Music — Consumed

2019 · Lana Del Rey

Norman F*****g Rockwell represents Lana Del Rey at her most refined, stripping away some of the baroque production of earlier records for something more direct but no less cinematic. Jack Antonoff's production gives these songs room to breathe, with piano as the anchor rather than strings or hip-hop beats. Tracks like "Venice Bitch" stretch past nine minutes, building from whispered verses into full noise-rock crescendos, while "The Greatest" delivers one of her most direct commentaries on American culture and celebrity.

The album's title track and "Mariners Apartment Complex" became the blueprint for this era, both songs positioning Del Rey as a narrator observing failed masculinity and offering something like maternal wisdom in return. Her voice sits lower in the mix than on previous records, less processed, more conversational. The orchestration feels classicist, almost like a Great American Songbook tribute filtered through a California canyon reverb.

What makes this album work is how it synthesizes all her previous modes without feeling like a retread. The noir pessimism is there, the Laurel Canyon references, the doomed romance, but it's delivered with more confidence and less affectation. The production choices support rather than decorate. It's the sound of an artist who's been chasing a specific vision for nearly a decade finally nailing it completely.