DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE'S A TUNNEL UNDER OCEAN BLVD

Lizzy Grant, infamously known as Lana Del Rey, comes out with her ninth studio album, and her longest to date, with Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. It’s a record that embodies her growth as an artist and a person. Indulging in themes such as family, religion, and her past, Del Rey finds herself looking at life in a new light than she’s previously delivered.

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“The Grants”, the opening track, is a representation of the emotional vulnerability that is going to be further built upon for the next 77 minutes. She leans into the idea that one day all that remains will be her memories, and she’s quite fond of the ones she’s made with her family. “My sister’s firstborn child/I’m gonna take that too with me/My grandmother’s last smile/I’m gonna take that too with me/It’s a beautiful life”.

The title track, and the first single from the record, is a rather somber ballad, which is what I tend to associate Lana Del Rey with. She compares herself to a forgotten tunnel, singing, “Don’t forget me/When’s it gonna be my turn?”. This metaphor is used to question if people will remember her after she passes, and if she’ll find beauty in herself when other people see it too. “Sweet” is a hidden gem within this album. It’s almost a love letter to isolation. She contemplates the hard questions between her and her partner– “Do you want children? Do you wanna marry me?”. Del Rey implies that she’s looking for longevity and reliability, but if her partner wants someone easier, then he should look elsewhere.

The second single holds the title of my favorite off this record. “A&W”, or American Whore, mocks the perceptions that have been made about Del Rey. She explores being the other woman, singing, “Did you know a singer can still be/Looking like a sidepiece at thirty-three?”. The first half of the track is used to embrace and imitate the accusations that have been made about Del Rey’s personality. In the middle of the song, the tone changes from a traumatized woman to a bratty girl who won’t take any shit, making “A&W” the ultimate banger on the album.

“Kintsugi” is the art of using gold to restore broken pottery. Originating in Japan, it’s a metaphor that you can accept your flaws as your potential. Similarly, Del Rey is using this song to embrace her hardships and explains that, “That’s how the light shines in”, to mend her brokenness.

“Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing” (yes that’s the title of the song) tackles family and religion, essentially asking God to watch over her father in his difficult times. The song is angelic. Del Rey first sings, “I know they think that it took somebody else/To make me beautiful, beautiful/As they intended me to be/But they’re wrong”. As the song progresses, we see that she changed the lyrics to plainly state, “It took somebody else to make me beautiful, wonderful”. This could possibly be implying that she’s let her guard down and accepted that God and her family have helped her to get where she is now. Though she needed help along the way, she’s still misinterpreted by the public eye.

“Let The Light In” is one of my favorite songs on the album. Stripped down, it’s just a love song, whether it’s a healthy or toxic relationship is up to interpretation. The beginning paints a repeated hook up, but as the song develops, so does the relationship. The closing bridge, “Put the TV on, the flowers in a vase, lie your head”, contradicts the opening verse, “Don’t be actin’ like I’m the kinda girl who can sleep”. She once only wanted sexual intimacy, whereas at the end of the song she craves emotional intimacy more. “Fishtail” takes a more electronic route than the rest of the album. Despite the tone of the song, it’s quite depressing. Del Rey sings, “Maybe I’ll take my glasses off, so I stop painting red flags green”. The song is essentially saying, ‘Hey dude, don’t fucking say you’ll care for me if you don’t want to be with me’.

Throughout the album, we hear nods to Del Rey’s previous work, almost as an add on or improvement to her work, showing her evolution as an artist. While NFR! expressed some of Del Rey’s best and most iconic songwriting, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd has already climbed its way up to that level. The features on this album outdid any of her previous– they were chosen perfectly and were never too much. While I wish the Jon Batiste feature was more prominent on “Candy Necklace”, the song is still one of the highlights on the record.

Jack Antonoff has done it again, folks.

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Sophia <3

April 3rd, 2023. By Sophia Cook