The final days of winter quarter brought celebrations for Lana Del Rey fans, as the iconic singer-songwriter released her latest album, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. Many fans held high expectations for Ocean Blvd, and some even predicted it would be Lana’s best album yet. As a Lana fan myself, the Ocean Blvd release was practically a holiday, and I spent much of spring break relistening.
Ocean Blvd is easily Lana’s most vulnerable album yet. Infamously deemed a “sad girl,” Lana unsurprisingly continues dealing with heavy themes in her music — grief, heartbreak, complicated familial and romantic relationships, and suicide. Over time, Lana’s lyricism has become increasingly personal; whereas the stories of her older songs seem to function figuratively or as pseudonyms, Ocean Blvd is filled with names of family members, ex-boyfriends, and places specific to Lana. On top of being a ballad-heavy album, songs like “Fingertips” blur the line between song and poetry with its stream-of-consciousness structure. Lyrically, Lana exposes her innermost feelings more intimately than she has previously. Widely relatable themes (processing deaths of loved-ones, thinking about an ex) are interwoven with the specificity and nuance of her experiences.
The album plays with multiple genres, creating an exemplary selection of contemporary “Lana Del Rey” sound (i.e. Chemtrails Over The Country Club, Blue Banisters, Ocean Blvd) while evoking a nostalgia for her Lizzy Grant era. The album opener, “The Grants,” channels folk music — alluding to imagery of John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” and referencing the folk singer by name. “Kintsugi” is characteristic of Lana’s current releases; it is slow and beautiful, and even a little monotonous as Lana reassures herself that allowing her heart to break is necessary. Contrastingly, “A&W” is a trap-ballad split into two halves, the second half being an experimental trap sound. “Fishtail” features vocal modulation, and “Peppers” notably samples the work of rap-pop artist Tommy Genesis. The album is unafraid to go in multiple directions, but this slight eclecticism mirrors the thematic relevance of Lana’s own complexities and contradictions.
“Taco Truck x VB,” is definitely a stand out. A musical break and monologue divides the song into two parts; the first half is a new song (“Taco Truck”) and the second half is a trap remix of Lana’s song “Venice Bitch off of the album NFR. I didn’t know I needed to hear “Venice Bitch” as a trap remix, but I’m obsessed — hearing the recognizable vocals of “Venice Bitch” come in is one of my favorite moments on the album.
“Paris, Texas” has a unique and immediately familiar sound, though I couldn’t quite place it. Fans online have compared it to the score of Coraline, which I understand because of its haunting and cinematic tone.
“Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing” (Yes that is the title) is one of my overall favorites on the album. Thematically it incorporates the idea of familial connection and lineage (Lana is looking for signs that her deceased grandfather is near) with a discussion of Lana’s identity as a multidimensional, flawed person with good intentions (likely hinting at controversies surrounding her and her songwriting which have gained attention in the past few years). It differentiates itself from other ballads on the album and it features some beautiful vocal moments.
In foregrounding raw emotions, Ocean Blvd delivers multiple thematic dichotomies: for Lana, blood is thicker than water, but family relationships have also caused her pain; death is something both feared and desired; she deems herself an “American Whore” but expresses her wishes for a “normal” life — settling down and having children. As with the literal tunnel under Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, there is a separation between the interior and the exterior — the beautifully decorated inside of the tunnel is sealed between concrete, and likewise Lana feels as though her soul is not truly seen underneath her body — and Ocean Blvd explores this feeling.