemtrails Over the Country Club and Blue Banisters — has proven to be a remarkable expansion on the artistic vision she laid out on that album, one that puts her in a creative class all her own. The album is almost strikingly quiet, in comparison to much of her work, leaning largely on the piano for most of the songs. In preaching to herself, she has unlocked the type of art her listeners will hold dear for a lifetime. gets multiple nods across the project: The title track is interpolated on “A&W,” the opening line of “Cinnamon Girl” opens up “Candy Necklace,” and the “VB” in “Taco Truck x VB” stands, of course, for “Venice Bitch,” with its psychedelic freakout closing out the album altogether. The masterful, exhilarating “A&W” offers a “Venice Bitch”-style second-half switch-up, pivoting to a sexy rap with a trap beat. Sonically, Ocean Blvd plays out like an elevated take on what she accomplished on Born to Die: the type of anachronistic fusion of Sixties beat poetry, Seventies FM piano pop, and more current rap and dance music production that only Del Rey can pull off. “Will I die or will I get to that 10-year mark?/Where I beat extinction of telomeres?/And if I do, will you be there with me? While “A&W” casts the spotlight on the media and the singer’s partners, “Fingertips” has her talking to a mirror while looking to lean on her beloved father and siblings, Charlie and Caroline, for support. The core of Ocean Blvd is Del Rey trying to get a closer look at herself, flipping the story as we have come to understand (and maybe even misunderstand) about what she’s trying to tell us. Songs like the excellent “A&W” — named in reference to the phrase “American whore,” not the root beer — and “Fingertips” are two sides of the same life-storytelling coin. ”And you’re not gonna like this, but I’m gonna tell you the truth: I’ve discovered my preaching is mostly about me.”
The singer-songwriter's ninth album arrives as a sweeping, sterling, often confounding work of self-mythology and psychoamericana: Lana's in the zone.
“ [The Grants](https://pitchfork.com/news/listen-to-lana-del-rey-new-song-the-grants/),” which opens her ninth studio album, climbs to the metaphorical mountaintop, guided by John Denver’s sense of [mystical wonderment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOB4VdlkzO4), to receive wisdom from on high. Almost certainly, she was harboring the sort of creative ambition that craved association with tragic geniuses like [Kurt Cobain](https://pitchfork.com/artists/6161-kurt-cobain/) and [Amy Winehouse](https://pitchfork.com/artists/5185-amy-winehouse/). “Fingertips” broaches the topic of motherhood with a devastating admission of self-doubt: “Will the baby be all right/Will I have one of mine?/Can I handle it even if I do?” [Norman Fucking Rockwell!](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lana-del-rey-norman-fucking-rockwell/), her songwriting received the recognition she always knew it deserved. In [conversation](https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/features/lana-del-rey-she-does-it-for-the-girls-album-27426/) with Rolling Stone this month, Lana described a great unburdening in her psychic space. [Lana Del Rey](https://pitchfork.com/artists/29855-lana-del-rey/) [told](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/12/lana-del-rey-ultraviolence-album) a journalist that she wished she was dead, and for what seemed like years after, scarcely an article was written about her that didn’t mention it.
Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” is a remarkable — if slightly overstuffed — collection of dramatic, downtempo songs that drift between ...
Released amid the pandemic rubble, “Ocean Blvd” instead feels grounded and reborn, like a familiar piece of pottery streaked with liquid gold. Indie rock lothario Father John Misty also appears for a lusty duet on “Let the light In,” one of five songs Del Rey co-wrote with ex-boyfriend Hermosa. “Peppers” is an uptempo jam that features a bouncy chorus courtesy of underground Canadian rapper Tommy Genesis — another left turn that pulls “Ocean Blvd” away from the pastiche, pegging it to the current moment. Indeed, a wandering, “anything goes” feeling pervades “Ocean Blvd” at times, and may turn off those intimidated by its overstuffed run time. Take for example, “A&W” a seven-minute epic that begins with a frantic swirl of piano arpeggios, before fracturing into a druggy haze of woozy bass and icy trap drums. [Rocky Mountain High](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOB4VdlkzO4),” Del Rey vows to carry the memories of her loved ones through life and beyond. “Something about the clutch of the wrist — he thought mine was his to pop into his mouth. On “Kintsugi,” which Del Rey wrote during a family visit to her beloved uncle’s hospice, the lyrics feel diaristic, as the narrator is overwhelmed by the imminence of loss: “Everyone was there, they were standing, laughing, and I’m on the side with the tears streasheming down,” she sings. “F--k me to death, love me until I love myself,” she croons, begging her lover to drown out her insecurity. It’s heavy stuff; sentimental, though never saccharine, thanks in part to Del Rey’s pithy one-liners: “I’m a different kind of woman. “That’s how the light gets in.” “I don’t trust myself with my heart, but I’ve had to let it break a little more / ’Cause they say that’s what it’s for, that’s how the light shines in,” she sings.
