Blue Banisters
If Lana Del Rey's 2021 album Chemtrails Over the Country Club felt like the atmospheric post-script to her 2019 master statement Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Blue Banisters comes off like the addendum to the post-script. Released just seventh months after its predecessor, Blue Banisters isn't too far removed from the midtempo, woozy tones that defined that album. The 15 tracks here span about an hour running time, and generally stick to the familiar framework of sad-hearted torch songs for a burning world that Lana has built her entire discography on. Closely inspecting the songwriting, production, performance, and sequencing choice on Blue Banisters, however, reveals some moments of quiet evolution. Moody, dramatic ballads like "Violets for Roses," "Living Legend," and "Arcadia" are the kind of soft excursions into melancholy that have become synonymous with Lana Del Rey, all free of percussion and centered around opulent piano chords and distant, emotionally exhausted lyrical perspectiv