Two hundred and sixteen days after Lana Del Rey released her hit album, “Chemtrails Over the Country Club,” Rey unexpectedly dropped her album, “Blue Banisters.” This was a surprise to her fan base because she had been teasing a whole different album titled “Rock Candy Sweet” which never ended up coming out.
The release was a shock to Rey’s fan base because she had never come out with a new album this close to another in her discography before. The album is categorized as alternative pop and folk-pop. It is similar to “Chemtrails” in ways that many of the songs are slow and ballad-like.
The opening track is titled, “Textbook.” This song is five minutes and 13 seconds and switches from the slow ballad-like pre-chorus to the slightly sped up and more intensely spoken chorus. The song mixes the ideas of having fatherly troubles and wanting that paternal love. This is shown when she sings the opening lines, “I guess you could call it text book/ I was looking for the father I wanted back.”
In these lines, Rey is setting up the whole song and what she will be talking about yearning for. This person she found gave her a love that she had not had before and this is shown through the lines, “And there you were with shinin’ star standin’ blue with open arms/ You touched the detriment most of the friends I knew already had.” Rey is saying that this person was able to open her up and show herself a new side of herself which everyone else saw in her, but she never saw in herself.
Through the song she compares this figure she is singing about to her father saying the things they both have. In the middle of the song the tone switches and goes solemn. The lyrics include, “Do you think if I go blonde we could get our old love back?” This lyric and tone switch shows that something happened to their relationship. Then the chorus repeated almost as reminiscing on what they had. This song is mainly about having father issues and attempting to find a sense of paternity in these relationships, but it turns into a relationship and these people end up being too similar and they have issues and break up.
Track nine on the album is a blues rock song titled, “Dealer.” This song features Miles Kane who is a British musician. Throughout the song, Kane’s voice almost acts as an internal voice speaking about the struggle with an addiction and the lover of the person struggling with the addiction. This is expressed through the lyrics, “Please don’t try to find me through my dealer” though this lyric it can be told that he still cares for her because he says please. This shows a sense connection because he knows he has hurt her through the addiction and now he can tell that she has finally let go of him.
Rey’s character has only realized she had to let this person go after she has lost everything to his addiction as said in, “I gave you all my money, gave you all my money/ I don’t wanna live/ I don’t wanna give you nothing/ ‘Cause you never give me nothing back.” They have both come to this realization that they need to let go of each other, but the woman still wants and cares for this lover. She says, “Why can’t you be good for something?” and this tells that she wants this man to be good, but she knows his addiction will end up winning. This song displays a struggle many people with spouses with addiction struggle with and the thing they have to realize is that the person with addiction has to make the change for themselves.
Dedicating a song to a family member is something that can be a very big weight to hold. The final track on “Blue Banisters” is titled “Sweet Carolina” and is three minutes and 21 seconds long. This is a slow ballad-like song and is dedicated to her sister Caroline Grant it focuses on the time Grant was pregnant with her first child. In the song Rey talks about always being there for her sister if she gets the “Baby Blues” or if she is stressed out knowing that she has a song because her family is by her side. This is a very sentimental and heartfelt song to end her album and really shows Rey’s love for her family.
This album is truly amazing and if someone is trying to get into Lana Del Rey, this is the perfect album and showcases her abilities to make slow and sentimental songs that truly have meaning.