Lana Del Rey: what we thought of her new album<

While some superstars reinvent themselves with each new era, Lana Del Rey prefers to refine the sound of her albums and gradually enrich her fascinating and enigmatic personality.

The Chemtrails singer's new album Over the Country Club, produced by Jack Antonoff – already at the helm on the 35-year-old singer's previous album, Norman Fucking Rockwell!, – offers us a new exercise in precision and restraint. The most catchy moments on the album—like the stirring (and quasi-rap) Dance Till We Die—feel like rays of sunshine managing to smash through a thick forest. However, Lana Del Rey's seventh studio album is not identical to the others.

Here are seven reasons why Chemtrails Over The Country Club enriches and deepens an already extraordinary work.

1. Lana Del Rey continues to build her own mythology

Die-hard Del Rey fans could easily write a thesis just on the album's first track, White Dress, in which she reflects on her life before fame, in the guise of a waitress who felt "watched" by her man. She mentions rock bands Kings of Leon and the White Stripes — as well as an enigmatic lecture on men in the music business. The contemplative and intimate mood that it installs from the opening continues throughout the 45 minutes. The last words of the song seem particularly revealing: "it kinda makes me feel like maybe I was better off". She introduces one of the themes that run through the album: the idea that fame was not necessarily a good thing for her.

2. Stardom is a pervasive theme

Del Rey shares her thoughts on stardom with us in Dark But Just a Game when she sings, "It's dark, but it's just a game, play it like a symphony". Wild at Heart — a song which, in a typical Lana Del Rey gesture, bears the name of a David Lynch film (Sailor & Lula in French) — plunges us into the abyss of celebrity: "devices have flashes, because of them the cars crash”, difficult not to think of the tragic end of Princess Diana, already evoked by Lana Del Rey in her spoken word piece Patent Leather Do-Over.

3. New variations on the same tempo

Lana Del Rey fans have learned not to expect danceable tunes, so turn to the club remixes of Summertime Sadness and Young & Beautiful signed by Cedric Gervais in 2013. Like all his albums since Ultraviolence in 2014, Chemtrails Over The Country Club is an intimate album, which does not mean that it lacks bright moments or diversity. Breaking Up Slowly is a country ballad, Dance Till We Die introduces jazzy horns and Wild At Heart layers two vocal tracks for stunning effect.

This album, with its polished melodies and meticulous production, reveals new details and meanings with every listen.

4. She reminds us that she remains hopelessly romantic

A Lana Del Rey album wouldn't be complete without a suitor as seductive as he is unreliable. He makes an appearance on Not All Who Wander Are Lost, inviting her to sit down, holding the door for her, like a true gentleman. Which does not mean that she falls into his game. “The thing with men is that they have a lot to say, but are you going to stay? »

5. She confirms her status as a huge American songwriter

“I come from a small town, and you? I say it because I'm ready to leave LA,” she sings on Let Me Love You Like a Woman. A song that sees her torn between the twinkling lights of the American dream and her more humble roots. Because even if the singer is a native of Manhattan, her family moved to Lake Placid, a small town in the state of New York when she was only one year old.