In May 2020, singer and songwriter Lana Del Rey took to Instagram to pose a “question for the culture.” In this long note post that gained over a million likes in one day, she named Beyonce, Ariana Grande and Doja Cat as artists releasing songs about, “being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating, etc.” She then asks if she could go back to making her music about the same topics, “without being crucified or saying that I’m glamorizing abuse.”
The public feedback was negative, calling out Del Rey for her privilege and raising the question of whether her choice to name female artists of color was racially motivated. As a Lana fan myself, I believe her narrative got misinterpreted. From the debut studio album Born to Die, the “Lana” persona was built: The soft, passive girl coming from a broken home, dealing with substance abuse and using older men and relationships to fill the void within. Her lyrics are poetry, and alongside her catchy vocals and cinematic music videos, her aesthetic is uniquely fascinating.
Alternative singer Lorde has called out Lana in the past. “She’s great but… I was just thinking it’s so unhealthy for young girls to be listening to this sort of shirt-tugging, desperate, don’t leave me stuff.”
When Chemtrails over the Country Club was released in March 2021, it felt like the Lana we knew and loved lost a little spark. It was as if the public scrutiny tainted her artistic talents. A day after the album’s release, Del Rey took to Instagram in a fiery mood again. Reacting to a Harper’s Bazaar article titled “Lana Del Rey Can’t Qualify Her Way Out Of Being Held Accountable,” she writes:
“Just want to say thank you again for the kind articles like this one and for reminding me that my career was built on cultural appropriation and glamorizing domestic abuse. I will continue to challenge those thoughts on my next record June 1 titled Rock Candy Sweet.”
Rock Candy Sweet eventually became Blue Banisters which was released in October 2021, her second album of the year. This was the release that fed Lana fans what they craved since the highly acclaimed Norman Fucking Rockwell!
Del Rey’s frequent collaborators like producers Jack Antonoff and Rick Nowels didn’t have any hands on the album. Instead, Del Rey pairs with producers and writers Zach Dawes, Dean Reid, Gabe Simon, Drew Erickson and others to create her most personal and vulnerable album yet. Despite the talented team, it’s like Lana holds the reins to this album. She tackles her breakups, familial relationships, and darker past with beautiful, poetic storytelling.
The title track, “Blue Banisters,” is the perfect namesake for the album. Del Rey gives a glimpse into her relationship troubles as she shares she met a man who “Said he’d fix my weathervane / Give me children, take away my pain / And paint my banisters blue.” The blue banisters are a symbol for Del Rey’s love interest making promises to her but in the process tries to change her. Blue is used as a metaphor for happiness and sadness throughout the album. While things don’t work out with her partner, she turns to her friends for support, “Now when weather turns to May/ All my sisters come to paint my banisters green / All my sisters fly to me /To paint.” Del Rey names her sister “Chucky” and singer Nikki Lane as individuals who help her, painting over her past.
Moving with the theme of blue, Del Rey’s track, “Beautiful” goes deeper to describe the meaning of the album. She asks, “What if someone had asked Picasso not to be sad? / Never knew who he was or the mad he’d become/ There would be no blue period.” She then follows with, “I can turn blue into something beautiful.” She takes her sadness and heartbreak and makes them into beautiful art, something she has been doing for over a decade now.
The recurring theme of love interests trying to change the singer is heard again in the song “Violet for Roses.” As time passes, Del Rey realizes she is not loved for who she truly is. She proclaims, “You made me trade my violets for roses / You tried to trade in my new truck for Rollses / Don’t forget all of these things that you love are the same things I hate / A simple life, I chose this.”. Lana is a simple girl. Rarely spotted at huge celebrity outings, deactivating her social media accounts and staying in her small circle of family and friends— She lives a simple life. But throughout this song, we hear her disappointment of feeling like she has to live up to an image that is not her, having to trade her uniqueness for what her partner wants.
This album is a breakup record. Del Rey is unapologetically human like the rest of us and it’s apparent in the album. In track five, “Black Bathing Suit,” Del Rey mentions all things 2020: Quarantine, zoom, and that she wants what the rest of us want in an isolated time, “If this is the end, I want a boyfriend / Someone to eat ice cream with and watch television.”
In the same song, she touches on the deeper subject matter. She says, “So I’m not friends with my mother / But I still love my dad / Untraditional lover, can you handle that?” She further develops this during “Wildflower Wildfire,” the first single from the album. “My father never stepped in when his wife would rage at me / So I ended up awkward, but sweet”. Del Rey has been open about her estranged relationship with her mother, who she only refers to as her father’s wife. Del Rey’s turbulent relationship with her mother led to alcoholism and drug abuse at a young age. This resulted in pain she carries with her throughout life but as she says in the song, it fuels her art.
This album is experimentational for Del Rey as well. A nearly-two minute instrumental interlude is presented on track four featuring trumpet sounds, hip-hop beats, Americana compositions and arrangements, feeling like a brand new sound for her. Her best vocal performance yet is heard in “Dealer” featuring Miles Kane, where she wails a powerfully charged, high-pitched note. The emotion is raw, leaving listeners almost stunned. Lana is pushing boundaries she’s never touched before.
Blue Banisters is Lana’s aesthetic at a core as she returns to her roots of raw, authentic storytelling no matter how flawed or nontraditional she may be. “I’m writing my own story,” she wrote on Twitter, “And no one can tell it but me.”
