Lana Del Rey shares new song ‘A&W’
American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey is staring down the release of her new studio album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, next month. We’ve already received our first preview of the new LP with the title track, ‘Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’. Now, we’re getting another taste of the album with the seven-minute ‘A&W’.
A piano-led ballad that doubles down on Del Rey’s obsession with Joni Mitchell (at least at first), ‘A&W’ is another look into Del Rey’s fractured view of love. The line “this is the experience of being an American whore” sounds like quintessential Del Rey, and the pop culture references come streaming through like they always do. Shout out to Forensic Files and The Diary of a Teenage Girl, which Del Rey calls “Teenage Diary of a Girl”. Then things go a bit wild at the end, but I’ll let you experience that for yourself.
During a recent interview with Billie Eilish, De Rey went into detail about the new album. She mentioned that the LP has been completed for over a year, which means that she hit quite the creative streak after finishing her most recent album, Blue Banisters. She also mentioned that the album’s lengthy title was originally going to be even longer.
“At first, the title was definitely going to be Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,” Del Rey explains, “and then I fucking panicked and I went to [designer] Neil [Krug]’s house and said, ‘I know this is fucked up, but I’ve changed the title. It’s going to now be called, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd Pearl Watch Me on Ring a Bell Psycho Lifeguard.”
“He was like, ‘What the fuck?’ I was like, ‘I’m not telling anyone. Just mock it up.’ He mocked it up, but we realized that maybe it was a bit much to have six titles in one,” Del Rey adds. “Then, he was like, ‘This is reminding me of a format that I’ve always wanted to play with. What if we just used one title, but then we filled the rest of the page with everyone who’s featured and everyone who engineered it?’ He mocked that up on the portrait shot and I was like, ‘You did it.’ That was a really psychotic day because I was like, ‘Am I willing to literally burn everything down to the ground by having some strange, nonsensical title?'”
Check out the audio for ‘A&W’ down below. Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd is set for a March 24th release.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.