On her ninth studio album, Lana Del Rey shaped this record — one of her most personal — as a broken mirror reflecting her multitudes.
I wanna be a man in love, not a man in lust.” The sounds of Del Rey agreeing in some moments and laughing in others can be heard, suggesting she recorded the clip herself. The album takes a spiritual if not extraneous turn on the over-long “Judah Smith Interlude,” a seemingly phone-recorded sermon from the celebrity pastor, preaching on-topic about “a life contaminated with lust” and begging God to “Help me … But where producer Jack Antonoff’s inspired work launched “Venice Bitch” into space four and a half years ago, “A&W” reaches for a contrived interpolation of “Down, Down Baby,” the oft-repurposed playground song. On the soft-treading, John Denver-mentioning opener “The Grants,” Del Rey is pensive and resolute in her retrieval of memories from a failed relationship; a bit of healing after rawer emotional wounds sliced up Blue Banisters. “A&W” functions loosely as this album’s “Venice Bitch,” the oversized centerpiece where the first half of the track gives way to thick, bending layers of sound and studio trickery. and its milestone tracks “Venice Bitch” “Doin’ Time” and “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have.”
With a brilliant new album due this week (March 24), let's revisit the seminal songwriter's best team-ups to date.
The line is gravely urgent, and upholds the track’s acceptance of difficult truths – extending a hand to listeners who may also need to lift their chin up and stride forth. The song’s business is not of misery, but of faith: Del Rey and The fruitful creative partnership between Del Rey and The Weeknd started here, with an enigmatic song of longing, hedonism and doubt. Many of Del Rey’s best vocal performances are often marked by their restraint: there’s always the feeling that her husky and wide-ranging voice could run off the rails, but they’re held in place by a steadfast sense of control. “I don’t wanna give you nothing / ‘Cause you never give me nothing back,” she sings, providing an assessment of a broken relationship that feels profound in her raw, almost growling voice – a sound we have never heard from her before. This track, then, was the sound of a new world coming into focus for Del Rey, and it would guide her music for years to come. In July 2013, the track hit Number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, making for Del Rey’s biggest international success to date – and driving her forward into a future of pop stardom that perhaps once seemed uncertain. But that’s barely scratching the surface: ahead of the release of her eighth studio album, ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’ (March 24), which features collaborations with Misty, [Jon Batiste](/artists/jon-batiste) and more, this is our guide to some of the seminal artist’s most memorable team-ups. Laid-back yet full of bounce, draped in woozy atmospherics that ground his nimble flow, he eventually meets Del Rey to harmonise through a cool, distant mumble. Del Rey’s singular cinematic aesthetic and rich, assertive vocal are artistic qualities that may also be the secret to an often overlooked side of her discography: a vast catalogue of cameos and duets. Del Rey would soon go as far to say that Haynie was her Later that year, the pair toured Europe together, and then released the mighty ‘Woman’.
ADRIAN THRILLS: Lana Del Rey's latest effort, which runs for 77 minutes and consists primarily of sad, reverb-drenched torch songs, is overlong, ...
The loss of founder member Andy Fletcher, who died, aged 60, last May, was always going to have a profound effect on Depeche Mode. The suspicion she might be a little too addicted to melancholy is reinforced on ballad Kintsugi, named after the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery (‘It’s just that I don’t trust myself with my heart, I have to let it break a little more … The track’s jittery electronics are a surprise. The most memorable songs are, ironically, the most conventional: Father John Misty duet Let The Light In, and the piano pop of Paris, Texas. A second collaboration with producer James Ford, it’s a huge step-up from 2017’s laboured Spirit, which lacked both decent tunes and good cheer. That tunnel to obscurity can wait a while. pastor (and friend of Justin Bieber) Judah Smith and echoed laughter. Her emotional turmoil is thrown into even sharper relief on A&W, a two-part mini-opera that opens with atmospheric piano chords and ends in distorted electronics. She lowers her guard straight away on hymn-like opening track The Grants, about family memories. But these days even her fiercest critics would be hard pushed to call her a phoney. ‘When’s it gonna be my turn?’ she sings, wondering whether she’ll one day be consigned to history in similar fashion. ‘I’m writing my own story, and no one can tell it but me,’ she said in 2021.
