Album of the week Quantity and quality

Lana Del Rey returns with her second album of 2021 and third in three years, in which she also published a book of poetry, but the quality remains high.

The music doesn’t vary much – piano ballads, understated strings and brass, occasional low-key beats – which may lead to claims it’s too samey, but undeniably plays to her strengths

Some lyrical themes are familiar too: doomed love, bad boys half-cut when the party begins and nostalgia for a mythical Middle America.

The title track references a picture of “me on a John Deere” tractor and Oklahoma, while the alternate video for ‘Arcadia’ drives this home, a porch swing next to a white picket fence, visual shorthand for an ideal of smalltown life.

But there’s usually darkness on the edge of town, and Del Rey sings “now I am lost” in ‘Nectar Of The Gods’, and muses in ‘Arcadia’ “they built me up three hundred feet tall just to tear me down”, in a blast at the haters.

Other tracks address her fame, personal struggles and family, with her father and sister popping up as cowriters on final track ‘Sweet Carolina’.

Then there’s the shadow of Covid, with ‘Black Bathing Suit’ mentioning quarantine and Zoom, adding “if this is the end, I want a boyfriend”.

‘Violets For Roses’ says “the girls are running ‘round in summer dresses, with their masks off, and it makes me so happy” while daring to rhyme “roses” with both “toes” and “horses”.

Some of these songs date back years, but ‘Blue Banisters’ sounds coherent and adds to the legacy that Del Rey seems increasingly concerned about.