Score: 9.1/10 – On her soft and soulful fifth studio album, Lana Del Rey establishes herself as one of the greatest living songwriters as she explores themes of love, heartbreak, and hope in her most ambitious project to date.
Norman Fucking Rockwell! is the fifth studio album by seductive songstress Lana Del Rey, and is her best LP to date. Norman Fucking Rockwell! finds Lana at a unique stage in her career. She’s mostly dropped her sad Hollywood starlet persona, and is taking on a more authentic role by becoming more relatable and showing vulnerability as she unveils who is behind the mask.
In Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana reaches her peak as an artist stripping away some of the oversaturated beats and melodies heard in her last four albums, for something refreshingly minimalistic. The album opens with the title track, “Norman Fucking Rockwell”, a sinisterly sweet four-minute confession to a lover about disappointment regarding their relationship. The soft piano and drums laid behind this track set the album up for the one-hour journey that follows, where each song sit together peacefully, sonically and thematically. Her lyrical peak is made in the following track, “Mariners Apartment Complex,” as she boldly admits the conflict throughout her relationship in the most elegant way possible: “’Cause even in the dark, I feel your resistance/ You can see my heart burning in the distance.” It is here where her stunning lyricism really presents itself, and the tone is set for what is the year’s most brilliant audio experience.
We quite literally see Lana reach new peaks in her career with her largest in size and style, near ten minute masterpiece, “Venice Bitch.” This track is the single most experimental song in Lana Del Rey’s discography; she introduces new elements in the instrumentals to divide the track between the song’s various verses creating a stunning ten minute ballad. Lana begins to pick up the pace in the following two tracks, “Fuck it I love you” and “Doin’ Time.” One, a surfy and bouncy teenage love song where it’s subject is reflective of the beat, and the other, a dreamy rendition of the classic beach-rock Sublime track, “Doin’ Time.” Lana slows things down as the upbeat tunes come to a dramatic halt when we are introduced to “Love song,” which begins the album’s next chapter. The following three songs, “Cinnamon Girl,” “How to disappear,” and “California” all unite with “Love song” to tell a lovely and theatrical story where Lana remains optimistic despite losing a lover as she tries to convince him to return back to her.
The album makes one of its few missteps in the, compared to the demo, lackluster official release of her 2017 leaked song, “The Next Best American Record.” She mistakenly replaced what were once beautifully sorrow lyrics, to a happily nostalgic serenade which despite fitting better thematically, is just pale in comparison. Lana becomes grand again in the album’s vocal peak “The greatest,” where she impressively holds notes that are so melodic, they blend in with the instruments in the back. Lana unfortunately trips up one last time in the redundant “Bartender,” but that is quickly overshadowed by the soulful final two tracks.
The meticulous placement of each song in the track list is complementary and cohesive as it progresses the overall story of the album. This has been evident over the course of the track list, but is especially emphasized at the end. “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have but I have it” is a gorgeous poem about holding onto hope despite the tragic love affair in previous track, “Happiness is a butterfly,” where Lana painfully confesses, “If he’s a serial killer, then what’s the worst That can happen to a girl who’s already hurt?/ I’m already hurt.” Lana reassures her listeners by ending the album on a hopeful note, straying away from the darkness that usually came by the conclusion of a Lana Del Rey album.
Norman Fucking Rockwell! is a monument in the career of Lana Del Rey. We see her take big risks and earn big rewards while simultaneously stripping down sonically to create one fantastic album. Lana reminds us of the twilight zone only she exists in where the most heartbreaking of tales are still so beautifully romantic. The storytelling is at an all-time high here allowing it to rise above its predecessors. For the first time in her career, Lana seems like she’s truly found her sound.
