Stars: 4/5

The Netflix series “Ginny & Georgia” was right when the main character Georgia said that Lana Del Rey was the “goddess of sadness.”
“Chemtrails Over the Country Club” is Lana Del Rey’s seventh studio album. The album came out March 19, only a year and a half after her sixth studio album “Norman F***ing Rockwell!” was released. Del Ray and her music have been a part of my life for almost a decade, and “Chemtrails” has to be one of my favorite albums by the artist thus far.
Part of the reason I loved this album so much is because of the sense of wanderlust I felt listening to each song, which is a similar reaction I had when I first listened to her 2012 song “Ride” from her “Paradise” project. Del Rey sings about her yearning to escape her old life by living in the moment with this song, yet “Chemtrails” seems to make it go full circle when the Americana singer takes us into her past, starting with the first track “White Dress.”
It only took a minute for the song to deeply resonate with me and become my favorite track. The song’s narrative is captivating, alongside haunting vocals and beautiful lyricism. She sings about wishing she had the opportunity to go back to her life before fame changed everything, singing that it “made [her] feel like a god” in her teenage years. The lyrics “I was a waitress, wearing a white dress / Look how I do this, look how I got this,” paints an innocent Del Rey in her teen years before she became famous, using a white dress to symbolize her purity at the time.
Another song that made me fall in love with “Chemtrails” was the sixth track “Dark But Just a Game,” which illustrates the darker side of Hollywood fame and notoriety. Del Rey explained in an interview with MOJO Magazine that the song’s title, and story was inspired by the 2020 Oscars afterparty where she had an encounter with an unnamed musician that made her realize she never wanted to change in the name of fame. The switch-up in the middle of the first verse is bound to have anyone hooked to Del Rey’s emotional and enchanting voice.
Undoubtedly, “Chemtrails” is one of Del Rey’s most experimentally introspective albums. The album’s producer, Jack Antonoff, truly encapsulated her identity in each song. The album has received a great deal of positive reviews from music critics and fans alike, but some fans became sick of the wait Del Rey put us through and did not think it was up to par with her past albums.
In my opinion, it was worth the wait. “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” is an immediate classic with somber melodies and heart-wrenching lyrics filled with sentimentality.