Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (2023)

Thought I'd move discussion here (from the Chemtrails thread) – as the album comes out this week, and I'm sure there will be plenty to say about it!

This Rolling Stone (UK) feature has lots of info on the LP, what Lana's been up to the past few years, where her head's at (or at least where she says it's at), etc.

I think all three of the advance tracks are super sick, and I'm highly anticipating this release!

https://diy-magazine.s3.amazonaws.com/d/diy/Artists/L/Lana-Del-Rey/_900x900_crop_center-center_82_line/did-you-know.jpg

01. The Grants
02. Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
03. Sweet
04. A&W
05. Judah Smith Interlude
06. Candy Necklace
07. Jon Batiste Interlude
08. Kintsugi
09. Fingertips
10. Paris, Texas
11. Grandfather Please Stand on The Shoulders of My Father While He’s Deep-Sea Fishing
12. Let the Light In (fear. Father John Misty)
13. Margaret (feat. Bleachers)
14. Fishtail
15. Peppers (feat. Tommy Genesis)
16. Taco Truck x VB

Last one is a very Mark E. Smith-like title formulation (I know it's the original version of Venice Bitch).

man, albums really don't seem to leak anymore do they

Antonoff's hard drive is like Fort Knox.

i may have spoken too soon

(most of this is on slsk now. gave taco truck/vb a listen, which is good but I'm not sure why she reused that)

not sure how to interpret the judah smith interlude. i know she goes to one of those celeb churches so it's odd that it's placed in contrast with the joyous batiste interlude. also there's something vaguely psychedelic about the delay effect added to her (?) utterly banal "yeah"s and "heh"s on the recording

I think it's her best record - it's more diverse than Norman Rockwell.

the interludes are skippable, also not sure what they were meant to convey.

I'm going to have 'hands on my knees angelina jolie' in my head for the rest of my life

anyone not interested in piano ballads is going to have a hard time with this album since that's about 90% of it

this is really good. i don't usually like piano LDR but the melodies really bring me in

Paris, Texas is really beautiful, waltzing along like a Tori Amos song.

what do others think of revisiting VB at the end? I mean I'm happy to hear it but it's just a shortened remix of the trippiest parts. I do like "get high, drop acid, never die" in the lyrics.

i don't know that I'll count this as her best though, there are several things here I just can't get into: Fingertips, Margaret, Fishtail, plus those interludes. The parts that are strong are really strong (the three tracks already released)

what is the fishtail melody a callback to? summer bummer?

something on the album recalls that, yes, can't remember which song

this album really really didn't need four and a half minutes of a megachurch preacher

there's some pretty stuff on this but it's also a total slog

I’m pleasantly surprised by the interludes… at least they have music!

« Let the light in » is wonderful…Heart beating faster wonderful !

As with her two previous albums, I find much to like: "The Grants," "Kintsugi," "A&W," "Margaret." But, my god, does the sameness of texture wear me down.

very much agreed

there aren't any real duds beyond the interludes but it's so long and gets very samey in places

The interludes should be much shorter (as in actual interludes), but that's my only complaint after a couple of listens. I totally get the criticisms of it being a slog because there's so many piano ballads and it's a long record, but to me it's more like Blue Banisters and Lust For Life which were both long albums that didn't drag and justified their length. Honeymoon and Chemtrails are her two weakest albums because the pacing was off and the songwriting wasn't good enough in places. They both feel long. I'm not really having that issue with this one. Fingertips onward in particular is such a fantastic run.

this is definitely better than lust for life, which was also way too long but largely not very good. even nfr is too long!

chemtrails is so much better though, it's so focused and has some of her strongest songs & arrangements. "breaking up slowly" and the joni mitchell cover are inessential but that's a much better ratio of hits to misses than she usually has

I’m still on my first listen to this, but the songs seem incredibly beautiful (“Paris, Texas” – OMG!)

“Grandfather…” – also a OMG. These songs are absolutely next-level…!

this is definitely better than lust for life, which was also way too long but largely not very good. even nfr is too long!

chemtrails is so much better though, it's so focused and has some of her strongest songs & arrangements. "breaking up slowly" and the joni mitchell cover are inessential but that's a much better ratio of hits to misses than she usually has

― ufo

I still really like Lust For Life. I'm surprised how unpopular that one seems to be (it has the lowest rating on RYM not including the poetry album). The songs are much more memorable than Chemtrails which is the only album of hers that made practically no impression on me. Blue Banisters was much stronger and I'm still disappointed at how overlooked that one was.

