Today’s post wraps up my deep dive on Lana Del Rey but I hope my readers are ready for more. Next week I’m moving on to her newest release, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, which dropped today.
For both logistical reasons and because I’m very excited about the album, I will be giving the record the ‘full tracklist’ treatment, dissecting its songs in order on the blog over the next few weeks.
In 2019, Lana Del Rey closed out the 2010s with her fifth — and best — album, a stunning collection of folk pop titled Norman Fucking Rockwell.
As the cheeky title implies, the record again finds her tweaking traditional American ideals and iconography. It’s a darkly romantic soundtrack to the end of the world, with Del Rey yearning for connection against the backdrop of a Los Angeles that’s literally on fire (I’m talking about the music, but the gorgeous album cover depicts exactly this as well).
Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell is the newest album on this list, having come out only a few months ago. I suppose that opens it up to potential recency bias, but its greatness is so undeniable I couldn’t stop myself from placing it this high.
Del Rey truly belongs to the past decade. Her hard-to-find self-titled debut dropped in 2010, and she’s released five brilliant albums about every other year since then, culminating in her finest work to date with Rockwell.
Concluding my countdown of the songs on Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell.
2. ‘How to disappear’ – This is another track that was released, in a way, well before the album came out, when Del Rey and Jack Antonoff performed a piano-and-vocals version live at an Apple event. That recording is a thing of beauty, but the studio version is just as transcendent, adding ramshackle instrumentation that reminds me of the work Jon Brion did with Fiona Apple back in the 90s.
Continuing my countdown of the songs on Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell.
5. ‘Mariners Apartment Complex’ – This was the other single released a full year ago, and it has been a definite favorite of mine ever since. In fact, if I had heard this song for the first time as an album track it may well be at the top of this list. But I’ve known it for so long now that I’m giving the newer songs an edge for the accompanying sense of discovery.
Meet Me In Montauk 