The first video from Lana del Rey’s upcoming album, Chemtrails over the Country Club, was released this week and gave fans a sneak-peak into the artist’s long-anticipated seventh album.
The album was set to be released in 2020, but the pandemic caused delays in manufacturing, so the date was pushed to March 19th of 2021. The track list was released on the 10th of this month, with the album cover featuring a black and white photo of a group of lovely, nostalgically dressed women in pearls and vintage dresses.
The video is in classic Lana style. It looks like it was shot in the 1960s on film and features the singer driving down the coast in a cherry red convertible. In her dreamy, smoky voice, she sings lyrics like: “I’m not unhinged or unhappy, I’m just wild.”
The video starts out with rosy, vintage visions of a pool party, friends having fun and cruising down the PCH. Then, somewhat suddenly, the video shows a tornado a la The Wizard of Oz. Then, the video has a completely different, more animalistic feel, but with the same slow, sweet melody in the background. The second half of the video is shot in the same style but shows the same car we just saw happily cruising now on fire, surrounded by women turning into werewolves and howling at the moon.
Comments that Lana del Rey made in response to criticisms of the video have received some backlash. When accused of not featuring enough diversity on the cover, she wrote back a long response in which she mentioned that she has friends who are rappers and that she has dated rappers as well. She also wrote, “I’m not the one storming the Capitol, I’m literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24/7. Respect it.” Lana also responded to the lack of diversity by saying that she is inclusive and diverse without trying and that the women on the cover are from different backgrounds and are her personal friends.
These comments faced some criticism from people saying that her words were “ignorant” and “petty.” One person tweeted that it was “a dumb thing to say.” Some fans have been softer about their criticism, with one tweeting, “Lana ily and I know you had the best intentions, but the comment was pretty ignorant please delete it.”
The singer noted that the album is “the first album where I know what I wanted to be, but I didn’t know if I got there.” She describes the music on the album as more folksy and “super different from ‘Norman F—ing Rockwell,” her most recently released album.
