#321 Lana Del Rey, 'Norman Fucking Rockwell!' (2019)

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I was genuinely surprised to see this album on the list, especially in the high 300s. I originally listened to this album on release and I wasn’t blown away. When re-listening now, I started on speakers, but halfway through moved to headphones. One thing I can say for sure, is that the record definitely sounds better in headphones. The production, which is mostly by Del Rey and Jack Antonoff (his third entry as producer – we previously heard him on the Lorde and Taylor Swift entries), is subdued, intricate and songs mostly driven by piano. There was one song that really made me sit up and grabbed me. I remember specifically thinking how beautiful the production on it was. The song was ‘The Next Best American Record’ and it just so happens to be one of three songs on the album that wasn’t produced by Antonoff.

I know ‘Mariners Apartment Complex,’ ‘Venice Bitch,’ ‘Fuck It I Love You’ and ‘Doin’ Time’ very well, thanks to radio. ‘Doin’ Time’ is a version of the Sublime song of the same name, which also samples ‘Summertime’ by George Gershwin from Porgy and Bess. The album was nominated for Album Of The Year at The Grammys. This album, her sixth (I was surprised at that too), is her “Laurel Canyon” record. If you listen to it in that context and not comparatively to her old records, it makes sense. Elton John called it “timeless.” One last piece of trivia for you, the man on the album cover next to Lana Del Rey is Duke Nicholson. You might have heard of his grandfather, Jack.

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