Lana Del Rey has finally released her “White Album.”
This album is long but contains some absolute gems, which makes it great. It also includes a few fairly non-existent Lana Del Rey tracks and has two “Revolution 9” tracks, which I’ll get to.
Sadly, to call Lana Del Rey’s “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” somewhat indulgent, with that title and clocking in at over 77 minutes, is a bit like… OK, perhaps I’ll say “audacious” instead?
It’s like listening to a now 37-year-old Lana having a mid-life crisis, and it is at times gorgeous, at her very vintage best, and at other times, just blazingly bizarre and difficult to listen to. It is still a good listen. I found it just took quite a bit of time.
But that may be what she wanted. She is truly a unique artist.
“…love me until I love myself…” Lana croons on the sweeping, beautiful title track, a theme of this album. She struggles with self-doubt throughout the album, exploring grief, love, family, and, dare I say it, the meaning of life—or, at least, her future.
OK, the review then.
The Beginning.
The album’s first four cuts, “The Grants, “…Ocean Blvd“, “Sweet,” and “A&W,” showcase Lana at her finest, so I’ll spend most of my time here.
“The Grants” is titled after Lana’s family name, and it contains two of the dominating features of this album: gospel and the piano. She sounds highly confident throughout the track, listening to her. It opens with a gospel refrain and slows to just her on the piano: “My pastor told me, when you leave, all you take is your memories… I’m gonna take mine of you with me.”
It slowly reaches its gospel conclusion: “My sister’s first-born child, I’m gonna take that too with me. My grandmother’s last smile, I’m gonna take that too with me.” It is all about family, and it’s fantastic.
“Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” is Lana at her finest, the lead single off the album and one of my favorite songs from last year. It is lush and could easily have slotted onto her 2019 masterpiece, “Norman F–king Rockwell!!” which is still one of my favorite albums of the last decade.
It starts with just her, a piano, and violins, and like “The Grants,” it swells and sends us to a gospel choir.
“There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard. Don’t forget me.”
She sings it over and over. That tunnel was the Jurgins Tunnel, the underground entrance to Long Beach – long shut – the entry and the exit, for over 50 years. Lana asks, “When’s it gonna be my turn?“
That is Lana-speak for “I’m popular now, but when will you – the public – turn your back on me and forget about me?”
“Sweet” is sort of that, but Lana continues with a feeling of uncertainty as the album progresses. Again, piano-led. At first, I wasn’t a big fan of the track, but it has grown on me, primarily when you focus on where Lana is going with this lyrically.
“Do you want children? Do you wanna marry me?
Do you wanna run marathons in Long Beach by the sea?
I’ve got things to do, like nothing at all.
I wanna do them with you.
Do you wanna do them with me?“
She’s not sure. Lana’s certainly not lived a conventional life but is now querying whether to have children at 37. Lyrically, she’s confused, but the song, which is her, a piano and orchestra, is beautiful.
“A&W” is two songs in one, over 7 minutes long, but it is terrific. It is an abbreviation of “American whore” which already takes you into Lana-Lana-land. “It’s not about havin’ someone to love me anymorе. This is the experience of bein’ an American whore.” It starts simply enough. Again, rife with piano and her crooning.
A victim asking for it? (“Do you really think that anybody would think I didn’t ask for it?“).
No. “I didn’t ask for it. I already f**d up my story.“
It’s her long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff’s favorite piece.
After its initial lovely piano start, she moves into a Lana Del Rey pulsing rap (which only she can pull off). And it works. It is mesmerizing, and it comes out of nowhere. We end up with one of the most exciting and best songs she has ever done.
The WTF?
There are two “interludes” which follow. First is the “Judah Smith Interlude,” featuring Jack Antonoff on piano behind a sermon given by Judah Smith, with Lana laughing towards the end. During this track, I wondered, “WTF were Lana and Jack thinking?” My first “Revolution 9” track.
