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| Photo by Mika Orolfo |
Lana Del Rey is an enigma, despite the fair share of controversies she has found herself in the past. But how does she manage to become even more popular than ever? Del Rey, who seemingly turned into an overnight sensation with 2011’s Video Games, has created this air of irreplicable mystery around her that her cinematic albums, particularly Ultraviolence and Honeymoon, helped amplify.
She defined the Tumblr scene in the first half of the 2010s, she explored relationships in a way that other musicians were afraid to explore, and she was the gangster Nancy Sinatra. It was not a surprise to see her up on the stage accepting the Visionary Award at the 2023 Billboard's Women in Music Awards as recognition for her impact on the music industry.
You may know Lana Del Rey from her feature in Taylor Swift’s tenth album Midnights, but she has been in the music industry for just as long. With radio-friendly hits such as Summertime Sadness to confessional ballads such as hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it, Del Rey is here with her new album: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, her longest yet, at 16 tracks that span an hour and seventeen minutes—and it is quite a wonderful tunnel.
The singles did not give much away. However, if one would be using the hit single A&W as a basis for how Ocean Blvd is going to be, they will be sorely disappointed. A&W’s midway tonal shift, the tonal shift that gives way to the synth-pop earworm lyric, "Jimmy, Jimmy cocoa puff, Jimmy, Jimmy ride, Jimmy, Jimmy cocoa puff, Jimmy, get me high" is lacking from most of Ocean Blvd’s tracks, which, while fantastic, is more focused on perfecting the sound Del Rey has been developing since career highlight Norman F***ing Rockwell!
Opening the album is the delicate piano gospel The Grants, a reflective song on mortality and on the aftermath of our death. Following the opener is the title track itself, very mellow in its depiction of Del Rey’s fear of being forgotten. Next up is Sweet, whose expressive poetry is coupled with Del Rey’s lullaby-like voice to create a compelling effect. Sweet is followed by A&W which delves into the matter of over-sexualization.
"Look at the length of my hair, and my face, the shape of my body. Do you really think I give a damn, what I do after years of just hearing them talking?" She sings with understated confidence before the song transitions into all-timer trap beats that could get hips swinging in clubs.
The album has two interludes, namely, the Judah Smith Interlude and the Jon Batiste Interlude. The former, menacing and ominous, is an overlong sermon by Smith that is only made interesting by Del Rey’s giggles, but it is not without its merits. It is dark, eerie, and cinematic, and it shapes the environment that Del Rey intends to make with Ocean Blvd. The latter, chaotic, emits a jazzy vibe particularly inspired by psychedelia.
In between the two interludes is a feature with Jon Batiste himself in Candy Necklace. While it quite surprisingly does not build on the Cinnamon Girl reference in the first verse, Necklace still manages to be a haunting piano ballad open to various interpretations. The wordy Kintsugi, also a piano ballad, uses its titular metaphor to capture grief that no other can do. "Kintsugi" in Japanese means the repair of broken pottery, its inclusion in history as being something that one must not be embarrassed by, and Del Rey, influenced by Leonard Cohen, lets the light in as she shares her humanity and vulnerability to fans.
The next track, Fingertips, solidifies Ocean Blvd as an album of grief and memory. Her most personal song yet, Fingertips highlights the same resentment for her mother that is featured on Blue Banisters' single Wildflower Wildfire. But the track is not just about that; it is also a repetitive melody, a stream of her consciousness, that expresses love for her family and a longing for her Uncle Dave.
Paris, Texas, reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens, takes its title from the Palme d’Or winning movie of the same name. Singing over an instrumental version of SYML’s I Wanted To Leave, Del Rey puts listeners in a dreamlike trance. What just may be the highlight of the album, however, is "Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep sea fishing." And no, Del Rey is not telling her grandfather to drown her father. The core of the song is actually relatable: seeking the spiritual guidance of the divine higher powers. But it also is a declaration of herself to her critics, that Del Rey is one of the greatest songwriters to ever exist.
The ‘let the light in’ motif that is heavily featured in Kintsugi makes another appearance in her collaboration with Father John Misty, Let The Light In, an ethereal mix of guitar and piano in which Del Rey calls on the spirit of her collaboration with Sean Lennon in 2017’s Lust for Life; in this track, Del Rey and Misty’s voices blend so well—making an immediate standout. "This is a simple song, gonna write it for a friend," she sings warmly in the thirteenth track Margaret. Del Rey’s producer, Jack Antonoff, is engaged with actress Margaret Qualley, who the song is titled after. A spiritual successor to Rockwell’s Love song in its simplicity, Margaret is a touching song that yet again has Del Rey singing for her friends.
Reminiscent of Lust for Life still, the fourteenth track Fishtail can be interpreted in many ways. It can be seen as a criticism of those who continue to long for her long-gone gangster Nancy Sinatra persona, or just a mere expression of exhaustion with someone who does not care for her. Peppers with Tommy Genesis is unique, a song that would fit right in with 2012’s pop album Born to Die. A breath of fresh air from the album’s ruminations on life, sultry Peppers features lyrics such as "hands on your knees, Angelina Jolie, let me put my hands on your knees, you can braid my hair" that sounds insane yet is quintessential Del Rey.
Del Rey pays homage to her legacy with the final track Taco Truck x VB. Lyrics such as "Oh, that’s why they call me Lanita, when I get down like Bonita," a satirical take on Lanita memes, and an experimental trap remix of Rockwell’s Venice B*tch, fitting for someone whose music has been subjected to countless slowed/reverb and sped-up remixes.
Ocean Blvd, while most of its songs are purely sung poetry, serves as a monumental, ambitious work that will be best remembered for its sheer vulnerability and its achievement in perfecting the new sound that Del Rey has shifted to. The sequencing of its tracks, most especially the interludes that add a lot of depth despite criticisms, is crucial in emphasizing Ocean Blvd’s impact on the culture.
It remains to be seen whether Ocean Blvd’s impact will be as huge as Born to Die or Norman F***ing Rockwell! but the variety and the step forward in regards to Del Rey’s autobiographical lyricism can boost even further Ocean Blvd’s popularity. When you compare her handling of death and depression now to something akin to 2014’s Ultraviolence, one could assess the growth Del Rey has had since then. Nowadays, her handling of such themes is with grace and for reassessment.
A mass of simplistic songs that do not sound alike, Ocean Blvd is another album focused on Del Rey’s insistence on peace. It is truly fantastic to see Del Rey sing from "Tryin’ to find the power in me to be faithful, change is a powerful thing, I feel it comin’ in me" in Lust for Life to singing about her desire to simply be with her family and friends. She has considerably matured, and while a part of her gangster Nancy Sinatra persona will always be with her, Ocean Blvd’s raw sentimentality shows that Lana Del Rey has managed to get free.
