Album Review: Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey's fifth album, 'Norman Fucking Rockwell!' contains multitudes. The way she balances and embodies them on this well-rounded record is nothing short of stunning In Lana Del Rey's Twitter bio you'll find a quote from Walt Whitman's 1892 poem Song Of Myself. It's an unsurprising move for someone who's spent much of the last decade carving out her niche as a 21st-century pop poet documenting, much like Whitman did, her own perspective of America.

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With the creation of her Lana Del Rey persona, singer/songwriter Lizzy Grant stitched together the iconography of a fading American dream with soaring but melancholic pop songwriting, becoming an icon unto herself in the process. Her distinctive approach blurred sadness and longing just as it did past and present, drawing on the influence of classic American pop while integrating modernized touches like trap beats and millennial cultural references. With sixth album NFR! (or Norman Fucking Rockwell for the adult set), Lana Del Rey expands her vision with the most daring and vulnerable work of her catalog.

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"Out of the black, into the blue" -- the last words Lana Del Rey repeated on her previous record 'Lust For Life' which ultimately signified a shift in her lyricism, outlook and state of mind all of which had been a ternary in guiding the icon through her musical career. On her fifth major-label studio album, she absorbs all elements of psychedelic pop, rock and folk-country and piano to create a dream-like experience which embodies her signature sound and aesthetic. Although on first listen it may appear inaccessible and tedious to some listeners due to its Californian themes and static aura, it marks itself as one of Lana's most cohesive and constitutional albums.

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