Method In The Sadness

The 21st-century Karen Carpenter fashions a marathon of meta-melancholy, with a few new tricks.

- Chris Roberts 

Lana Del Rey

Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

4/5 

Polydor 4859191 (CD, 2LP)

Lana fans and the less partisan will be looking for two different things as the Empress Of Angst releases her ninth album, 12 years since Video Games wept her to fame. Fans will want it to yearn like nobody except Lana has yearned before. On that score, it convincingly delivers, as within the title track we get a dramatic, gospel-tinged refrain of "don't forget me" which sounds like every heart in the world breaking at once. Furthermore, the same song offers another hook of "When's it gonna be my turn?" which is the sonic embodiment of a wallflower's inner thoughts at a high school dance if that dance was an allegory for a lifetime. The 21st-century Karen Carpenter liberally scatters many more such moments throughout an 80-minute album, which in old money would probably have identified as a double.