‘White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter’: Lana Del Rey’s unpredictability is part of the art
Lana Del Rey remains as unpredictable as ever.
In 2021, she planned to release a country covers album. By 2023, that project had evolved into an original country record titled Lasso, but it never arrived. In 2025, it seemed back on track with two singles and a new title, The Right Person Will Stay, yet by April, it had been indefinitely postponed.
For Del Rey fans, this chaos was not just typical; it was expected. Over the years, her release dates have felt more like suggestions, with albums delayed, reshuffled or scrapped entirely. For a while, The Right Person Will Stay seemed destined to join that list. Now, the project is back under a new title, Stove, with a loose timeline, as her press release simply says a new album could arrive “in approximately three months.”
No doubt the executives of Del Rey’s record label, Polydor, are smashing their heads against a wall when it comes to organising and managing this artist. But then, when she suddenly reemerged and released a new single like ‘White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter’, surely no one can be mad at her.
Del Rey undeniably gets away with it because when the work does materialise, it’s not only good, but fascinating, as the artist constantly finds new ways to morph, change and grow. After her previous record, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, felt like a summation and opus of everything that had come before, there was the question of where the singer-songwriter would go next. But now, on this surprise release that seems to reignite her passion for her next project, Del Rey emerges as a figure just as imaginative as ever with a theatrical flair in a whole new way.
Previously, Del Rey has always been cinematic in her artistry, with a vast creation of literary and movie references crammed into songs that feel like movie scenes. But here, ‘White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter’ is a stage production, a ballet, either with classical orchestral details that touch on a whole different world of storytelling traditions.
The song feels like a full-scale production telling the story of Del Rey and her husband, Jeremy Dufrene, moving through different sonic acts as the tale evolves. It’s also interesting to note that Dufrene is a credited songwriter on the track, along with her sister, Chuck Grant, and her brother-in-law, Jason Pickens, as if this isn’t just the artist writing her own story, but her composing a piece of folklore for the entire family.
Del Rey might be a logistical nightmare, but who else is delivering music like this? Who else can stray so far from the influences they started out with, but still have such an identifiable identity and energy, ensuring that her fans will still be hypnotised?
It’s hard to question her approach when the organisational disarray always ends up with the release of fantastic music, so clearly, the world will need to be content to just let Del Rey keep on working on her own chaotic schedule.
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