After a steady diet of an album every other year, Lana Del Rey surprised everyone by dropping a second record just six months after Chemtrails over the Country Club. The pair of folk rock releases drew a neat parallel to Taylor Swift’s folklore/evermore duo the previous year.

Blue Bannisters came out in October of 2021 with very little fanfare and almost no promotion by Del Rey herself. She says she designed the album as a response to criticism aimed at her over the years, and as a glimpse at the troubled human being behind the pop star.

The result is the most gorgeous therapy session you’ll ever hear.

Del Rey touches on her abusive childhood, her unhealthy relationships, her body image, and her depression, but also dedicates several songs to the family and friends who have helped her get through all of it. It’s such a personal statement I almost feel guilty listening.

In ‘Wildflower Wildfire’ she gives the most specific account yet of the estranged mother she has hinted about on previous albums:

That idea of her trauma feeding her art comes up again on ‘Beautiful’:

Del Rey looks back at her past on this album but also spends a fair amount of time in the present. References to the pandemic and ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests show up on a few songs, including today’s SOTD.

‘Violets for Roses’ is a song about a relationship that ended because the man wanted her to be somebody other than herself. This is the sort of love affair that showed up a lot on her early albums, but she’s never sounded so healthy about taking the reins back.

The covers of Del Rey’s eight albums paint a fascinating picture of her evolution as human being (while the music does the same for her evolution as a songwriter and performer).

Born to Die found her in stoic, Stepford wife mode, beautiful but unapproachable.

Ultraviolence softened that image but delivered her, frowning, in somber black-and-white.

Honeymoon has her frowning again, but now in color and touring Bel Air in the back of a Starline bus, bringing her out into the world.

Lust for Life features Del Rey with a shocking broad smile and flowers in her hair, while Norman Fucking Rockwell depicts her with another person for the first time, reaching toward the camera, yearning for connection.

On Chemtrails Over the Country Club, she is again smiling, and now seated among a large friend group of women who have helped her get to a healthy place.

And finally Blue Bannisters, which finds her sitting barefoot on her deck accompanied by her two dogs. She looks melancholy and contemplative, but at peace, which is a great way to describe this album.