“Margaret” feels like one long, gorgeous chorus that languidly unfolds over the course of an entire song…

I listened to LFL yesterday and liked it a lot. Thinking of Lennon’s spot as a cruel parody of his father helped.

Listening to this album and the Danny Brown album side-by-side helps.

I don't mind Sean's bit on LFL at all, though the lyrics are a bit dopey (just the 'i'm singing with sean' bit). I also really love the duet with Stevie Nicks.

I think the Sean duet is great!

"If you want some basic bitch
Go to the Beverly Center and find her"

I love the lyric and delivery of "A&W" so much. On each of LDR's last few albums there are so many of these daring decisions and such a huge payoff

I’ve never heard of this “SYML” fellow (my brain wants his moniker to be “SMDH”), but seems he is partly responsible for one of the album’s most extraordinary songs:

Lana is as sweet as she is legendary. This picture is when we met at my show last year in LA. What she’s done with her song Paris, Texas is honest, and beautiful. I intentionally wrote a song called I Wanted To Leave without words, now she’s taken it and made it her own. pic.twitter.com/7UVGLBZkXN

— S Y M L (@SYMLMUSIC) March 24, 2023

I'll say that LDR's reputation as someone to work with seems to be really good; like, you never hear anyone say she's a diva, stubborn, impossible. I imagine working on albums with her is probably an extremely gratifying experience, particularly when the results wind up so good almost all of the time.

Except when she sics her fans on critics.

A really good Saturday am listen. Re. the “Boy it all feels the same again” takes (of which I was initially guilty), one point I’d make is that whole record takes the gospel cue of The Grants and really runs with it.

Also, holy shit the Nilsson/Lennon call out on the title track.

Love “Paris Texas”, sounds unlike anything she has ever made (I know this is partially because it’s based on an already existing SYML track), it gives me 70’s vibes of artists like Vashti Bunyan or Linda Perhacs.

I know Antonoff is a polarizing producer but I like a lot how this whole album sounds. Probably the best sounding LDR for me.

“Paris Texas” and “Taco Truck” are my favorite tracks on first listen but honestly liked it way more than I expected - the interludes are annoying and there’s a couple of tracks I would have cut off on the second half. It would have been perfect as a 10 track album.

Except when she sics her fans on critics.

true, she complained about a critic (in a not very coherent manner); idiotic stan behaviour is something else, and I don't really hold artists to account for that, wtf are they going to do about it? also, my point was about her as a musical collaborator, that has absolutely nothing to do with what she or her weird fans may have said about a critic, which is an entirely different thing. I maintain that it kind of sounds heavenly to make an album with LDR. She seems to have very few preconceived notions of how something should be and very willing to just follow where things go. It's a great luxury to have while making music.

She didn't even really "complain about" the critic – she replied to a Powers tweet with two of her own, taking issue with the piece (but not really attacking Powers herself, beyond saying "don't call yourself a fan"). I was looking back at the whole thing recently, and was surprised at how "mild" LDR's tweets actually were (vs. how I remembered it).

I do take the point that she could have told the stans to knock it off, etc.

I think she deleted her social media in part because she tended to say things that people took the wrong way, or were phrased inartfully (i honestly never understood the pile on re: the cover of Chemtrails), but I suspect she also didn't want to have to read the dumb shit her fans say. (I'm aware she has a private instagram account where she posted boobies recently).

Speaking of "fan engagement" – there was a rumor that she was going to show up at an official "Pop-Up" fan event in Long Beach last Saturday; she ended up FaceTiming into someone's phone from her car (which seems really funny / on-brand to me):

Lana Del Rey Facetimed into the pop up shop in Long Beach, CA yesterday and briefly spoke to fans ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Bh5US2lrOw

— Lana Del Rey Online (@LanaDReyOnline) March 27, 2023

Really concise title compared to Yves Tumor

I was looking back at the whole thing recently, and was surprised at how "mild" LDR's tweets actually were (vs. how I remembered it).

I agree. I take back what I wrote.

Anyone notice the Leonard Cohen line floating around in "Kintsugi" -- "that's how the light gets in"?

