Reporting by Tim Powers and Mahlet Sugebo

Lana Del Rey has released two new end-of-the-summer jams called “Mariners Apartment Complex” and “Venice Bitch.” This signals the release of her upcoming album titled “Norman Fucking Rockwell,” expected to be released in early 2019. This album comes two years after the Grammy-nominated album, “Lust for Life.”

[media-credit name=”Thomas hawk/ flickr creative commons” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]The “Video Games” singer’s new album seems to be a nod to the sounds on her 2014 psychedelic album, “Ultraviolence.” As opposed to the baroque pop sounds on “Born to Die” and “Lust for Life,” this album might feature a more rock and psychedelic technique. Through the new songs, we can see Del Rey experimenting sonically, but we still see her signature retro persona. 

Her retro style certainly does not appeal to every taste, with some saying that it’s a record-label creation. But some might argue, including Del Rey herself, that this is simply her personality and her choice of how she presents her art. Her style of music does not have to appear in everyone’s playlist, but that’s often seen as Del Rey’s point; to appeal, only, to a certain demographic.

“Venice Bitch” runs almost 10 minutes long, becoming the longest song in the singer’s catalogue. Del Rey experiments with the sounds of an electric guitar throughout, sounds never before heard in her music. Del Rey starts off the song with a bad bitch attitude saying “fresh out of fucks forever.” She goes on to rhyme “ice cream” with “ice queen,” signaling her signature cold-girl swagger she often gives off in her songs. The song’s lyrics are poetic, but not flashy. With a minimalistic sonic approach, she lets the lyrics and the melody speak for themselves.

Del Rey tells the story, to Zane Lowe of Beats 1 Radio, about showing the song to her managers saying, “I played it for my managers and I was like, ‘Yeah I think this is the single I want to put out,’ and they were like it’s 10 minutes long. Are you kidding me? It’s called ‘Venice Bitch.’ Like why do you do this to us? Can you make a three minute normal pop song? I was like well, end of summer, some people just wanna drive around for 10 minutes get lost in some electric guitar.'”

However, “Mariners Apartment Complex,” the second song released, has a shorter run time, coming in at four minutes. It also has a more somber atmosphere. The song alludes to her newfound strength in herself. In the line, “That people can change, that you don’t have to leave her. When everyone’s talking, you can make a stand.” She is possibly alluding to the beginning of her career. She faced a lot of criticism for her style and the integrity of her art. Del Rey said that despite the criticism, her true fans have stuck by her and her career has since flourished past the girl we saw in her mainstream debut.

Del Rey discussed the inspiration behind the title of her new album to Zane Lowe in an interview. “So the title track is called ‘’Norman Fucking Rockwell’ and it’s kind of about this guy who is such a genius artist but he thinks he’s the shit and he knows it and he like won’t shut up talking about it,” Del Rey said in an interview with Zane Lowe of Beats 1 Radio.

Del Rey also acknowledged the help of her producer Jack Antonoff in the creation of the album’s concept. “Working with Jack, I was in a little bit of a lighter mood because he was so funny,” Del Rey said in the interview. In addition to Del Rey, Antonoff has worked with pop heavyweights such as Taylor Swift and Lorde. Reciviving much acclaim for those productions, as well as acclaim for his work in the band “F.U.N.”

Quinnipiac students had a wide range of responses. When asking students about Del Rey, many shared their previous experiences with the singer. Responses ranged from positive to negative.

“I have always liked Lana Del Rey’s way with lyrics, using few words to express her feelings,” freshman nursing major Margaret Lynch said. “I really liked (“Venice Bitch”). It had more of an acoustic feel to it because of the guitar in the beginning which made it very relaxing and easy to listen to.”

Some complained of the song’s extensive runtime. 

 “There is absolutely no reason why a song should be ten minutes long,” freshman physical therapy major Gillian Scott said.w

It’s safe to say that there are a lot of expectations riding on Del Rey’s shoulders to deliver the true artistry that she has embodied before. With Del Rey, we never know if her new work will lead to a controversy or a Grammy-nominated number one album. We’ll have to wait and see.