Just seven months following the release of “Chemtrails Over The Country Club,” Lana Del Rey is back with a new album, “Blue Banisters.” While the world was stuck in a state of panic and grief, Del Ray tapped into raw emotion and created two albums released in the same year.

Over the last decade, Del Rey has delivered a beautiful and powerful collection of records that have greatly impacted the indie music scene. She has developed a distinguishable sound, singing about love, drugs, depression and sex, becoming a tragic romantic icon for her generation.

Del Rey’s vocals, guitar and piano on “Blue Banisters” all complement each other and evoke a feeling of nostalgia.  

She opens the album with a track called “Text Book,” singing about a complicated love relationship in a style that is reminiscent of her fourth album, “Honeymoon.” She sings about her ex-lover and issues with her father, two recurring themes  in her songwriting.

On songs such as the “Blue Banisters” and “Sweet Carolina,” she speaks about other complicated love relationships.

“Interlude – The Trio” has a change of style, similar to tracks off of her 2017 album, “Lust for Life,” where she collaborated with the likes of A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti. Del Rey’s decision to include an R&B track on an album consisting mainly of ballads shows how she is not confined to just one genre and isn’t afraid to push the limits.

The lyricism on the piano track “Beautiful” paints a picture of Del Rey’s depressive creative process, as the song goes, “What if someone had asked Picasso not to be sad? / Never known who he was or the man he’d become / There’d be no blue period. Let me show you how sadness can turn into happiness / I can turn blue into something beautiful.”

Del Rey worked with Miles Kane of Last Shadow Puppets on this album. Their song “Dealer” has Del Rey yelling the lyrics “I don’t wanna live / I don’t wanna give you nothing.” This is the most emotional she has ever been on a song.

Del Rey included songs that did not make it onto “Ultraviolence” such as “Nectar of the Gods,” “If You Lie Down With Me” and “Cherry Blossom.” These tracks brought the new album back to 2014 in the best way possible, mixing dark, raw emotions with mature instrumentals.

“Blue Banisters” is a remarkable mix of old and new. Taking bits and pieces from her old work, Del Rey was able to create something emotional and more mature than anything she’s ever released before.