Lana Del Rey
Norman Fucking Rockwell!
[Polydor]
“I ain’t no candle in the wind’’ is an early standout among many defiant declarations made throughout the blistering tour-de-force that is Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana Del Rey’s fifth and finest record to date. It’s a phrase borrowed from a similarly elegant songwriter in Elton John to honour the late Marilyn Monroe, the kind of classic American icon whom Del Rey has attributed a ‘’special connection’’ to in the past.
Yet, it’s perfectly fitting that Del Rey would make a point of rejecting this label in 2019 on an album in which she documents an achingly beautiful, apocalyptic version of America while proving her lasting status as of the most definitive female artists in the world today.
Del Rey has spent the past decade disproving naysayers who prematurely cast her as some kind of inauthentic Instagram star while quietly crafting a quality discography that has grown in status since 2017’s sprawling, adventurous Lust For Life.
That was an album that assembled an impressive list of finely executed features and explored a variety of genres, but NFR! is exclusively and intimately Lana, a predominantly piano led opus boasting 68-minutes of the most heartfelt, graceful and confessional ballad songwriting of her career.
A moment of triumph in the face of a conflicted country, a breathtaking message of empowerment to a torn generation and most of all, the sound of an instantaneous masterpiece.
Words: Andrew Lambert
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