Blue Banisters Deserves Better.

I think it’s safe to say that almost everyone has a comfort album. A record that they can turn to when they’re happy, when they’re sad, when they’re pissed off, anything. The album that comes to mind when I think about what my comfort album could be is Blue Banisters by Lana del Rey. This album (by my favorite artist like ever) was released in 2021 but took until the last year to really reach me. It was not met with critical acclaim (neither have any of Lana’s albums) or “hype” being that it is very lyric-heavy and light on production.

BB speaks to me as something that is not digestible for the average, passive listener. When I compared general reception of this record versus how earlier works like Ultraviolence (2014) or Honeymoon (2015) was received, it led to a new understanding. Listening to a song like “Wildflower Wildfire” from the album requires a level of interpretation that not everyone is willing to sit down and do.

“Baby, I’ll be like a wildflower / I live on sheer willpower / I’ll do my best never to turn into something that burns”

Lyrics from “Wildflower Wildfire” by Lana del Rey.

When Lana is essentially reading her poetry over a piano melody and the lyrics are words that just flow from her brain, there’s room for interpretation like all forms of art. Writing music and poetry are obviously her emotional outlets and it really shows with records like Blue Banisters and her most recent studio album, Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard (2023). With Blue Banisters, we get to know Lana, not as the wild party girl, Americana aesthetic, “I gots a taste for men who older” Lana del Rey, but as who she is at her core.

When it comes to my favorite song on this album, I cannot help but keep returning to “Sweet Carolina,” the last song of the record. “Sweet Carolina” is a very soft-sounding love letter to her sister, Caroline Grant, or Chuck, who was going through postpartum depression after the birth of her child. I do not choose this song as my favorite because it stood out to me the most (that would be “Dealer” or “Text Book”), in fact, it took around three years for me to actually listen to it. The first lines of the song are, “Don’t have to write me a letter / I’ll always be right here / Closer to you than your next breath, my dear.” I cannot express with words the way that those lines make me feel, let alone describe how much love lives in her words.

“And you say that you’re scared / Might be unprepared for having the baby blues”

Lyrics from “Sweet Carolina” by Lana del Rey.

Like with most albums, there are the “fan favorites” and TikTok-viral phenomenons. It’s no surprise to me that the angsty, almost bone-chilling, “Dealer” ended up becoming the favorite of this record because of it being the most production-heavy song on the album. By no means is “Dealer” a bad song. In fact, I do delight in screaming “Why can’t you be good for something?!” on therapeutic car drives alone. Dealer is something I would recommend for people who enjoy her musical style from the 2010s like Honeymoon.

After BB, she didn’t release until Ocean Boulevard which was given to us early last year. I’m excited to see what else is to come from Lana because she has shifted into something completely different than who we met her as. I think when considering the fact that art is subjective and always up for interpretation, anyone can come to appreciate what Lana did here with this album. These feelings are personal to her and not everyone will be able to relate. She’s matured and is taking form as her authentic self, showing that in this record. When it is understood that an artist can be their most authentic self and be more than just who they have been without the relatability and “Tiktokification” of the music, it can be understood that Blue Banisters does deserve better.