Lana Del Rey’s New Song: ”Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd”

Lana Del Rey has released a new song, the title track of her upcoming album, ”Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,” a very long title that could end up as DYKTTATUOB? It will be her ninth album, and since she is only 37, it’s quite impressive. It’s also surprising she is releasing the album so fast after claiming that her hard drives (which contained the music of her new album as well as a book manuscript) were stolen from her car. According to videos that she posted on Instagram, then deleted, it happened last October, and she had no cloud backup. How did she manage to rewrite a complete album in barely two months?

Jack Antonoff is currently all over Lana on his Instagram account because he is one of the producers of the new album: is there a female artist that he is not producing? He also reveals contributions from Jan Batiste, Bleachers, Father John Misty, Judah Smith, Tommy Genesis, SYMl, and additional productions by Mike Hermosa, Drew Erickson, Zach Dawes, and Benji. It is surely a lot of people, but isn’t it the case for all pop albums these days?

As for the new song, it definitively sounds like a typical Lana Del Rey tune: it’s cinematic, fully orchestrated with keys and strings, and her very recognizable voice soars, sounding vulnerable and powerful, but showing her distinctive tone, both unconvinced and languid, a signature that she has used since her beginning. If it is the title track of the album, it has to be one of the album’s best songs, but I can’t hear something that really stands up: the song desperately sounds like the 100 songs she has done before. While lamenting about the old beauty of a discarded tunnel in Long Beach and using it as a metaphor for herself, she once again refers to the Eagles’ song “Hotel California” (she has done it before) and name-drops Harry Nilsson to bring up some authenticity. The lyrics have the same sentimental vintage formula that Lana has treated her listeners with for years. Her fans are probably already drooling with envy all over the track, the other ones will listen to it once, maybe twice, and then will move on.

“Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” is out on March 10 via Interscope.