Lana Del Rey's 2019 album
Norman Fucking Rockwell! represented a new level of artistry, as the singer moved further from the disaffected Hollywood starlet persona of her early recordings into something more restrained, subtle, and mature. With seventh album
Chemtrails Over the Country Club,
Del Rey shakes off the cocoon of her slick pop days completely, continuing the nuanced songwriting and hushed perspectives of
NFR! and turning in her most atmospheric set of songs to date. Much like its predecessor, the arrangements on
Chemtrails are toned down, keeping the rhythmic elements minimal if they show up at all. This puts her layered self-harmonizing in the forefront of most songs, and also makes room for colorful smears of laid-back '70s-style lead guitar or delicate, jazz-informed touches.
Del Rey again pairs with
Jack Antonoff for production, and the duo map out every song with slowly evolving subtleties. "White Dress" opens with spare piano and a drawn-out vocal line, and slowly adds nearly imperceptible layers of sound as it goes on. On the surface, the song appears to be a simple nostalgic reflection, but the introduction of each new instrument adds tension and uneasiness, shifting the emotional undercurrents. In the first moments of the album,
Del Rey delivers surreal and devastatingly sad commentary on the brutal machinery of the music industry and the sinister side of her own journey with fame, all deftly disguised with lyrics about remembering simpler days spent listening to
the White Stripes and talking all night with friends. The title track is similarly sad and subdued, with willfully trite lyrics about the slow passing of an idyllic summer pushed forward by a dark, simmering instrumental.
While
NFR! also had a restrained approach, there were multiple moments of accessible pop in the moody cover of
Sublime's "Doin' Time" and the classic rock grandeur of "The Greatest." There's barely a hint of that here, with the booming bass and steady drum loop of "Dark But Just a Game" being the closest
Chemtrails gets to pop production. There are more tendencies toward ghostly folk, as with the acoustic guitars and bongos of "Yosemite" or the lonely, drifting strumming of "Not All Who Wander Are Lost."
Del Rey experiments with expanding the depths of her long-established persona, occasionally breaking the fourth wall with overtly personal lyrics. "Wild at Heart" includes one of several moments where she alters her phrasing to fit extra lyrics into a single line, wondering aloud about what would happen if she escaped her music career for a more frivolous existence. The opening lines of "Dance Til We Die" refer to "covering Joni" and the next song is a pristine cover of
Joni Mitchell's
Ladies of the Canyon classic "For Free," with vocal contributions from
Weyes Blood and
Zella Day. The track is a perfect closer for an album that further advances
Del Rey's evolution from a constructed pop persona to a complex artist. It's on an entirely different page than the club-ready remixes of her earlier material, but with
Chemtrails Over the Country Club,
Del Rey shows her softest moments can be her most powerful. ~ Fred Thomas