Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters

 L(caps)anaDel Rey's second album, Blue Banisters, was published in 2021, and she is now regarded as one of the most prolific musicians of the age, having released eight albums in 12 years. It's also a record that, like (nearly) all of its predecessors, comfortably transcends the middling level. It's a personal and low-key album with mostly piano pieces, no percussion singles, and no radio-friendly moments.

 Watch attention for the many tempo shifts and patterns in tracks like "Text Book" and "Black Bathing Suit," where the percussion rages in an unusual way for a Lana Del Rey album. In an odd manner, her exaggerated, dramatic version of the wonderful "Dealer" is bizarre, as it pushes the graphic to its boundaries, yet it works in the end. Her performances are more traditional in the namesake tune, as they are in the superb "Arcadia," and can only impress for their maturity when contrasted to her vocal level till a few years ago.

Blue Banisters does not match the quality of the Chemtrails Over The Country Club released earlier in 2021 and is by no means better than Norman Fucking Rockwell! of 2019. It has, however, half a dozen tracks that could stand worthy in the tracklist of the latter. 

If there were so many other boring fillers missing, we would be talking about one of Lana De Rey's best records.