Has another popular artist ever "referenced" other artists/songs as much as she does? And I don't even mean just lyrical interpolations (like the above, and the Belinda Carlisle ref. in her first hit) – I mean literally mentioning Nilsson, RHCP, White Stripes, Kings of Leon, Springsteen, Elvis, etc.

Many, many rappers are ahead of her.

Yeah, that's a good point (I forgot a big one, btw, from my favorite song: "You act like fucking Mr. Brightside, when you're with all your friends...")

As a relative LDR newcomer (and perhaps possessed a bit with the "zeal of the convert"), I have been surprised to learn how highly NFR! is rated (no dig on those who love it, of course). To me, it's a solid ★ ★ ★ ½ album – probably her best to that point – but the songwriting doesn't approach the level of what comes afterwards. It feels like an album anchored by a few great songs, and then fleshed out with some good/OK ones.

Billboard is reporting that Lana has recently become engaged. (Best wishes, Lana!)

Here's a pic her of her fiancé, in character as Rolling Thunder–era Dylan.

Evan Winiker?

What happened to the guy that was kissing his male cousin? I remember he and Lana visited his family in jail too so I assumed they were solid.

i don't know who that was. her last well known relationship was with the guy who was a cop

or at least, the last relationship of hers I knew about (maybe the only one TBH)

What happened to the guy that was kissing his male cousin? I remember he and Lana visited his family in jail too so I assumed they were solid.

that was jack donoghue of seminal witch house band salem

I reviewed Ultraviolence, Lust For Life, Norman Fucking Rockwell! and Blue Banisters for Shfl.

Nice reviews – I appreciate the Banisters one in particular!

i don't think her and jack donoghue were actually together i think that was mostly just to titillate gay ppl on twitter (successful)

As today's LDR spin is BTD Paradise Ed., I realized that song talking about Springsteen & Elvis ("American") also mentions The Crystal Method... that classic trio!

Candy Necklace; up there with Tulsa Jesus Freak as my favourites from 21st century Lana.

I wuz unaware of these cover connections:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsZS4FFXsAAYH0M?format=jpg&name=large

I didn't know about the blue bannisters one but the new one I saw mentioned elsewhere. that's obscure enough I don't think most people will have ever seen the original

Interesting that the new Boygenius record has the following lyric (in a song called "Leonard Cohen") – must be something in the air:

Leonard Cohen once said
"There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in"

Lana’s IG acct is public/followable again (for the moment)

Listening now - pretty but dreary, may reveal itself more on future listens.

Weird stupid thought that just popped into my head: I would love to hear a Polly Jean Harvey cover of this record.

Looks like LDR is playing a bunch of festivals this summer… I wonder if she’ll tour in the fall.

Still digging into the album but I'm enjoying it...I was going to say something lazy like "not up to the standard of NFR" but then I went back to that for the first time in a while and wow her writing has come so far since then.

(so many references to skinny dipping and otherwise disrobing - why does Lana hate clothes?)

yeah she's doing Outside Lands in SF; I hate festivals so no thank you, but I really liked the last smaller show of hers I went to (the NFR tour)

The back-to-back hit of "Paris, TX" → "Grandfather" is so absurdly lovely, it almost feels like a put-on... like when a filmmaker does something (in a movie) so audacious & virtuosic, your reflex is to laugh in disbelief.

Her vocal on "Paris" on remarkable – that clean, pure tone; I can't think if she's sung like that on a record before?

Here's a really nice (and early) example of an LDR artist name + lyric callout:

The headlights from passing cars
They illuminate my face then leave me the dark
The voice of Nirvana says, "come as you are"
And I will
The nighttime is almost ours

not new album related, but my kid pointed out too me that "Dealer" ripped off "us and them"

this is a few years old obv, from the NFR tour, but I was at this show and it was amazing; take a listen to this, particularly when the band pick up toward the end of the song and see how she sings along. I'm pretty positive this was a really pivotal and transformative show for her, since she referenced it at least twice in the lyrics of songs on the next album (she also did Diamonds and Dust with Joan Baez). Look, do I think LDR is the next Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, or Joni Mitchell? No, not really, but I really appreciate that she aspires to that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI8gg-PextE

she could, thoughm pretty easily be the next Bobbie Gentry

That was really nice, thx for posting it (I had never seen video of her performing; other than that old SNL clip...)