Lana Del Rey's 'Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd' feels like a placeholder in the singer's discography.
Del Rey first claims she “went to Paris,” only to reveal that it was a town in Texas. Ocean Blvd traffics in some nimble, effervescent melodies, a few memorable vocal passages, and the occasional tuneful duet (Father John Misty proves to be an exceptional bedfellow on “Let the Light In”). [Norman Fucking Rockwell!](/music/review-lana-del-rey-norman-fucking-rockwell-eulogizes-the-american-dream/) The album pads out its runtime with filler like “Margaret,” a track dedicated to longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff’s fiancé, actress Margaret Qualley.
Songs drift by in a reverie on this beautifully performed and sometimes baffling album.
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Three months after it was first announced, Lana Del Rey has released her new album 'Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd'.
“I had to remotely wipe the computer that had my 200-page book for Simon & Schuster, which I didn’t have backed up on a cloud,” she said in a since-deleted video. The manuscript for a book she was working on was also stolen. It is Del Rey’s first album since 2021’s Chemtrails Over The Country Club and Blue Banisters.
Lana Del Rey's net worth reflects the fact that she's been churning out hits for over 10 years. See how much the singer has earned over the last decade and ...
Best New Tracks: 6LACK, Lana Del Rey, Hit-Boy and More: 10 music projects to dive into this weekend.
[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/6ygmB4X6ejHZQcpNfxC8um?si=5yMMAhJIS1CHCsYZN6_iGQ) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/4eEU0y6UgZnMw4rqSV2xBs?si=b4Kl2qF2RV6AN3z9mg-OpQ) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/2flIPW5ULn6s5UvYZMJyah?si=Ao63fiu0QOCWyJj_HDOa0w) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/5mWnMYLnfcnkDOCojHW6O1?si=frzlvu8MQpeaGxfao5XMjw) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/4xc3Lc9yASZgEJGH7acWMB?si=PTRK-TSBQnGCw2ZdaQ8dOg) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/3u20OXh03DjCUzbf8XcGTq?si=Cn3l6tmfSJWlL_Scip3P4A) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/4cWnM4WLlf53drLOX90KuQ?si=QD78yEsEQDKyo6tMnu90Jw) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/25Kyv5SeEenT0EETpP2hYn?si=9f3f8eeaf51d41e1) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/5HOHne1wzItQlIYmLXLYfZ?si=a0orFkxcRPW-cbvjLwmZzA) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/39JZhYotu5zFYJ8jw1D8bF?si=l5rBP715QMiFZhF85y5Efw) ICECOLDBISHOP is laying everything on the table with his major label debut album GENERATIONAL CURSE. [6LACK](https://hypebeast.com/tags/6lack), [Lana Del Rey](https://hypebeast.com/tags/lana-del-rey) and [Hit-Boy](https://hypebeast.com/tags/hit-boy), who each released the albums Since I Have A Lover, Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd and SURF OR DROWN, respectively.
The iconic and lovely Lana Del Rey received the Visionary Award at the Billboards Women in Music event. The award show highlighted Del Rey's achievements ...
Witnessing current artists run with the torch that Del Rey once lit and began to walk with, gives me comfort with songwriting and storytelling for music in the future. The songwriter has remained true to her artistry throughout her 14 years in the music industry. Del Rey has caused a paradigm shift in pop music and completely redirected the genre of pop and forged it with her influence. It makes me ecstatic to see people finally giving her the recognition she has been robbed of for so long. Nothing compares to her lyricism and her poetry. In my opinion, Del Rey is the best singer and songwriter on the planet.
What does Kintsugi mean? Here's what Lana Del Rey's has said about the emotional meaning behind her 'Kintsugi' lyrics.
