With the rise of “sad girl” and melancholy music, we need to pay respect to the woman who started it all, Lana Del Rey. Lana Del Rey is an alternative artist with one pop album and 8 alternative albums. Lana Del Rey has been making music since 2005 when she was only 20 years old, and hasn’t lost her classic rhythmically emotional and sad signature sound. Her latest album “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” was released on March 24th, 2023, and it one hundred percent captures that signature Lana Del Rey sound throughout all 16 tracks. This beautiful and mesmerizing sound creates a perfect soulful alternative album that has undertones of her own past entailing her struggles with mental health, addiction, and her family.
This masterfully depressing album is perfect for a good cry when you really need it. This album grabbed the love of the public and other artists, with it being nominated for album of the year, alternative album of the year, track 4 A&W for song of the year, and track 6 Candy Necklace (feat. Jon Batiste) for best duo/group performance at the 2023 Grammy Music Awards that take place on February 5th, 2024. Aside from capturing the love of the public, this album successfully captured my heart, with it being one of my all time favorite albums, which I’m sure will become apparent as I recap and review my favorites and fan favorites.
Track 1 – The Grants
This song can only be described as “soulful”. With it being titled after Lana’s real surname “Grant”, the title alludes to the content of the song, containing lyrics describing her childhood and her experiences with religion. This combination creates a heart wrenching lullaby combined with a gospel introduction that wraps the song together in a metaphorical satin bow.
Track 12 – Let The Light In (Feat. Father John Misty)
Recently, it has become very apparent that this is the general public’s favorite song of the album. With it becoming extremely mainstream and being played in public spots. But I love that this song caught the public’s attention. As this song is gorgeous and never gets old. It starts with an absolutely beautiful soul crushing melody, with relatable and depressing lyrics slowly seeping in. Something I love about this song is how natural and smooth it feels. The song talks about having “fun” in life and repeating the same sad and addicting habits with the same person. It has undertones of the concept of being dragged along with someone or dragging someone along with you. I believe this song could be played all day everyday and it would never get old.
Track 2 – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
With this song being the album’s title track, I believe it lives up to the name. As this is one of my personal favorite tracks on the album, as it talks about Lana’s struggles with isolation and completely cutting herself off from the world, but there’s a forgotten tunnel under Ocean Blvd that can reach her. This song is successful at creating an emotional connection with the listener, as it has a slow and repetitive melody but has gut wrenching and engaging lyrics that will make you want to ball your eyes out (in the best way). This song has also caught the attention of the public, and it deserves all the love it gets.
Track 3 – Sweet
Sweet has the power to transport the listener to what feels like another world. This song throws you into a soft and sad melody with lyrics describing a sad and broken down relationship. At the same time, also touching on rebuilding the relationship while still in isolation. This is not one of my favorite tracks, but I appreciate the nature of it, as I’m sure many could relate and resonate with this masterfully created song.
Track 11 – Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep sea fishing
This song’s mouthful of a title has a tendency to scare people away. In my opinion avoiding this song is a mistake, as this is my favorite song off of the album, and it’s my all time favorite song. The song has a soft and mournful like melody, that seems to echo through the whole piece. It features sweet sounding lyrics about how it does not take more than one person to fix yourself, and that you have to look deep inside yourself for the solution. It mentions several signals of this solution like “three white butterflies to know you’re near”. The title of the song also makes itself present as a somewhat guardian angel type of concept. All of the interesting and beautiful aspects of this song come together and make an absolutely gorgeous piece that you can just get sucked into. I also believe this song is painfully underrated and should be more popular than it is.
Track 4 – A&W
I’m not sure I could even describe this song in words. It spans over 7 minutes and 14 seconds, and engages the listener for every single second. The song seems to separate itself into two halves. The first half is a sweet and soft alternative rhythm covering the rough transition from being a child to a teenager and then to an adult, then looking back and wondering where you went wrong. The song then transitions into almost a techno type beat and starts to pick up. This sudden change seems to be Lana finally realizing that her partner was slowing her down in life, as she bashes his abusive ways and seems to find herself. I personally love this song, and think it deserves song of the year for its plain uniqueness and beautifully written lyrics.
