Chemtrails Over The Country Club was not what I expected from Lana at all.
As a Lana Del Rey fan for nearly six years now, I have a pretty good feel for Lana and the content she produces within her albums. I am saddened to say this was probably my least favorite album of hers.
There’s a couple of songs where it seems as though she tried to push the boundaries, and that’s not necessarily what people want to hear from Lana. Her fans expect something from her, and many of the songs didn’t hit that mark for me. Compared to her past albums such as Norman F****** Rockwell!, where I could listen to the album all the way through without a skip, I was unable to do that with Chemtrails Over The Country Club. Before we talk about the negative, I would like to admire some of the positives I found about Lana’s latest album.
The stars of the album were “Chemtrails Over The Country Club” and “Tulsa Jesus Freak.” These songs portrayed the Lana we all know and love with a soft melody and heartfelt lyrics. They are nothing short of beautiful. “Wild at Heart” had a melody that reminded me a lot of “Cinnamon Girl” from Norman F****** Rockwell which I thoroughly enjoyed as well. I also enjoyed the music videos included with the album. “Chemtrails Over The Country Club” was classic Lana with a twist at the end that I have never seen from her before. It tells a story that is more than a young American girl down the road.
Now, let’s get into the critiques of the album. I felt like a lot of the songs ran together. Lana is known for her calming and sultry songs that bring you back in time. However, I felt like the melodies were not changed up enough. There was no change of pace really throughout the album besides her occasional vocal switch-up. I was automatically turned off by the first song on the album, “White Dress,” where she decides to talk with a raspiness in her voice throughout. I have never heard Lana do this, and I personally wasn’t a fan at all. I also wasn’t a big fan of “Dance Till We Die,” which had a heavy soft rock influence that I wasn’t a fan of and, quite frankly, caught me off guard.
All in all, I believe the album has a few good songs, but it is nothing like what she has given us in the past. I expected more out of this album, and I will definitely add two of the songs to my next playlist but that’s it. I think that Lana wanted to try something new, and as a fan I was just not used to it. I appreciate her creativity, but I am disappointed in the album as a whole.