The next song, “Candy Necklace,” is pretty nothing (it isn’t bad, it isn’t good or offensive), but then it leads into her next “Revolution 9” track with the other “interlude,” this time the “Jon Bapiste Interlude,” which I guess if you joined “Candy Necklace” and this together, you might not have noticed. But no matter what, it’s just random nonsense.
Following there is “Kintsugi.” As mentioned, ‘Kintsugi’ will “no doubt mean a lot to any Lana fan who’s experienced grief.”
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery, even if the result is imperfect.
It’s a lovely piece that even leaves therapists needing therapy.
It’s just that… “I don’t trust myself with my heart. But I’ve had to let it break a little more. ‘Cause they say, that’s what it’s for.”
“Fingertips” has me on edge, as I know it is another internal, cathartic monologue, but it is one with no melody. Having been through two “interludes” with absolutely no song structure (let alone song), “Fingertips” is a skip.
Now I know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, the finale?
OK, so “Paris, Texas” (feat. SYML) brings some normalcy to the album, and it is a pretty track. Very much so. Antonoff comes back into the mix, very piano-focused, with drips of violins and an acoustic guitar strumming. It’s a simple song that Lana could have written in her sleep, but for the fact that it entirely samples “I Wanted to Leave” by SYML.
“Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing” is one of the best tracks on the album. Forget the title (it is easy to forget). It’s a message to her naysayers and those who have questioned the authenticity of her career—those who could cause her self-doubt.
But, instead, she feels “good in spirit” and “warm-bodied.”
“If you don’t believe me, my poetry, or my melodies. Feel it in your bones. I have good intentions, even if I’m one of the last ones.”
“Let the Light In” is a lovely duet with Father John Misty, another collaboration between the two. They suit each other. “I can never stop, wanna have fun.” she sings, “Don’t be actin’ like I’m the kinda girl who can sleep.“
“Ooh, let the light in…
…Look at us, you and I, back at it again.”
I just would have loved to have had FJM sing a verse rather than just backing vocals during the choruses.
“Margaret,” which features The Bleachers (which is Jack Antonoff), is excellent. It would have been a great closer, with four strong stongs ending it, just as the beginning had four starting it. Jack was the production force behind “NFR!!” and co-wrote and produced most of this album.
In an interview for The Rolling Stone, Lana admitted: “It was written for Antonoff’s fiancé Margaret Qualley as the kind of song that could hypothetically be played at their wedding.” “So if you don’t know, don’t give up. Because you never know what the new day might bring.”
“Fishtail,” “Peppers,” and “Taco Truck x VB.”
But then we end up with what should have been a bonus disc.
So. “Fishtail,” “Peppers,” and “Taco Truck x VB.”
I’ll be brief, but “Fishtail” – Lana repeats, “You wanted me sadder,” on auto-tune, and it drones on a bit too much with little point. “Peppers” is Lana rapping “Hands on your knees, I’m Angelina Jolie” over and over for what is – I guess – a fun track but entirely out of place.
And “Taco Truck x VB” has Lana in retro mode, sampling a demo of “Venice Bitch” from “NFR!!” in the latter half of the song. I like it, but I keep thinking, “This should have been on a bonus disc.” It’s fun again. And it reminds me of “NFR!!” and the fact that Lana has no issues remixing her material from less than four years ago perhaps is a bit of a testament to her confidence as a singer/songwriter.
It took me a while, partly because of its length, but I do really like this new Lana Del Rey album, which is better than “Blue Bannisters.” I like it slightly better than “Chemtrails Over the Country Club.” But this is no “NFR!!”
Sadly, it could have been an album that ranks as highly as “NFR!!” but it doesn’t because it contains just a bit too much fluff and … awful “interludes.”
And, no. I didn’t know there was a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, but thanks, Lana. Finding out from you was still interesting, confounding at times, and one helluva mind-spinning trip.
7.5/10
Chris Garrod, May 4th, 2023