Lana Del Rey’s forthcoming ninth studio album is one step closer to gracing the ears of millions. The singer’s longtime manager Ben Mawson took to Instagram to tease the record, writing: “New album nearing completion.” The album will serve as a follow up to Blue Banisters and Chemtrails Over The Country Club, Del Rey’s seventh and eighth albums released months apart from each other last year.
“I’ve been practicing meditative automatic singing, where I don’t filter anything. I’ll just sing whatever comes to mind into my Voice Notes app,” Lana Del Rey revealed earlier this year in an interview with W Magazine. “It’s not perfect, obviously. There are pauses, and I stumble. But I’ve been sending those really raw-sounding files to a composer, Drew Erickson, and he’ll add an orchestra beneath the words, matching each syllable with music and adding reverb to my voice. When I’m automatic singing, I don’t have the time and leisure to think about things in terms of colors. It’s very cerebral.”
She contrasts the process with that of her earlier records, like 2015’s Honeymoon, which was characterized largely by its references to various palettes of colors. “For this new music, there’s none of that at all,” she explained. “It’s more just like: I’m angry. The songs are very conversational. For the first song, I pressed record and sang, “When I look back, tracing fingertips over plastic bags, I think I wish I could extrapolate some small intention or maybe get your attention for a minute or two.” It’s a very wordy album. So there’s no room for color. It’s almost like I’m typing in my mind.”
While Del Rey herself is mostly off-grid as far as public-facing social media goes, Mawson has been keeping fans in the loop about what’s the come in the meantime. In June, he commented on a post on the singer’s private account, saying “Another beauty of a real songwriters album coming soon.”