Lana then references 'Kintsugi' in the third verse. Some of the songs are super long and wordy like 'Kinstugi'." In 'Kintsugi', Lana sings about family members of hers who've passed away, how their deaths affected her and how she was able to work through her grief. She then added: "Almost don't need to explain that metaphor to the idea of falling apart and rebuilding one's life back even more beautifully." The philosophy behind the art is that an object's history, however volatile, ultimately makes it more beautiful. With production from the likes of Jack Antonoff and Zach Dawes, the record has been praised by critics as a highlight in Lana's ever-growing discography.
Also stream new releases from Icecoldbishop, Navy Blue, Angel Bat Dawid, Jpegmafia & Danny Brown, Ben Sloan, and 6lack.
Read the Best New Music review of [Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lana-del-rey-did-you-know-that-theres-a-tunnel-under-ocean-blvd/). Her broader and looser sound is in evidence on the dreamy, roiling [title track](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/lana-del-rey-did-you-know-that-theres-a-tunnel-under-ocean-blvd/) and standout song “ [A&W](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/lana-del-rey-aw/),” a freewheeling folk-trap ballad that samples music from Del Rey’s own [Norman Fucking Rockwell!](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lana-del-rey-norman-fucking-rockwell/) Father John Misty, Jon Batiste, Tommy Genesis, and, of course, Jack Antonoff contributed to the album. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors.
Stream new albums from Danny Brown & JPEGMAFIA, Lana Del Rey, Rosalía & Rauw Alejandro, 03 Greedo, Yaya Bey, 6lack, Liturgy, Jimin, and more.
[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/1w7YBHqXz6UfLrVur8JAcW?si=dziFsUeORfeLN29jcqykvA) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/4xc3Lc9yASZgEJGH7acWMB?si=_jP2RJo3QeusycrYQCbO-Q) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/28gL6vjKVFaO7UG0ImRzkY?si=ZnhwyzvITAm_7JdkPJQt-g) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/39JZhYotu5zFYJ8jw1D8bF?si=DGSyVWLqRn2kWK9gmhkx4A) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/6ygmB4X6ejHZQcpNfxC8um?si=Pk2-1ZtJR1yYffqjUY6N1g) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/2GldIFZ7N0ISnFFiRR4JhX?si=Jb775W9LRE-b7SesGVHujw) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/70u9s1ZchOeK4YFEMYPdKZ?si=Xiy2An4JSFWBpB0yIoKiUA) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/0nP1MzWoPnLfLglLS0v4CQ?si=n1NYFKNjSdqLxB571tG_yQ) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/65buOcLOPAzBGLeW46tIDO?si=xf79iQFFQUGSQSDCIkTJ6Q) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/50uChhk7AKkzDKytDixjYW?si=rzNnJe3dRMWD8rD-f-drlw) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/5HOHne1wzItQlIYmLXLYfZ?si=A5ItUDBmR0qgENl-m7MgBQ) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/3u20OXh03DjCUzbf8XcGTq?si=AeHdaze8SwWy2EeBnscvoQ)
This week's new albums include the latest release by Lana Del Rey, Depeche Mode, Debby Friday, JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown, and more.
