Well ladies and gentlemen, the unthinkable has happened: Lana del Rey has released the follow-up to her universally-acclaimed 2019 album, Norman Fucking Rockwell! last Friday. It was a rocky road getting to that finish line with all the delayed album releases and controversies she’s been getting herself into.

But we are finally here!

I tried to put off writing this article for the sake of Journalistic Integrity because I know how much my first impressions can be inaccurate when it comes to music. This boy needs time to digest the music. And after listening to the album on endless loop since it came out on Spotify, I’m now pretty confident with my overall Chemtrails Over the Country Club rankings.

If you missed it, I also did a track-by-track ranking for Norman Fucking Rockwell! last year, which was tough to do because of how much top-quality songs are in that album. Will the same ring true with its successor? Where will your favorite track from the album land? What will earn the title of best song in Chemtrails Over the Country Club?

Find out the answers to your questions below!

11. For Free

Is it my aversion towards songs with features or do I just really not find this a good song? I don’t really know the answer to that question, but one thing’s for sure: it is not my cup of tea and is easily the worst song in my Chemtrails Over the Country Club ranking.

Featuring Zella Day and Weyes Blood, For Free is a swooning folk rock cover of a Joni Mitchell deep cut.

It’s not really a track I would skip, but it’s not really something that I would actively look forward to listening to either. Aside from the fact that it’s not my favorite sonically, For Free concludes the whole album which has soured me on the song even more. Yes, Lana has placed covers as finales in her albums before, but this was such a bummer because it had features in it.

Don’t get me wrong: the harmonization is beautiful among the three ladies, but I feel like the album could’ve ended with a bang if Lana took the reins herself. This would’ve served better as an interlude into the latter half of the more folky side of the album.

10. Dance Till We Die

Dance Till We Die is probably the most forgettable track in the album, and would’ve completely left my entire brain vortex if it weren’t for that bridge.

If you’re someone who has followed her work for years, it would’ve shocked the bejeezus out of you like it did to me. Lana del Rey puts on her cowgirl hat and belts out notes like we’d never heard her before; she was definitely channeling the signature sound of Joni Mitchell here!

The lyrics in Dance Till we Die continue to build on the feeling of “pre-fame longing” which seems to be an overarching theme throughout Chemtrails. They tell a story that could only be told by Lana herself as she projects her life experiences under rock-and-roll references and metaphors. For example, one of my favorite lines throughout the album is in this track: “Clementine’s not just a fruit / It’s my daughter’s chosen name” which is… fictional, right?

‘Cause she’s not a mother… RIGHT?!

9. Breaking Up Slowly

I promise I’m not just listing out album track order backwards! But the fact of the matter is, the last three songs in this album are also the weakest ones. It actually seems to be a common theme throughout Lana del Rey’s discography for the second half of the album to be less interesting. Just look at Ultraviolence, Norman Fucking Rockwell!, and Lust for Life.

Although uncredited as a singer on the track, Breaking Up Slowly actually features Nikki Lane for the majority of the song… even more than Lana herself! So from that alone, you’d understand why I placed it low in my Chemtrails Over the Country Club ranking.

 Get more music and TV show recommendations straight to your inbox. Just place your e-mail address below, it’s that easy! 

While I don’t mind features — I actually loved most of them in Lust for Life — this just had too little Lana in it for my liking. Nikki’s deep voice worked well with Lana’s higher notes, especially in the chorus. It actually felt like a track straight from a musical with the rhyme-y words and how the two songstresses played off together. I pictured this whole scenario in my mind where Nikki was a mother comforting her daughter, Lana, whose heart had just been broken for the first time.

8. Wild at Heart

In my opinion, there’s a big jump in quality from Breaking Up Slowly to Wild at Heart in this ranking. I could confidently say that I thoroughly enjoy all the tracks in Chemtrails from here on out.

