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Now that 2023 is freshly in the past, it feels appropriate for me to “review” my favorite album that came out last year. Lana Del Rey feels like one of those artists that need no introduction, especially with her laundry list of controversies, though Lana has also notably kept her romantic and familial life private throughout her lengthy career.

All that said, I always prefer to review albums without the influence of the stories surrounding the artist, and this review will be the same. Ocean Blvd, however, presents itself as a far more personal look into Lana’s life and person-hood compared with previous projects such as the critically-acclaimed Norman F**king Rockwell, her breakthrough project Born To Die, as well as Blue Banisters, which Lana described in a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone UK as “an explanatory album”. Unlike the former projects listed, Ocean Blvd feels a couple steps more personal, evidence immediately from the first track The Grants, where Lana – whose real name is Elizabeth Grant – sings about wanting to commemorate the influences her family members have had on her, and this is the essence of Ocean Blvd, as Lana lays bare her influences both lyrically and sonically through long speak-singing rambles. If you’re already a fan of her style, particularly of her post-NFR work, then you will likely enjoy the fragile, heartfelt way Lana delivers her songs. If you already disliked most of her work, this album probably won’t change your mind about her, and that’s alright – different strokes for different folks as they say.

For me, this album clicked almost instantly. Whether or not the events and the familial as well as emotional struggles Lana sings about actually happened to her or not, the emotional truth of wistfulness and desperation for salvation after disaster really connected with me, especially after a rather turbulent 2023 for me.

Ocean Blvd also stands out in terms of its unapologetic portrayal of womanhood. With the exception of Sweet, Lana seems far more concerned with the psyche of the female experience, such as in tracks like A&W and Fingertips, and her own personal pain than portraying herself as a certain type of woman as she did in the earlier parts of her discography. Though I never took issue with her Ultraviolence or Born To Die framings of abusive or toxic relationships, I found the reworking of the focus onto Lana’s own perspective on life instead refreshing and a recommended change of pace.

Unfortunately, the album has a few low spots – mainly the thoroughly unnecessary interludes featuring conservative celebrity preacher Judah Smith for some godforsaken reason, to the strange tone-breaking Peppers, but the track is generally coherent and the final callback to Venice B***h really completes the album’s narrative journey of Lana finding a sense of salvation or renewal.

I ended up listening to this album a lot, and though I previously enjoyed NFR, this album was the one that made the rest of Lana’s discography click for me. The way that Lana’s soft vocals meld along with the instrumentation felt comforting, and I found myself putting on this album anytime that I felt relaxed or when I was trying to relax myself. I then ended up checking out the rest of Lana’s discography whilst I was working a brief and extremely boring summer internship, and found myself thoroughly enjoying most of her other albums (so look forward to seeing more reviews of the albums I liked!). In any case, it doesn’t seem like Lana has any intention of taking a break aside from a quick detour to a Waffle House, and if she does release another studio album in the future I will be there to review it.

Best Track(s): “The Grants”, “Kintsugi”, “Let the Light In (feat. Father John Misty)”, “Paris, Texas”

Rating: 9.0/10