The Bloc Party frontman shared the tracks [‘Someone to Make Me Laugh’](https://ourculturemag.com/2023/02/17/kele-releases-new-song-someone-to-make-me-laugh/), [‘Vandal’](https://ourculturemag.com/2022/11/25/kele-announces-new-album-the-flames-pt-2-shares-new-single-vandal/) and ‘True Love Knows No Death’ ahead of the release. It includes the advance singles [‘Monster Mash’](https://ourculturemag.com/2023/01/10/kate-davis-announces-new-album-fish-bowl-shares-new-single-monster-mash/), ‘Consequences’, [‘Call Home’](https://ourculturemag.com/2023/02/07/kate-davis-unveils-new-single-call-home/), and ‘Long Long Long’. [Fish Bowl](https://kated.ffm.to/fishbowl), via her new label home, [ANTI- Records](https://www.anti.com/). [Thrill Jockey](https://thrilljockey.com/). Hawkins, Free Myself; BABYMETAL, The Other One; Stefano Pilia & Valerio Tricoli, Cantor Park. [Bandcamp](https://lucindachua.bandcamp.com/album/yian) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/2ZEqm7UAvrdy4MQHITOiA6) [Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/yian/1654329985) [Physical](https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/lucinda-chua/yian) [YIAN](https://lucindachua.ffm.to/yian) is the debut full-length by the London artist Lucinda Chua, following up her EPs Antidotes 1 and Antidotes 2. [Love in Exile](https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder/), out now via [Verve](http://www.ververecords.com/). [GOOD LUCK](https://ffm.to/debbyfriday-goodluck), via [Sub Pop](https://www.subpop.com/). [Memento Mori](https://ourculturemag.com/2022/10/04/depeche-mode-announce-new-album-memento-mori-detail-world-tour/). it was about world-building, whereas this was straight vibing.” Ahead of its release, Del Rey shared the [title track](https://ourculturemag.com/2022/12/07/lana-del-rey-announces-new-album-did-you-know-that-theres-a-tunnel-under-ocean-blvd-shares-song/), [‘A&W’](https://ourculturemag.com/2023/02/14/lana-del-rey-releases-new-song-aw/), and [‘The Grants’](https://ourculturemag.com/2023/03/14/lana-del-rey-releases-new-song-the-grants/). The record features a lone guest feature from Redveil as well as track titles such as ‘Steppa Pig’, ‘Jack Harlow Combo Meal’, and ‘Run the Jewels’. - Listen / Buy
In an era of the music industry that rewards TikTok-ready hooks, Del Rey has sprinted in the opposite direction: the songs here proudly stretch out, dismissing ...
The album’s most dramatic “now for something completely different” change-up arrives when Del Rey follows the stream-of-consciousness “Fingertips” with “Paris, Texas,” a relatively short and traditionally structured pop song full of breathy exclamations and graceful piano. Del Rey upends expectations as soon as the Auto-tune arrives on “Fishtail,” abruptly putting an end to the hushed vocals and abetted by programmed beats. Following the gospel flourishes that arrive earlier in the track list, Del Rey approaches “Kintsugi” like a hymn, her voice billowing unadorned above a piano as she prods at her grief. They serve as the metaphor for a poisonous relationship on “Candy Necklace,” where Del Rey floats into a falsetto on the pre-chorus before deploying a hypnotic singsong hook. The “VB” in the title stands for “Venice Bitch,” and instead of merely nodding to one of her most iconic songs, Del Rey fully revisits the Norman F–king Rockwell! From the boarded-up past of the title track to the post-grief forward motion of “Kintsugi” to the giddy friendship of “Margaret,” Del Rey roams across topics and deftly handles them all.
Lana Del Rey's new album has divided fans with a cameo from controversial US pastor and megachurch founder Judah Smith.
I woke up this morning and God said, ‘Check the Bible’.” It’s gonna make me sound so superior to us all, I’m looking forward to it. [called masturbation](https://churchleaders.com/news/428182-pastor-judah-smith-says-pleasuring-yourself-sexually-in-the-confines-of-marriage-is-a-gift-from-god.html) “a weapon to resist and fight the urge to sexually engage someone and start crossing lines that not only hurt you but hurt others,” as opposed to a perfectly normal thing to do. The pastor speaking for the majority of the “Judah Smith Interlude” is, unsurprisingly, Judah Smith. [fans hailed “A&W” as a return to form](https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/02/15/lana-del-rey-a-and-w-fan-reactions/) for the singer, they’ve not had quite the same reaction to the bizarre musical interlude. “Judah Smith Interlude”, which appears in between the previously released single “A&W” and the sixth track, “Candy Necklace”, is a four-and-a-half minute recording of a sermon from a US pastor with questionable views on LGBTQ+ people.
Chief art critic Mark Hudson reviews a flawed but possibly essential modern art exhibit at the National Gallery. TV editor Ellie Harrison celebrates the return ...