Wild at Heart is the fifth track in the album, and serves as a pseudo-“checkpoint” for the album. This is where the songs with folk-rock and country influence start to flow, and then Breaking Up Slowly ups the ante even more later on.

I like this particular song because of its sing-along chorus and might be the best one in articulating Lana del Rey’s feelings about her fame. Lyrically, it’s a spiritual sequel to her 2012 song, Ride. If that song was about the difficulties of finding fame and the dangers of the open road, Wild at Heart is about embracing the danger to deal with her newfound popularity.

Musically, it’s like a lab scientist mixed all the chemicals from several Norman Fucking Rockwell! songs and came out with this track. It directly samples How to Disappear in the chorus, which some have called lazy but I think genius. Wild at Heart also sounds like The Greatest and Mariners Apartment Complex in various parts.

7. Tulsa Jesus Freak

A fan favorite, Tulsa Jesus Freak is the song in Chemtrails which feels most like classic Born to Die Lana. The lyrics namedrop Jesus Christ Himself as she has previously done in Paradise, and the tempo in which she sings is reminiscent of her earlier trap-pop days like we’ve heard her before in Off to the Races. She also does the cutesy Lolita voice quite a bit.

Care I say, it actually feels a lot more like Summer Bummer from Lust for Life. Don’t hate me.

It instantly grabs your attention with its repetition of the “white hot forever” lyric and purposeful use of autotune.

I think this is the only song that you could legit dance to in the entire album. And in that way, it feels out of place. I’m just saying if Tulsa Jesus Freak was released as a single before the album dropped, it would’ve thrown many people off. Thankfully, it is preceded by the more experimental titular track in the album which helps reduce that feeling that it’s amiss.

While I think it’s a stellar addition to Chemtrails, I’m personally not looking for songs that remind me of the “old Lana” anymore, hence its low ranking.

6. Let Me Love You Like a Woman

A lot of fans were underwhelmed when this was first released as a promotional single, with most of the criticism stemming from its minimalistic production. But little would they know, it wouldn’t even be the most “minimalist” song in the album!

If you’re wondering why Let Me Love You Like a Woman is this high in my Chemtrails Over the Country Club ranking, I honestly think it’s my “familiarity bias” kicking in.

I never really disliked it like other fans, except for a short period of time where I got tired of listening to it over and over again back in November. It felt like a natural progression from where we had left off in NFR, especially when you consider that we had a dominance of piano-heavy tracks in that album as well. I guess my biggest criticism would be how the lyrics feel like an unfinished poem from her spoken word project, although it does have many memorable one-liners which almost make up for the lack of lyrical depth.

The instruments build throughout the song and never completely “go off” which may have disappointed listeners. But I think it was always the intention for Let Me Love You Like a Woman to end in a soft whimper as opposed to an explosive bang, as I had realized when I listened to it in the context of the album.

5. Dark But Just a Game

I am shielding myself from the hate I might potentially get from placing this as “only #5” in this Chemtrails Over the Country Club ranking. But look, I actually think this song is a bop… not as much as others though.

Dark But Just a Game is probably the most experimental track in the album with its unusual structure. It may be jarring for some first-time listeners, but once you start to get the hang of the changes in tempo and beats, you’ll be able to find the magic in the track. Lana del Rey also flexes her vocal mastery as she switches up her singing style numerous times.

When I was listening to this album for the first time, I was watching a Youtube video of nighttime driving in Seoul for the vibes. And let’s just say Dark But Just a Game is the perfect song to listen to when you’re on a long drive under the night skies.

4. Not All Who Wander are Lost

Not All Who Wander are Lost is the perfect track to follow Dark But Just a Game if we’re still on that hypothetical road trip. I bet a lot of people my age are able to appreciate this song for its theme of spontaneous, pointless & long-winded exploration.

From its lyrics about “wearin’ the same clothes for three damn days”, to having too much time to think about “seasons of old” on the road, you’ll feel like getting into a backpacking trip with someone special when you listen to this.

