Opening with stripped-back acoustic guitar and what she called, “dry vocals,” Lana Del Rey’s “Henry, come on,” the first single from her yet to be released 10th album, finally dropped on April 11. The song is rich with lush strings as she contends at the chorus, “Last call ’Hey, y’all’ / Hang his hat up on the wall / Tell him that his cowgirl is gone.” She purrs into the next line with “Go on and giddy up / Soft leather, blue jeans / Call us into void’s dreams / Return it but say it was fun.” She told fans on the day before the breakup song’s release, “I don’t want to say it’s my favorite song, but I do really think it’s the song that the album hinges on.”
After teasing a Country album (at some points labeled a “Southern Gothic” with Del Ray telling the world that it’s more “Americana” than anything else) for more than a year and sitting on the ethereal “Henry” for what she described as “17 long months,” the world got its first taste of Lana officially gone Country. Her latest offering is still bursting with all the winks and visceral lyricism the incomparable songwriter has made her reputation with, as well as the Americana themes she’s fiddled with for most of her career, but this time with enough twang and Western symbolism to officially push the alternative-pop-sad-girl-indie-songbird into a new era of sound.
During an Instagram live, she described working on “Henry” and wanting it to have “a Glen Campbell feeling on the top and a little bit of Disney” and “sticks on the bottom.” The sweeping track nails it. And though it may be hyped as fresh sonic terrain for Del Rey, who plans on sharing much of her upcoming album live while performing at this year’s Stagecoach — the annual Country music festival held on the same grounds of Coachella each year — looking back on her discography and recent, deeper leans into roots music, her next album seems destined to be more of a return home than a trip outside of her aural territory.
It’s no surprise that Lana Del Rey — a sonic and dare we say, industry rule breaker — would delve into a new genre at this point in her career, playing a festival alongside Country music stalwarts like Zach Bryan, Luke Combs, Brothers Osbourne, and fellow genre-bender Jelly Roll. Last year, she made a surprise appearance during Paul Cauthen’s Stagecoach set, after headlining Coachella two weekends in a row. The pair performed “Unchained Melody,” and Lana was snapped around the Polo Fields, taking photos with fans and rubbing shoulders with other musicians with a propensity for storytelling. And then there was her 2024 release with Quavo, “Tough,” a track blending trap and country, complete with the lyrics “Tough like the scuff on a pair of old leather boots / Like the blue collar, red-dirt attitude,” and the well-worn Southern idiom “Sure as the good Lord’s up above.” In 2023, she released a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” after a tour stop in West Virginia. And although art doesn’t always imitate life, she’s spent the past few years playing smaller, homegrown areas, not to mention getting hitched to an alligator tour guide in Louisiana. So, despite songs and an upbringing that point to the biggest cities of the East and West Coast, there’s something deeply down home about Ms. Del Rey (and that doesn’t just point to her brief stint at the Southern staple, Waffle House).
See to be a good songwriter, you have to be a good storyteller. You know, the kind that drops analogies about Icarus and Greek mythology into her first official Country song. The same type of writer who made you feel the expansiveness of the road on “Ride,” the kind of lyricist who could make your heart jump while whistling about cartwheels on “A&W.” Roots music, Americana songs, they’re about stories — ones that make you long, yearn, your stomach flip, your heart race. Del Rey’s songwriting could win in any genre category (and we’ll discuss our thoughts on her not having a Grammy yet at a later date.) But in Country? With every lyric, every layered acoustic revelation, she’s been preparing for this release her whole life.
Speaking of the aforementioned rule-breaking, her marketing for the album formerly known as Lasso, or at least the conversation around it, has also paid zero allegiance to the typical rollout rules. Last November, she told fans she’d release her much-awaited 10th album in May of this year. She then said the album would now be called The Right Person Will Stay, sharing on Instagram that it had “13 tracks” and adding that she was “happy for you to hear a few songs coming up before Stagecoach.” Then, last week, she shared during an Instagram live, “I mean, you know it’s not going to come on time, right? Should I even tell you that the name changed again? Should I even tell you that while you’re so happy that you have a song? Maybe I’ll wait.”
As I’m writing this, Lana just released “Bluebird.” A slow lullaby that lays her voice bare, with classic delivery and themes of freedom. Echoing strings and a deeply felt request: “Find a way to fly” before a harmonica sneaks in. Chills. Now, we wait with bated breath to hear the final album title, and the rest of her new songs. But for those pulling up their boots and donning their best Stetson at Stagecoach this year, sounds like you won’t have to.