Purists are likely to be shocked and appalled, as Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has got the reins on this one and he’s sexed up the Victorian tale quite a bit. Succession is back for a fourth and final season, after a backstabbing series three finale in which the Roy children were pitted against their father and escort-turned-playwright Willa accepted Connor’s proposal with a brilliant “f*** it, how bad can it be?” In the new episodes, the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson moves ever closer, provoking more familial division among the Roys. Spanish artist Rosalía and her Puerto Rican boyfriend Rauw Alejandro, one of the pioneers of contemporary reggaeton, have teamed up for a new three-track EP titled RR. [Ones to Watch for 2023](/arts-entertainment/music/features/ones-to-watch-2023-music-predictions-b2249226.html), Charlotte Plank has been compared to Gen-Z star PinkPantheress thanks to the way she combines Nineties and Noughties grunge and R&B with jungle and electronic music. Paris Hilton: the first lady of “being famous for being famous”? (If you’ve yet to read the books, your life is not yet complete.) The series begins on the cusp of wartime, with a teeming cast of characters who are invariably posh, emotionally tortured and having either affairs or children. Sure, there are some recognisable Lana tropes here, like the LA bad boy encouraging dangerous habits on “A&W” (“American Whore”), along with visuals of palm trees and seedy hotels. There are just a few weeks left – extending over the Easter holidays – for this insightful overview of the great British sculptor’s life and work. The Bloomsbury Group’s rural hideaway makes an apt setting for a show on another 20th-century rustic utopian experiment – Antella, the Tuscan farmhouse of American artists Betty and George Woodman. And what more fitting way to spend a seasonal March weekend than by imbibing some of the best culture on offer. Not everything convinces, but there are enough superb works from Cézanne, Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse and most of the other usual suspects to Arts editor Jessie Thompson picks out Paris Hilton’s surprising new memoir, and talks about the unexpected start to the Barbican’s run of Olga Tokarczuk adaptation Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.
From the grand gestures of 'Born to Die' to the sprawling introspection of 'Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd'.
If it was a character back then, it was a brilliant one: on songs about sadness, million dollar men and loving men more “than those bitches before”, she sounded like a slyly murderous Betty Boop (“Off to the Races”) and a woman bruised (“Video Games”). Lana Del Rey is asking you to dive right into them.](https://open.spotify.com/album/5HOHne1wzItQlIYmLXLYfZ) Yes, she was a woman in full embrace of her sadness, but what she presented on her sophomore record was so gritty, lustrous and, as the album suggested, violent, that it became difficult to critique the dedication to her vision. Lana Del Rey’s calling card — arguably her most famous to this day — was a winking ode to excess, glamour, tortured romance, more excess, more glamour and a lick of extreme old Hollywood pastiche. The results sparkled: the woozy romance of “Love”; the gorgeous, apocalyptic doom of “White Mustang” and “Lust for Life” with [The Weeknd](https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/4aw43j/the-idol-a24-show?); the campfire sing-a-long “Tomorrow Never Came”. [Max Martin](https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/v7vjmj/kim-petras-interview-max-martin)and Benny Blanco. [called](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19449-lana-del-rey-ultraviolence/)“frequently terrible” wound up being one of the most seminal pop albums of the century. [interview](https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/features/lana-del-rey-she-does-it-for-the-girls-album-27426/), Lana stated that Blue Banisters was “a defensive album”, created to address rumours of cultural appropriation levelled against her. For many, it was a return to the Del Rey traditional canon, but done with a kind of wondrous, contemplative, staring-at-the-sky vocal delivery that felt piercingly fresh and revelatory. Having “proven” herself on [Ultraviolence](https://open.spotify.com/album/1ORxRsK3MrSLvh7VQTF01F)as a viable alternative artist, she returned, in part, to the sonic bravado of Born to Die. [Honeymoon](https://open.spotify.com/album/2DpEBrjCur1ythIZ10gJWw)came around in 2015, Lana’s detractors had slowly started to realise that her ‘shtick’, as they’d framed it, wasn’t one at all. She’s done it all, but has established a distinct throughline along the way, her songs rooted in despondency and a creative intrigue in the masochistic art of love.
Lana Del Rey fans are in shambles over her sultry song 'Peppers,' which name-drops Angelina Jolie.
And it’s not like that’s a requirement — in fact, usually, it’s the opposite — to be a good artist. “Not only the way she sings, her vocal inflections, you can’t even copy it, but as a person, she’s just — every now and then, you meet someone who’s just a good person. [Lana Del Rey’s](https://uproxx.com/pop/lana-del-rey-ocean-blvd-venice-bitch-taco-truck-vb/) day. [March 24, 2023] No one was expecting the “Born To Die” performer to have a hook that name-drops Angelina Jolie, but this track does. The star unveiled her new album [Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd](https://uproxx.com/pop/lana-del-rey-longer-title-ocean-blvd/), and it has fans in shambles.