Lana Del Rey Releases New Album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
Lana Del Rey released her highly anticipated ninth album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, earlier Friday.
Del Rey first confirmed Ocean Blvd in December of 2022. Initially announced to come out on March 10, the singer pushed back the release date by two weeks. She teased the album with the release of three singles: “The Grants,” “A&W,” and the eponymous “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.” She hasn’t released an album in two years since Blue Banisters and Chemtrails Over the Country Club.
Ocean Blvd is Del Rey’s highest-produced album since Norman F**king Rockwell in 2019. She has made more public appearances, interviews, and photoshoots for the first time in four years. She has also promoted this album more than her last two. In an interview with Rolling Stone, they write that “Finally, she beams, after 11 years she is excited again.”
Lana Del Rey for Spotify. pic.twitter.com/jaPVA0pR0B
— Pop Base (@PopBase) March 24, 2023
As Del Rey makes clear throughout the album’s one-hour and 18-minute run, Ocean Blvd is about her. Many of her earlier albums were about narrative storytelling, especially in the moody movie-star glamour of Ultraviolence and the dark hip-hop of Born to Die. “It’s funny, this album felt totally effortless. When I did “Norman F**king Rockwell!,” it was about world-building, whereas this was straight vibing,” she told Interview Magazine on Ocean Blvd.
Ocean Blvd is a reflection and introspection for Del Rey. She opens up on her family and her relationships in “The Grants,” “Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing,” and “Kintsugi.” On “A&W,” she looks back on her role within pop culture and her rise to stardom. She ponders motherhood, spirituality, and her evolving role in her life. Most touchingly is her collaboration interlude with pastor Judah Smith, where in a lecture, he quotes, “I’ve discovered my preaching is mostly about me.”
You don’t have to be a fan to recognize Del Rey’s contribution to the music industry. From her breathy vocals to dark pop hip-hop, the singer has paved the way for artists such as Lorde or Billie Eilish, who interviewed her recently for Interview Magazine. “People have been trying to look and sound like you since you first started,” she tells Del Rey.
But nine albums into her career, the singer has shown no signs of slowing down. Her early albums were filled with pop melodies and highly-aestheticized graphics. Later, Norman F**king Rockwell would cement her role as a songwriting legend. Chemtrails over the Country Club and Blue Banisters pushed her boundaries as a singer. Instead of hopping on trends or fending for audience engagement, Del Rey produces music on her own time and style.
On the album, co-writer Jack Antonoff describes Del Rey to Rolling Stone. “She’s reached a point in her work, which is really my favorite place to work from, where there’s nowhere to go but way out into the f**king wilderness artistically. Go chase radio? That’d be so stupid. Go chase trends? So stupid. She created all the trends.”
On that note, Ocean Blvd has the most collaborations of any of her albums since 2017’s Lust For Life. Not only was it made hand in hand with Jack Antonoff, but the likes of Father John Misty, Tommy Genesis, and Jon Batiste all make appearances.
Del Rey thanked her co-writers and other people who were involved in an Instagram post on her private account. As she told Rolling Stone, “if people think my music is good it’s because there’s other people involved in the songs and in the process of making it.”
Fans can stream Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd on Spotify and Apple Music now.
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