Not All Who Wander are Lost is able to set the mood for the more stripped-down second half of the album, with a chorus that’s meant to be sung with whoever’s holding the guitar around the campfire. It’s not a special and spectacular song by any means, but it’s able to bring back a lot of good memories of pre-COVID-19 days when we were a lot more free to go anywhere we want to.

3. Yosemite

If you had asked me to put out my Chemtrails Over the Country Club ranking after my initial listen, Yosemite would’ve been in my bottom tier. Much like the entire album, you have to listen to this song a couple of times to truly understand it.

The thing that stuck out to me at first was how she sang “seasons may change / but we won’t… change“. It turned me off because it felt like she was forcing the lyrics in that meter. She would then do the same thing with “winter to spring / spring back to… fall” in the following line. I cringed at those moments because I knew Lana could write something better than that.

But with more listens, I eventually appreciated the quirkiness of those lines. Those wouldn’t be the strangest “forced lyrics” she would have in this album after all.

Then Yosemite transcends into this feel-good love anthem that cements Lana del Rey’s transition “out of the black”. The song was made even better when I learned that she had put off releasing this track in Lust for Life three years ago because it was too happy, and she wasn’t there yet.

Well, happy Lana has arrived and I am here for it.

2. Chemtrails Over the Country Club

Unlike Let Me Love You Like a Woman, I’m confident that my high ranking of this track isn’t because I was familiar with it even before the album had dropped. This one takes you to a summery, “detached” old-rich place with its intricate storytelling and soft instrumentals. It also has a spectacular music video that served us visuals and that glorious twist, which personally helped me get into the song even more.

Chemtrails Over the Country Club feels experimental because it doesn’t sound like the other tracks in this album or her previous works. Jack Antonoff’s production is able to build this song to a good chaotic climax where Lana del Rey swoons about sun and moon signs, and then ends with a well-deserved prolonged percussion outro.

Lana is also at her best lyrical game here; I was actually disappointed with the quality of lyrics of the other tracks because I was expecting something as masterful as what she had displayed here.

1. White Dress

What a glorious opening track! I was so nervous before taking my first listen of the album because I knew she wouldn’t be able to top NFR, but what if it would turn out to be a horrible album?

With literally the first note of White Dress, all my doubts were erased.

And after running through the whole album, I knew that it would be take the #1 spot in my Chemtrails Over the Country Club ranking… it wasn’t even close! It was that good. Even after multiple listens, the novelty hasn’t worn off for me.

Can you believe that Lana and Jack only recorded one version of this song? They were able to do that in one take. Despite the imperfections like the sound of Lana’s vape and her breathy vocals — which had been placed there on purpose — I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As a whole, Chemtrails isn’t particularly relatable because the lyrics are either about fame, or they’re too specific to Lana’s experiences. The latter rings true for White Dress, but it’s able to capture the ubiquitous feeling of nostalgia that everyone longs for — from a simpler time when we were nineteen. Reminiscing those times makes us want to go back even if our lives were less glamorous.

I got goosebumps the first time I heard Lana del Rey go for those freakin’ high notes again and again because we haven’t heard her do that before. It would send a precedent for the entire album where we experience her upper register like never before. Honestly, I didn’t understand what she was saying most of the time, but I was living for it.

And listening to those parts still excite me every time I put on the song…. especially the downatthemeninmusicBUSiness conference part. Especially that.

The Verdict: 8/10

Overall, Chemtrails Over the Country Club is an outstanding album in its own right. I feel like everyone who didn’t like the album just had their expectations too high, or isn’t a fan of the direction Lana del Rey took with this album. But if you feel that way, I don’t blame you. The folk rock genre is such a far cry from her cinematic trip-hop Tumblrcore era… or even her foray into blues in Honeymoon six years ago.

