Around four years ago, Lana Del Rey became the envy of every modern singer-songwriter when she dropped Norman Fucking Rockwell! in 2019. While Del Rey had received her fair share of acclaim and success in years prior off albums like Born to Die or Ultraviolence, NFR! was an immediate success when it came out, and it's still a common sight on many a "best of 2019" or "best of the 2010s" lists. Since then, Lana has been on a higher pedestal of music, and her following 2021 releases of Chemtrails Over the Country Club and Blue Banisters reflected this, even if the returns weren't quite on the same scale as NFR!. Here we are, two years gone from a Lana album drought, and she returns with what may be her most personal work yet. It's brilliantly performed and written throughout, and stands as a strong release from one of music's most beloved figures.
When you finally dive into Ocean Blvd, you're met with what is, in some sense, traditional Lana, but with a far more personal twist. It's the same well-written singer-songwriter material that's made up many of her past albums, complete with that distinct chamber pop sound that was also on albums like Blue Banisters. I'm sure some of the similarity is also in part due to Jack Antonoff returning to the production table (who has produced previous albums for Lana and recently Taylor Swift. The guy is on a roll). The album mostly sticks to the mold that one could expect from Lana given her previous works, at least on a musical level. For what it's worth, it's instrumentally excellent, and Lana infuses many other elements throughout - form baroque to gospel to blue-eyed-soul to even more modern elements like hints of trap (although the latter doesn't exactly work out). Lana manages to keep her own formula interesting and creative throughout this release, and that in it of itself is more than respectable.
This is all without mentioning the album's two strongest selling points - Lana's vocal performances and her more introspective and personal writing that she employs on the album. Much of the album is rich with some of Lana's sharpest lyricism yet, immediately obvious from the insecurity of the album's brilliant title track - reminds me a lot of Harry Nilsson, who is not-so-coincidentally mentioned in the song itself along with his song "Don't Forget Me". Even the song's lyrics that invoke imagery of America feel distinctly 70s in their style (I can't help but think of Eric Clapton's 461 Ocean Boulevard album with the song's title. Again, not really a bad thing). "Sweet" is a lovely and poignant ballad, just as invocative of American imagery (a consistent theme throughout, really). "Candy Necklace" is a reflection on superficial love with a few callbacks to her previous works (including "Cinnamon Girl" from NFR!), and it's one of the album's best moments melodically. "Kintsugi" is probably the album's pinnacle writing-wise, an expression of grief and healing, and it's easily my favorite thing here outside of the title track. Similar themes of family and grief carry over on "Fingertips", as well as on previous songs such as the solid opening track "The Grants". "Let the Light In" is an excellent love story with a solid featured vocal from Father John Misty, a respectable singer-songwriter himself.
There's far more to Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd besides a long (and very fun to type out) album name - Lana Del Rey's artistic maturation on this record is truly excellent here, as is her newer approach to introspective songwriting. It's brilliantly produced and performed, and these all mesh together incredibly well to create a very candid feel throughout the album - I'd equate it to a more emotionally bare and arguably more minimal counterpart to Midnights by Taylor Swift from last year (although for my money, this beats it out). I hope that Lana continues down this path for a future release, but I have a feeling that whatever comes next will certainly stick the landing regardless. Nevertheless, Lana's latest album lives up to the hype.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.
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