“Can’t a girl just do the best she can?” Yes, Lana, and you did
Lana Del Rey has now brought us eight amazing studio albums, following the recent release of Blue Banisters, but it can’t be denied that her 6th studio album, Norman F***ing Rockwell, triumphs over the rest, both in its overall creative production and the public’s approval. All of her music is known for its cinematic quality, but Lana really brings tragic romance to life through the wavelike soft rock elements in this album, pushing and pulling the listener in and out of her mesmerizing melodies.
Let’s start with the basics: Who is Norman Rockwell? He was a popular American commercial artist from the mid-20th century who was widely known for his idealistic, yet sometimes political, paintings of suburban America. In all of her albums, Lana tells a vivid, yet sometimes dark and twisted, story of the American Dream. Similarly, Norman F***ing Rockwell paints a musical picture of an ideal life with a significant other, just like Rockwell had done. Lana toys with the idea that underneath the beautiful exterior of this life, a biased country lies in ruins—something much darker than any one of Rockwell’s paintings depicts itself to be at first glance. Lana wanted to emphasize this dramatic chaos, especially in today’s society, hence why “F***ing” was added to the title. The lyric “Paint me happy in blue / Norman Rockwell…” from the album’s 3rd track, “Venice B*tch,” is an oxymoron. While “blue” is usually related to sadness, Rockwell is known for implementing creative depth into his works, as his meaning goes beyond what is originally presented. Another interpretation of this lyric would be that Lana tends to recognize “blue” as a happy color in a lot of her songs. Twisting emotions of sadness into joy and vice versa is one of Lana’s lyrical specialties.
Lana Del Rey exhibits an emotional depth that haunts her lyrics throughout the album’s 14 tracks. She opens up the album with the powerful lines “Goddamn, man child / You f***ed me so good that I almost said ‘I love you.’” From the very beginning, she asserts feminine power within romantic tragedy. Her awareness of her pathetic romances adds an interesting take on whether or not she gravitates towards toxicity. In “Cinnamon Girl,” Lana describes a toxic relationship in which she begs her lover to do the bare minimum, such as “if you hold me without hurting me / you’ll be the first who ever did.” While her lover fails to do so, she still stays with him, refusing to rid herself of the negative strain. Even though her love always seems to be set in misfortune, she paints an alluring scene out of words and images that are so beautiful her tragedy becomes somewhat desirable to the listener. In the tracks “Happiness is a butterfly,” “Love Song,” and “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it” Lana gestures toward a more vulnerable side of herself—a side that invites the listener to swim in her sea of melancholy.
The album received the most widespread critical acclaim out of all of Lana’s albums following its 2019 release date. It landed Lana two nominations at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards: Album of the Year and the title track receiving Song of the Year. Apart from its nominations, the album was named one of the best albums of the decade by several major publications. Rolling Stone gave Norman F***ing Rockwell 4 ½ stars and then proceeded to place it as #321 on their Top 500 Albums of All Time list.
Now, while I personally believe that Norman F***ing Rockwell is Lana Del Rey’s best album, that doesn’t mean that I don’t think the rest of her albums aren’t extraordinary as well. Each one of her albums resembles a different aesthetic that is more desirable in correlation to the listener’s tastes and preferences. The entrancing elements featured in Norman F***ing Rockwell always lure me into listening to the album on repeat too many times per week. The soft rock notes are peaceful, like a reddening sunset sinking into the deep blue ocean over a starless horizon.