Chemtrails suffers from a weaker last leg which oftentimes feels like someone had just sneakily recorded Lana jamming along for fun with her friends. And aside from the opening track, nothing feels like a particularly explosive moment — like the production in Cinnamon Girl, or the entirety of Venice Bitch — because of the softer sound she was aiming for.

Although there were many shocking moments when it came to Lana’s vocals. She explored all the colors of her voice with how she embraced her upper register a couple of times, and all the

With everything being so stripped-down, most of the tracks need time and multiple listens to grow in your heart and locked in your brain. Once you do that, Chemtrails becomes a modern easy-listening classic.

Do you agree with how my Chemtrails Over the Country Club ranking turned out? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! And if you missed it, you can view our track-by-track ranking for Norman Fucking Rockwell! here.

Get more music and TV show recommendations straight to your inbox. Just place your e-mail address below, it’s that easy!

Test your knowledge of songs from your childhood in our guess the lyrics game here. Don’t miss out on anything by following us @ZoomersCornerPH on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The post ‘Chemtrails Over the Country Club’: All Tracks Ranked and Reviewed appeared first on Zoomers Corner.

Five months later, we’re still bitter about Lana del Rey’s universally-acclaimed album losing out to Billie Eilish in this year’s Grammys. But we’re doing the impossible and ranking all the tracks in Norman Fucking Rockwell, her best work yet. This alternative pop album released in 2019 has become an instant classic, especially in this post-modern apocalypse we are currently living in. NFR is written and produced by Jack Antonoff and Lana del Rey herself.

If you’re a first-time listener, I recommend listening to this album from start to finish to experience this masterpiece in the way it was intended to be. Tracklist order matters, people!

Also, out of respect for the modern female alternative icon, we are also following the weird capitalizations she used in naming the album tracks.

14. Bartender

In this song, Lana details her love affair with a… bartender? The lyrics are definitely all over the place, which does not help the repetitive production. I still stand by my initial thought that NFR could have been a no-skip album if it weren’t for this track. It doesn’t help that it follows “The greatest”, which is one of the best songs in the album. You either love or hate the chorus, where Lana gets into the ASMR trend by repeating “bar-t-t-tender”. While I personally like it, the lyric is just a cute little somethin’ somethin’, but doesn’t improve the song that much.

Imagine my disappointment when she announced that “Bartender” was going to be part of the triple music video she had released at the start of the year, which you can watch below. But to give credit where it is due, I thought the fun, fiery ACAB visuals really added to the song. The “Bartender” segment is definitely the strongest out of the three.

13. Doin’ Time

To be honest, I enjoyed listening to this Sublime cover when it first came out. Well, every song that appears from here on and out is a bop, but it just so happens that I have to rank all of them from best to worst.

“Doin’ Time” was released as a 2019 summer track, being one of Lana’s more popular singles. It has enjoyed moderate mainstream success and was even given sufficient budget for a music video. And you know it had some budget because it wasn’t shot on an iPhone. The only reason this song is so low is because I’ve played it so much before the album came out that I eventually became tired of it. Plus, with it being a cover, I didn’t feel it was as personal as the other tracks. Fun, light, and tropical is how I’d describe this.

12. Love song

Following the happier tunes in the album, “Love song” mellows it down with a romantic and shockingly optimistic serenade. This is a strong candidate for your Songs to Walk Down the Aisle To playlist: a simple piano ballad that describes what it feels like to be thankful for someone you are truly in love with. If your only exposure to Lana was her early work, you never would have guessed she had the capability to bust out something like this.

This song follows “Fuck it I love you” and “Doin’ Time” in the album, so this song closes out a trilogy of songs where happiness reigns supreme. It also marks the beginning of sappier instrumentals. And for those reasons, “Love song” screams transitional track to me. While it is definitely not a filler track, it does not feel like an important track which is why I’m placing this at a lower rank than the other ones.

11. Norman fucking Rockwell

Serving as the opener of the album, I thought this titular track did its job in setting the tone of the album from a musical standpoint. When you first listen to this, you get the idea that the rest of the album is going to be more laid-back than Lana’s previous works.

