Lana Del Rey

★★★★ Chemtrails Over The Country Club POLYDOR. CD/DL/LP

Superb, Joni-tinged followup to Norman Fucking Rockwell.

The intoxicating strain of California anomie that pervaded 2019’s Norman

Fucking Rockwell is still, thankfully, strong on Del Rey’s excellent seventh album. Indeed, Chemtrails Over The Country

Club initially sounds much like a straightforward sequel to that album and its hazy subversions of old Hollywood chic. There is, though, a more explicit autobiographical edge, a preoccupation with notions of authenticity and, as the album progresses, a powerful expansion of Del Rey’s folkier inclinations. Hence country twangs (on Wild At Heart and Nikki Lane duet Breaking Up Slowly), and a tentative reorientation away from manicured lawns and towards wilder terrain: Yosemite, and the storied canyons of LA. Neat, too, how she references covering Joni Mitchell (and Joan Baez, Stevie Nicks and Courtney Love) on the outstanding Dance Till We Die, and then does just that, with a gorgeous version of For Free. The last voice on the track is Weyes Blood, though you’d be forgiven for thinking it was Joni herself.