Hi there! Today’s post is a bit different. I don’t talk much about music here, even though music plays an important part in my life. And one singer, in particular: Lana Del Rey.
I first heard of Lana Del Rey back in 2012, with her single Born To Die. Honestly, I didn’t really like her music back then. I found it utterly slow and dull. But something in me shifted a year later when I decided to listen to the entire Born To Die album. Only then did I took in the lyrics and found beauty in the slow rhythm that accompanied them. I became a fan ever since, eagerly waiting for the release of her following albums.
I was highly anticipating her latest album, Chemtrails Over The Country Club, which was released last week. Lana is known for her melancholic lyrics. And while the tunes in this album remain slow, I feel like we’re actually listening to Elizabeth Grant, not just Lana Del Rey. There’s a tinge of hopefulness and optimism that wasn’t present in her previous work.
I loved the literary references Lana did for some of her songs. The track Not All Who Wander Are Lost is titled after a verse from J.R.R. Tolkien’s poem from The Lord of The Ring. The song Chemtrails Over The Country Club starts with “I’m on the run with you, my sweetheart”, alluding to Clarissa Pinkola’s book Women Who Run With The Wolves. It becomes even more obvious in the music video where Lana appears with a wolf by her side. Not to mention, she also connects some songs with her previous album, like in the track Yosemite when she sings “No more candle in the wind” referencing to the song Mariner’s Apartment Complex. It felt like a continuation.
Lana Del Rey is one of the most underrated artists of this past decade. I have yet to read her poetry book titled ‘Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass’. But her lyrics by themselves already feel like poetry. And her latest album was no exception — velvet melodies, a work of art.
Olivine Books 