This song has a lot of killer lyrics that I’m always waiting for a moment to whip out. “God damn, manchild, you fucked me so good that I almost said I love you” and “you’re fun and you’re wild, but you don’t know the half of the shit that you put me through” are literally the first two lines of the song. Talk about hooking your audience in! Aside from how quotable the lyrics are, Lana’s singing ability is showcased in this simple track.

10. California

As a Lana fan, the most interesting thing about “California” is the subject of the song, who may or may not be her ex-boyfriend Barrie. Serving as an ode to her past relationship and her love for the state, you can’t help but feel nostalgic when you listen to this song. Lana’s ability to paint a picture of a setting, and a relationship, is clearly highlighted here.

This is ranked tenth simply because I don’t find myself listening to this song a lot. But when it does come on though, I don’t really want to skip it either.

9. Fuck it I love you

The colorful and ahrt visuals that were on display in the double music video made this track so much better. As the music video exemplified, this fast-paced funky track is something you’d want to play surfing on the beach. The lyrics are sad with a sense of delusion coming from one’s desire to be happy. There’s not much to say about this, except that it’s a mid-tier, “good enough to bop to” song.

8. hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it

Well that’s one long-ass title… but it grabs your attention, doesn’t it? Even with all the anti-feminist accusations Lana has received as of late, this track is a good indication that her heart is in the right place. This is Lana in her most poetic state. The production is at its most basic in this one, drawing us into her angelic voice and into a sense of intimacy. It adds emphasis to how important this song is in Lana’s discography, who is now able to speak to us about her experience as a woman. The fact that the words she had written for this song is front-and-center makes it extra special.

While I appreciate this song for what it is, I have never really found a perfect time to listen to this. I acknowledge that it may have to do with the fact that I’m not a woman myself, but it’s more because I liken this song to a spoken word poem of sorts. While I enjoy it, I wouldn’t want to listen to it all the time.

7. Mariners Apartment Complex

This torch song was the first track to be released in the messy rollout of NFR, dating back more than a year before the actual album dropped. I think “Mariners Apartment Complex” is one of the songs you’d have to suggest to someone who wants to know what Lana currently sounds like. The maturity in the lyrics shows how much she has grown as a person in the past years. It’s also worth acknowledging how she is finally the less passive one in her relationship, as she sings, “You’re lost at sea, then I’ll command your boat to me, and / Don’t look too far, right where you are, that’s where I am / I’m your man“.

Alright, we see you Miss Lana. And speaking of which, she addresses her critics in the second verse which I found cathartic! It’s also worth noting that the acoustic guitar and drums here are more prominent than in most of Lana’s work, making this a standout track in her entire discography.

6. How to disappear

In the Lana del Rey fandom, this track is not a favorite from NFR. And that’s primarily because before the album was released, she had sung it live in an iTunes event with just a piano accompanying her. The album version changes up the instruments significantly, the most prominent one being the addition of what sounds like bell jingles. As a result, the song sounds like something out of a Twin Peaks Christmas special. Can you already imagine Lana standing onstage in front of red curtains, singing this song?

Lyrically, Lana does it again by serving us a colorful narrative of events. As an aside, I personally love the change in instrumentals; going back to a piano version would make it a pretty basic track. With that said, I think that this song would have been received more warmly if the live version didn’t precede it. And I love me some Twin Peaks!

5. Happiness is a butterfly

I have to confess, I hated this song for the first few months NFR was out. It was only after the triple music video had dropped that I came around to loving it. I couldn’t help but cringe whenever I heard the lyrics “happiness is a butterfly“, but now, I don’t really mind it because the song features my favorite lyric from this album: “If he’s a serial killer, then what’s the worst that can happen to a girl who’s already hurt?”. There’s also an addictive talk-singing part that I just have to follow along to whenever I play it on speaker.