Anyone think the album should have led with the title track? It's got that sweep.

I’m ok with « The Grants » as an opener but the track list could have clearly been edited and structured better.

I like how it begins with a rumination on death & memory; works its way through various treatments of these topics, in often transcendent ways; turns its attn to love & marriage; and eventually closes out on an "earthy" note – like a long night talking to someone, where profound conversation diffuses into stoned goofing around.

I also keep coming back to the "intertextuality"... this is an album that namechecks John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" at the very beginning (in a context where you would not expect that song to come up!); cites a specific timecode of a Harry Nilsson track; builds entire new songs off an existing instrumental composition and a rap hook... I don't know how to articulate it, but it feels remarkable how deeply she incorporates other artists' work into her own, on levels both transcendental and "everyday" ("Me and my boyfriend listen to the Chili Peppers").

I mean, just a verse like this:

There's a girl who sings "Hotel California"
Not because she loves the notes or sounds that sound like Florida
It's because she's in a world, preserved, only a few have found the door
It's like Camarillo, only silver mirrors, running down the corridor

(apparently she's mentioned that song / the Eagles in lyrics, several times before)

And (sorry last thing), I also have to mention this verse:

They sang folk songs from the '40s
Even the fourteen-year old knew "Froggie Came A-Courtin"
How do my blood relatives know all of these songs?
I don't know anyone left to know songs that I sing

It's like there's a deep connection for her between music and experience, and music and memory, and people "living on" in others' memories (which is of course the theme of the first few songs).

apparently the boob pressing of the record omits the judah smith interlude

That's the dream track-listing. I don't really mind the second interlude now as it kind of works as an extended outro to Candy Necklaces and I like how the music swells towards the end. I don't think I've listened to the Judah Smith one more than once and I've played this album a lot already.

I listen to it every time (including around an hour ago, in the car)… but I can understand how others may skip.

Something weird about it (and maybe part of what keeps me listening) is that you assume it's just a voice note she recorded of the sermon, with music dubbed over it... but there are little bits that stick out, like applause that comes in at weird times, and (of course) the effects on her voice. Like it's just "worked over" enough to be slightly psychedelic, or whatever.

yeah i have no time for that interlude; if it were half the length, maybe.

I was going to order this but (not to sound pervy) why did they censor the boob? ffs, she posted that on instagram. I'll deal with the interlude I don't like on vinyl; I deleted it in apple music

Fwiw, the album cover itself is uncensored:

It’s just the website guys 😭 pic.twitter.com/vqc1uTClf9

— Jack Donoghue (@tulsa_lanafreak) April 12, 2023

it's kind of interesting that she hasn't unleashed an onslaught of videos for this album (so far). also, after living with this through what's easily one of the most trying periods of my life, I'm pretty comfortable saying it's one of her best.

it kind of bugged me that venice bitch made a reappearance here, but now I like it, mainly because this time it has the lines "get high, drop acid" included

Taco truck venice bitch sounds amazing on headphones. I don’t mind her covering herself because it feels like a wildly different tone.

this is a dumb observation but revisiting an old song on the last track is the second thing this album has in common with the Boygenius record; the last song on that one revisits Me and My Dog (the other common portion being the same Leonard Cohen reference).

Re: "Venice Bitch" redux... three of her albums end with covers of songs (by other artists), so maybe it kind of tracks with that impulse.

(I think "Get high, drop acid, never die" is a great way to end the album, and undercut the seriousness of its themes involving death, etc. Think I said this above, but I like how the album "lightens up" at the end... it's like a reminder that despite all the heavy stuff on her mind, she still likes to get silly and party.)

the last part of that is "lake placid" which is where her uncle hanged himself though

Lake Placid is where she grew up, no? I believe she had a teenage boyfriend there, who later died in a car accident… her uncle’s suicide was more recent, and in Colorado (according to Genius.com).

ah you are right, reddit or whatever mislead me

https://www.al.com/life/2023/07/lana-del-rey-spotted-working-in-alabama-waffle-house-she-was-super-lovely.html

OK, I will not click on the link because the story could not possibly measure up to that url.

This video came out and I missed it until the other day, very well done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2e0H6MUWyU

She was recording at Muscle Shoals over the weekend (the pics are online)