Pitchfork: Blue Banisters

[COOOK 76,406]

   7.7

"Lana Del Rey’s second album of the year is a sweeping survey of her talent as a songwriter, stripped of the aesthetic borders she often places around her work."

Spoiler

"There is a sense of playfulness, unguardedness, and freedom to Blue Banisters. If its predecessor, Chemtrails Over the Country Club, was Lana’s most traditional singer-songwriter affair—a somewhat monochromatic collection of mid-tempo songs played on piano and acoustic guitar—then these 15 tracks share a more boundless vision. One of its highlights, the closing “Sweet Carolina,” pairs a stunning, delicate vocal performance with a set of lyrics possibly dedicated to her sister. And then, out of nowhere, there’s a verse that goes like this:

You name your babe Lilac Heaven  
After your iPhone 11  
‘Crypto forever,’ screams your stupid boyfriend  
Fuck you, Kevin  

It’s funny and real, a reminder that the people we love most aren’t just the ones to whom we dedicate our earnest love songs—they’re often the recipients of our dumbest jokes.

This freewheeling tone also informs the structure of the album. Placed among modern transmissions like “Black Bathing Suit,” “Sweet Carolina,” and “Text Book” (“There we were, screaming, ‘Black Lives Matter,’” she reflects) are songs like “Living Legend” and “Cherry Blossom,” titles that have circulated among her fanbase in unofficial form for years. These recordings, which date back as far as the sessions for 2014’s Ultraviolence, constitute about a third of the tracklist, stretching the runtime past an hour and making the whole thing feel slightly unwieldy, off-balance, lacking the cohesion of her best albums.

And yet, these qualities also make the record stand out: a survey of Lana’s gifts, stripped of the aesthetic borders she often places around her work. It’s an approach that aligns her with the legacy artists she has always drawn from—Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, craftsmen constantly digging through the archives to recontextualize their mythology. But there is also pop precedent. Were Lana less obsessive about her body of work, she might have sequenced the newer songs onto a deluxe edition of Chemtrails; were she more savvy, she might have issued them as an interlinked companion release to close out the year."

"When Lana released the piano ballad “Arcadia” this summer, she instructed her fans, “Listen to it like you listened to ‘Video Games.’” On one hand, she might have been trying to game the system, encouraging listeners to boost the streaming numbers to match those of her past work. (Born to Die remains her only album to spawn a Top 10 hit.) But maybe she was asking for something more personal. After all, her debut single was likely the last time that Lana could release music to zero expectations, introducing herself to the world on her own terms. Like a lot of people who feel misunderstood, she is a chronic over-explainer, and Blue Banisters sprawls and elaborates past the point where we can place our own projections onto it. We know too much. But at its best, this music offers an even more rewarding thrill: It manages to entertain, enrapture, and even surprise because of how well we know Lana Del Rey—and how much there is still to learn."

Full review here.

Previous scores:

  7.5

  9.4

  7.7

[Guest]

"When Lana released the piano ballad “Arcadia” this summer, she instructed her fans, “Listen to it like you listened to ‘Video Games.’” On one hand, she might have been trying to game the system, encouraging listeners to boost the streaming numbers to match those of her past work. (Born to Die remains her only album to spawn a Top 10 hit.)

literally what? lmao

"if you like video games, you'll like arcadia" is obvious what she was saying.

[Sneaky Oliver 21,995]

I love the record. I think it’s very cohesive and very true to the Lana universe. I think the old tracks don’t really add much to the album except for Thunder which’s a highlight. I don’t think it tops Chemtrails either. It really feels like an album with missing pieces from her past projects. 

[salty like sodium 1,316]

21 minutes ago, Aetheryte said:

"When Lana released the piano ballad “Arcadia” this summer, she instructed her fans, “Listen to it like you listened to ‘Video Games.’” On one hand, she might have been trying to game the system, encouraging listeners to boost the streaming numbers to match those of her past work. (Born to Die remains her only album to spawn a Top 10 hit.)

literally what? lmao

"if you like video games, you'll like arcadia" is obvious what she was saying.

"game the system"?  Isn't that the entire point of the system? That people stream music? It makes no sense.

[VasilisVas 5,132]

I love love love Lana’s vocals on Dealer. Good album and will continue to listen. I feel like I’ll really get into it