Lana Del Rey released one of the best album’s of the previous decade with 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell, a sadly romantic ode to a country on the brink of disaster. The disaster at the time was Trump’s presidency and a climate crisis that had set California ablaze, but the album only grew more resonant in the face of the pandemic.

Following up that masterpiece was a tall order. Del Rey didn’t have a realistic shot at topping what will likely be her crowning achievement, but with this year’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club, she has managed to both build on and stray from the sound of its predecessor.

Working again with producer Jack Antonoff (whose stamp is on many of the best albums of this millennium, particularly those by women), Del Rey has delivered a set of lush compositions that mine familiar sonic territory. If there’s a knock on her, it’s the lack of variety in her sound, but she consistently manages to find new ways to skin the same cat.

Here, Del Rey explores her experience with fame, at times longing for the days before she was a target for both admirers and haters alike. “When I was a waitress wearing a white dress… down at the Men in Music Business Conference, down in Orlando, I was only nineteen,” she purrs on opening track ‘White Dress,’ describing a time when she was hopelessly naive but also fully free (and playfully tweaking the industry’s male dominance for good measure).

On today’s track, which drew inspiration from a comment by Antonoff about the music industry, her voice soars as she cries “don’t even want what’s mine, much less the fame.”

The album’s closing track is a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘For Free,’ a song about a street performer whose talent is overlooked by people who don’t know him from TV.

Apart from the meditations on celebrity, another focus of this album is collaborations with women. That Mitchell cover is performed by Del Rey, Zella Day and Weyes Blood, with each singer taking a verse. ‘Breaking Up Slowly’ is a song co-written and performed with country singer Nikki Lane. And ‘Dance Til We Die’ name-drops Mitchell, Joan Baez and Stevie Nicks.

Chemtrails Over the Country Club might find Del Rey turning her back on fame and seeking comfort in familiar friends, but the result is an album on par with some of her best work. In or out of the spotlight, she continues to shine.