Chemtrails over the world

 

So here is the deal: when we sat down to write this article, we were not sure what we would be writing exactly. To be fair, we never are. Also, we love “Video games“, the breakthrough hit that seemingly made Lana Del Rey an overnight success back in 2012. However, and this is where our initial point kicks in, the problem lays in the fact that many people loved that song. Including the author herself, it seems, as she has very much been building on it ever since. To a fault, some might say.

In other words, lest this rather long intro isn’t all that clear (sorry), Lana Del Rey has been doing Lana Del Rey for so long it feels like she put herself in a box somewhat. Which is interesting a) for such a young artist: she’s only 35, 8-9 of which she spent as a renowned one at that; b) she’s an interesting artist, meaning that she very much came up with her own style. So, there you have it: should we blame an artist for having a distinctive sound? Are we just confirming the notion that critics are never satisfied? Well, we could have… but we won’t.

The trick to Lana Del Rey is actually listening to her work. By that we mean not just a few notes over the radio, or even a song — the whole album. Old school. And, once you do that, you realize not only how immersive her universe really is, but how utterly sophisticated it comes about. Her Twitter bio ends with the phrase “I contain multitudes”, which happens to be the name of a song Bob Dylan wrote on his latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways. Coincidence? We don’t know. Regardless, there is a commonality between both artists: celebrated at times, decried at others, faithful to whatever their muse tells them to do always. And yes, if you’re unsure you read that right, we did just compare Lana Del Rey to Nobel prize winner Bob Dylan. Deal with it.

After all that, what should we say about the brand new and already chart-darling Chemtrails over the Country Club? That it very much embodies what we wrote above: extremely consistent, highly appealing, especially if you listen to the whole thing from start to finish. The opener and recent single “White Dress”, along with its ethereal music video and almost ultrasonic vocals, is a fitting introduction to Ms Del Rey’s 2021 output. Same goes for the title track as well as fellow single “Let me love you like a woman”: these are all little musical gems, beautifully crafted by producer extraordinaire Jack Antonoff. Special mention goes to “Dark but just a game”, with its vocals that feel so intimately close to the listener’s ear you’re effectively entering Trent Reznor / Radiohead territory when it comes to sheer sound engineering artistry…

To top it off, Lana Del Rey is not merely a one-woman act. Aside from the aforementioned Antonoff, who shares co-writing credits on most songs in the album, the artist also invited a couple of fellow contemporary talents to vocally bounce off each other. And she chose these artists with the same amount of taste than with the rest of this project: we have noted Country performer Nikki Lane, rising Indie singer Zella Day… and perhaps the best female vocalist to emerge in recent years, the always amazing Weyes Blood. That’s not even all: she then went out of her way to celebrate how great they were on Instagram…

What else is there to say? Listen to the album, that’s about it…