Lana Del Rey – Queen of Coney Island, Watcher of the Boys, and bad baby by our heavenly side – is coming back for more.
Of course she’s coming, you little bitch.
On Wednesday (July 31), LDR announced the long-awaited release date, cover art and track listing for her forthcoming sixth (!) studio album Norman Fucking Rockwell (yes, it’s really called that), which is set to include her previously released singles “Mariners Apartment Complex,” “Venice Bitch”, her Sublime cover “Doin’ Time” (one of the Songs of Summer ’19) and the succinctly titled “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman like Me to Have – But I Have It.”
The album arrives on August 30 and features 14 tracks, including “Fuck It I Love You” and “The Greatest,” two new tracks she just announced while on the set of an impending “double video” shot by Rich Lee alongside shirtless bodybuilder Brad Swanick.
She’s also teased snippets of several upcoming songs in the past year, including “Happiness Is a Butterfly” and “Cinnamon Girl.” She premiered “How to Disappear” live at an Apple event last year. Plus, it seems one of my favorite unreleased songs is finally getting polished off and seeing the light of Lana Del Day: “Next Best American Record.”
The music was recorded alongside Jack Antonoff, engineer Laura Sisk, Zach Dawes (Mini Mansions, Kimbra) and longtime collaborator and music legend Rick Nowels.
“I was in a little bit of a lighter mood because he was so funny,” Lana said of working with Jack earlier this year.
“So the title track is called ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell,’ and it’s kind of about this guy who is such a genius artist but he thinks he’s the shit and he knows it and he won’t shut up talking about it. So often I ended up with these creative types or whatever and, you know, they just go on and on about themselves, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ But there’s a little bit of merit to it also. They are so good. I just like the title track so much that I was like, OK, I definitely want the record to also be called that.”
But don’t expect the mood to be too light: during a live stream at the beginning of the year, she described the album as “deeply introspective, thoughtful sad girl shit.” Sold.
The pop art-themed album artwork was shot by her sister, Chuck Grant, and co-stars Duke Nicholson, the grandson of Jack Nicholson, who recently made his big screen debut in Us.
That’s a lot of information to process at once, right? But you already know: when it Lana Del Rains, it pours.
Over Hot Girl Summer? As @INDIEWASHERE declared: Sad Girl Autumn, here we come.
1. “Norman Fucking Rockwell”
2. “Mariners Apartment Complex”
3. “Venice Bitch”
4. “Fuck It, I Love You”
5. “Doin’ Time”
6. “Love Song”
7. “Cinnamon Girl”
8. “How to Disappear”
9. “California”
10. “The Next Best American Record”
11. “The Greatest”
12. “Bartender”
13. “Happiness is a Butterfly”
14. “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman like Me to Have – but I Have It”
