Assessment: The unwavering honesty of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Do you know that there’s a tunnel beneath Ocean Blvd’

Del Rey’s ninth studio album could also be her most genuine so far.

Since 2019’s “Norman Fucking Rockwell!,” Lana Del Rey and Jack Antonoff have confirmed to be an unstoppable pop duo. In December of final yr, Del Rey introduced that the 2 had joined forces as soon as once more to create her ninth studio album, “Do you know that there’s a tunnel beneath Ocean Blvd?”

For the previous decade, Del Rey has exploited the romantic lens of Americana to create a sound and an aesthetic that cuts towards common pop developments. In her newest album, nonetheless, she takes her lyricism in a brand new path. 

In an interview with W Journal, Del Rey describes “Do you know that there’s a tunnel beneath Ocean Blvd?” as “wordy.” She stated lyrics usually come to her in a stream of consciousness, and he or she writes them as such. In an interview with Rolling Stone UK, she additionally talked about feeling bored along with her personal music over the previous decade; thus, it’s her unbridled self that shines in her newest document. Though her authenticity has at all times been contested by critics and fans, this new document is essentially the most sincere now we have ever heard her.

The album begins with the monitor “The Grants,” which is Del Rey’s household title. The opener is soulful and introspective, delving into Del Rey’s ideas on demise: “Do you consider Heaven? / Oh-oh, do you consider me? / My pastor informed me while you go away, all you are taking / Oh-oh, is your reminiscence.”

As is clear within the title monitor, Del Rey’s tackle Americana has advanced. “Do you know that there’s a tunnel beneath Ocean Blvd?” explores Del Rey’s emotions of loneliness, at the side of descriptions of her dwelling state, California, as a somber moderately than heavenly setting. The affect of Harry Nilsson’s “Don’t Neglect Me” is powerful within the monitor, from its piano ballad sound to the repeated lyrics of “Don’t neglect me.” Del Rey is asking these round her to not let her be hidden, very similar to the attractive tunnel that hides beneath the coast of Lengthy Seashore on Ocean Boulevard.

The theme of loss as means to ponder her future as a lady stays prevalent within the first three songs on the document. Del Rey investigates loss within the monitor “Candy,” which references the truth that she is now nearly 40 years previous. She questions what she really needs out of life. Within the bridge, we see a spiral of curiosity with the lyrics, “What you doin’ together with your lifе? / Do you consider it? Do you ponder the place we got here from? / Currently, we’ve been makin’ out lots / Not talkin’ ‘bout the stuff that’s on the very coronary heart of issues / Would you like kids? Do you wanna marry me?” 

Within the fourth monitor, titled “A&W,” Del Rey delves into her sexuality. The seven-minute monitor begins as a ballad, however for the ultimate two minutes, a heavy 808 bass kicks in together with the repeated lyrics, “Jimmy, Jimmy, cocoa puff, Jimmy, Jimmy, experience / Jimmy, Jimmy, cocoa puff, Jimmy, get me excessive (Oh my god) / Love me should you love or not, you might be my mild / Jimmy solely love me when he wanna get excessive.” The beginning of the tune begins as an anecdote of childhood and innocence, then evolving right into a story of Del Rey turning into what she calls an “American whore.” 

The repeated refrain is a direct reference to Little Anthony and the Imperials’ “Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop.” This reference, together with others to American artists comparable to John Denver and Leonard Cohen, embraces Americana, alluding to the crestfallen crooners of the style. 

In a slight tone shift, Del Rey has two interludes on the album: one is a spoken excerpt from collaborator Jon Batiste, and the opposite is a recorded sermon from Churchome’s lead communicator, Judah Smith. The four-minute-long excerpt particulars Smith’s ideas on the differentiation between love and lust. At first, the interludes really feel misplaced within the album, each being recorded memos that lack refined manufacturing. However, because the album continues, it turns into clear that the position of an interlude between “A&W” and “Sweet Necklaces” is a thematic resolution.

“Fingertips” is essentially the most sincere and heartbreaking monitor on the album. One other ballad that contemplates the that means of demise, Del Rey shares her struggles with psychological well being, referencing her use of psychiatric medication and a previous suicide try. The usage of strings at the side of a piano provides a fragile and tragic weight to the tune. It’s a story of the constant ache that she has pushed by for the sake of these round her, in order to not overwhelm her family members as she drowns in her sorrow.

Del Rey acknowledges the current whereas reminiscing on the previous on this album. She is her most unapologetic self within the monitor “Taco Truck x VB,” by which she references her appreciation for Latin tradition whereas concurrently poking enjoyable at herself with lyrics comparable to, “Oh, that’s why they name me Lanita / After I get down, I’m bonita / Don’t come discover me in Reseda  / I’ll go loopy  / Learn my gold chain, says ‘Lanita’ / After I’m violent, it’s Carlito’s Approach.”  

Del Rey’s appropriation of Latin Californian tradition has been known as out, amid a rising listing of problematic habits. “I’m folks, I’m jazz, I’m blue, I’m inexperienced / Regrettably, additionally a white lady / However I’ve good intentions even when I’m one of many final ones” she sings within the bridge of the eleventh monitor. “Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father whereas he’s deep-sea fishing.” She permits herself to simply be herself, Lana Del Rey — no fabricated mysterious character, simply the model of herself that she permits her family and friends to see.

All through the document, there may be an intimate vitality that Del Rey has been cultivating because the launch of “Chemtrails over the Nation Membership.” She sticks to mall clothes over glamor whereas sustaining a low-key profile on her pseudo-private social media with footage of household and pals, as if her followers are presupposed to be in her inside circle. The manufacturing of the album permits the lyrics to shine, as they stream straight out of Del Rey’s thoughts and soul on to pen and paper. 

Contact Ana Marks at [email protected]