Lana Del Rey

Chemtrails Over the Country Club

In symbiotic collaboration with Antonoff, these beautifully rendered pop tunes construct Del Rey’s artistic reality, as honestly as she knows how.

Like its creator, it’s off in a world of its own, free of commercial obligations and revelling in that autonomy. It’s a lovely place to visit.

On Chemtrails, her most subdued and introspective album thus far, she soundtracks the death of the American dream right from the heart of Hollywood, just as she did on her previous effort, 2019’s electrifying Norman Fucking Rockwell! And while it may not have as many grandiose showpieces as its older sibling . . . Chemtrails is every bit as sharp and prescient of a cultural artifact from pop’s premier Cassandra.

Chemtrails picks up the nostalgic thread of 2019's Norman Fucking Rockwell!, though here she's mostly Midwest and more melodic.

Del Rey’s music deals in the private tragedies of these glamorous elites and, in the time of a pandemic, it’s a bizarre irony that such stories still fascinate us so.

With Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Del Rey shows her softest moments can be her most powerful.

Sshe has a very real shot at becoming one of those enduring, timeless artists she often pays tribute to. This is in large part down to the staying power of the music itself – it is rare to find albums within the upper tier of mainstream pop that require time to percolate and get better with each listen rather than the reverse.

Chemtrails Over the Country Club is a record full of euphoric highs and baffling lows. It’s an enjoyable listen that cinematically celebrates Del Rey’s vocal prowess. But perhaps most importantly, it places her front and center as the scrappy protagonist no one expects to win.

Chemtrails is less a full transformation than the first step forward in another direction.

Though Chemtrails Over the Country Club isn’t quite Lana Del Rey's strongest album or the most iconically Lana, it’s an intimate, emotional, and largely successful renewal of her artistic vows.

Chemtrails over the Country Club is sultry at times, syrupy sweet at others, and sad in a truer way than we have yet seen from Lana. It is a well-woven escape, but it is harder than ever not to wonder: at what cost?

Everything is just right in Chemtrails – the lyrics, the themes, the delivery, the majestic drums that beat through the songs, the impeccable production. If anything, it’s almost too perfect to be truly memorable.

Even if it doesn't stack up to NFR, Chemtrails Over the Country Club is a solid songwriting statement from Lana.

For better or worse, Chemtrails Over The Country Club is 100% a Lana Del Rey record that fits quaintly into her discography. Anyone following her up to this point shouldn’t bat an eye at how sharp of a left turn this is compared to her previous album. She’s absurdly contrived, but the allure is far too captivating to look away.

The confidence feels diminished, the rich production of its predecessor replaced by something thinner, sadder.

By and large, Chemtrails Over The Country Club confirms every longstanding inadequacy to Lana del Rey’s craft with a pernicious listlessness that bloats its relatively economical runtime and extends a mind-erasing tedium far beyond those temporal confines.