This one isn’t flashy, but it’s definitely a grower. If you’re having trouble getting into the song, then maybe the visuals will help you out with this one. I mean, how adorable is Lana with a butterfly on her nose?

4. The Next Best American Record

You don’t have to do anything, I can already hear you saying I’m tasteless. A lot of people think this is one of the weaker tracks in the album, but I find it the most underrated one out of all. I’m putting it at fifth because I’m a whore for lyrics. And for this song, the words give me a sense of nostalgic excitement and joy that makes me feel like I’m young and in love. It depicts what an ideal relationship looks like in my head (“We were so obsessed with writing the next best American record / that we gave all we had ’til the time we got to bed ’cause we knew we could“) which is basically a relationship of two ambitious people pushing each other to be their greatest selves.

Fun fact: this was supposed to be released back in 2017 for her album, Lust for Life. They had even shot a music video for it! However, because the track had leaked, they used the footage for another song, “White Mustang”, instead.

3. Cinnamon Girl

Production-wise, this is where NFR is hit its peak. I remember during release day, “Cinnamon Girl” was the track that everyone was raving about, and for good reason! The piano accompaniment and electronic sound fuse together in such a beautiful way that supports the emotionally-loaded lyrics pretty well. “Cinnamon Girl” climaxes with an instrumental break that showcases Jack Antonoff’s work at full display. Overall, this is a technical masterpiece.

Here, Lana del Rey is at her most Lana del Rey, channeling what is left of her inner sadgirl to talk about her reluctant desire to be with somebody knowing there’s a chance that she could get hurt. Because if her early work is anything to go by, this girl has not had it easy.

This is Lana in her most romantically fragile state… so Tumblr aesthetic people will enjoy this! But a word of caution: bring out that roll of tissue paper when you listen to this.

2. The greatest

This song is about nothing, and about everything at the same time. The lyrics speak of longingness and the desire to go back to simpler times. Out of all the tracks in the album that have a nostalgic theme, this one definitely hits the hardest. And again, the music video helped drive the point home to listeners. More than that, there’s something about the simplicity of the lyrics and Lana’s delivery that makes it a lot more poignant. This is her swan song.

When I say that NFR is an album to listen to during the apocalypse, it’s because of songs like this that take a more defeatist approach to the crap the world is going through. Almost a year since its release, “The greatest” is still relevant — and maybe even more so now that we’re in quarantine, while everything else is happening outside our homes. “Oh, the live stream’s almost on.“

1. Venice Bitch

Whenever I recommend this song to non-Lana fans and tell them it’s over nine minutes long, they look at me like I’m crazy. But this track is just that damn good. And you know why I think this is Lana del Rey’s best song ever? Because it’s just so timeless. This was one of the earliest tracks released for the album, and almost two years in, I am still not sick of it. Lyrically, “Venice Bitch” is a lovely voyage to that corner in Lana’s mind that houses hopeless romanticism intertwined with the American dream.

Musically, it’s a psychedelic pop song which shows Lana’s versatility as an artist. Despite it being uncharted waters for her, she nails it out of the park! In the middle of the song is a long guitar break, but it does not exhaust the listener, and more than that, adds depth to the theme and mood of the song.

Overall, this is a bop of a song that goes with every mood you’re in. Rain or shine, this is a song that you could sing to, drive to, cry to, smile to, escape to, relax to… again, “Venice Bitch” is freaking timeless.

The Verdict

Even if we weren’t able to talk about the album as a whole, trust me when I say that Norman Fucking Rockwell is one of the best pop albums of the 2010’s. Maybe one of the best albums this decade, period. All ears will definitely be on Lana as she prepares to release her next album, Chemtrails Over the Country Club. In the meantime, let’s relive my personal AOTY 2019 pick, NFR in all its glory:

The post A Track-by-Track Ranking and Review of ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’ appeared first on Zoomers Corner.