Listen to “Altuesdays Episode 7: Lana Del Rey's "NFR"” on Spreaker.

Elizabeth Grant, better known by stage name Lana Del Rey, has managed to dominate the alternative genre while establishing a trademark sound, look, and aesthetic. Her sounds have evolved from her debut album Born to Die, released in 2011, yet the signature Lana Del Rey lyricism and sounds remain true to her as an artist.
Her sixth studio album, Norman F****** Rockwell (NFR), is by far her most iconic and potentially impressive album. Produced by Jack Antonoff, this is her most experimental while staying true to who she is. Additionally, nominated for Grammy Album of the Year, NFR is not only incredibly cohesive, but is a blend of various genres and decades of music.
The album opens up with the title track, “Norman f****** Rockwell” which matches much of Del Rey’s previous work. Not only sonically does the song reflect her previous piano-led melody ballads seen in much of her previous albums, but she opens up with similar themes to what she’s previously capitalized on: the criticism of men and masculine culture in society. This theme, reflected elsewhere in the album, is a huge part of Del Rey’s characterThough she seems to take on the 50’s style “damsel in distress”, she ends up reflecting on that stereotype being pushed by men rather than being an enticing role for women.
“Mariners Apartment Complex” is one of the most popular songs on the album, and while it’s a good and catchy song, compared to some of her other work, I don’t find it necessarily a trademark song in terms of its progression. This song is the epitome of a Lana Del Rey song and introduces much of the sound and feel NFR is in a way the title track simply could not.
The third track, “Venice B****” is far more progressive for Del Rey as an artist, and quite frankly, is one of the best on the album in my opinion. It’s a great mixture of both the familiar sounds listeners hear in her other albums, but with just enough of a difference to introduce a new side of the artist listeners have yet to see. Her lyricism again thrives here, something that is repeated throughout not only this album but her discography, and can only be described as a new age Sylvia Plath style of writing and poetry with its simplistic, repetitive, powerful nature.
“Doin’ Time”, the fifth track, is one of my favorites. It’s a cover of Sublime’s song from 1997, but is oddly perfect for this new era of Del Rey. It’s a purely entrancing track that is best described as 90s grunge/R&B meets permanent wave alternative, still with Del Rey’s signature piano hidden in the background. It may be a cover track, but it is by far one of the most powerful on the entire album of showing a new facet of Del Rey.
Track six, “Love Song” is good but it manages to regress back to older sounding Lana Del Rey that, quite frankly, does not fit on this album as well as her other more experimental songs. Again, it’s a good song, but it doesn’t necessarily earn its place on such a defying album.
“Cinnamon Girl” may be one of her best songs on the album. It’s a perfect mixture of alt/pop with a signature Lana Del Rey piano ballad. The lyrics are simple yet powerful, repetitive with meaning. Despite being heavily influenced by electronic mixes, it mixes with a simple piano backing beautifully, and Del Rey’s voice ranges just enough to add further legitimacy to her as a singer.
“How to Disappear” sees some new rock influences with a more prominent guitar, but other than that, is just an alright song. Again, the relevance of this song comes far more from the importance of Del Rey’s growing list of genres which influenced her music on this album, and how it strays away from previous albums of hers while still maintaining a form of familiarity.
Track nine, “California”, should be mentioned due to the length of the track but truly seems relatively unimportant aside from the lyrics which seems to be more of a commentary of blatant modern love and hook-up culture, something Del Rey has incorporated as an important element to much of her music previously, but again, could be a far more powerful song if the instrumental was not so repetitive and uncreative.
“The Next Best American Record” seems too much like a repetition to the style of “Cinnamon Girl”, with a slow and simple verse instrumental that slams into a more pop chorus, however does not do it as successfully due to the minimal change in her voice, and when she does it’s pieced together separately so the song almost seems to change with whiplash. It’s not a bad song by any means, but it’s not necessarily impactful or new until the very end with the bridge which seems the only experimental of a song that could have easily achieved that same status.
Again, the repetitive nature of the last two songs follows through to make a trifecta of songs that attempted to be progressive in Del Rey’s discography but fell short. “The Greatest” follows the same themes of modern love through a sound too similar to Del Rey’s previous work to actually stand out While it can easily be identified as a song on NFR, the previous three songs don’t hold the same identify some of the work on this album does, causing it to fall short.
The second to last track, “Happiness is a butterfly” is not necessarily a good song instrumentally on this album, but the lyrics are far more advanced compared to much of this album. For the first time, listeners are shown a new side of Del Rey’s song writing, separating her poetry style to one of storytelling. To be honest, this anxiety-ridden song over a beautifully simple track is an exception to the progressive hopes of this album, and helps to highlight her songwriting ability over instrumental repetition.
The final track, “hope is a dangerous thing” is too simple, in my opinion, to be the last track on this album. Again, Del Rey seems to have hoped to create a newer version of her traditional sound, and the final track on an album is the perfect excuse to drop an incredibly relevant song, which she did not do here. The song sounds far too like something on her first or second albums to make it acceptable for a last track on a good, solid, newer album for her.
Overall the achievements of this album are seen in Del Rey’s ability to begin branching out from her traditional sound, yet falls short as certain tracks on the album fall back into her very traditional sounds and feelings. For an artist’s six album, NFR is acceptable, and one of her best, but could have easily won awards like Album of the Year or be ranked a top album if she would have branched out more than she did. Considering her new sound worked on half the album, there was no reason why it shouldn’t have been able to work on the other half too.