Lana Del Rey Has Songs Ready for Country Album but Doesn’t Want It to Be ‘Half-Cooked’: ‘We’ll Get There’
The singer Tells 'Entertainment Weekly' about her next body of work at the 2024 InStyle Imagemaker Awards
Lana Del Rey wants fans to know she isn’t rushing perfection when it comes to releasing her hotly-anticipated country album, Lasso.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly at the 2024 Instyle Imagemaker Awards held in Los Angeles on Thursday, Oct. 24, the singer, 39, offered a brief glimpse into where her head’s at as she inches closer to the release of her next body of work.
“I think all the songs have been Americana and I want to wait to see what the musical atmosphere feels like,” she says of Lasso. “‘Cause I don’t usually feel like I need a pause in the creation process, but if there’s a literal energetic pause that almost feels like physical, then I have to wait and I don’t know why.”
The “Born to Die” performer adds, “I’ll have to see if it’s because of something someone’s done or because it’s going to take a turn.”
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Although Del Rey can’t put a specific release date on the project just yet, she teases that “we’ll see. But the songs I have, I love, so I don’t want to turn it into something that’s half cooked, even if it’s super stripped back. I want it to be what it was supposed to be.”
As for fans patiently awaiting the album’s release, all she has to say is, “They can be excited for all the other good stuff going on. We’ll get there. First things first!”
Those who want a glimpse of a Americana-twanged Del Rey need to look no further than her most recent collaborative single: “Tough,” which features Quavo. Backed by an emotional, country-influenced guitar riff that carries vocals discussing everything from “the scuff on a pair of old leather boots” to “blue-collar, red-dirt attitude,” the music video flashes scenes of country roads, farm homes and other elements of Americana.
Del Rey previously told NME earlier this year that Lasso will contain songs that have “maybe less to say in terms of any self-revealing things like on Tunnel or Blue Bannisters or Chemtrails over the Country Club,” describing her new songwriting as “more melodic. Maybe more American Songbook style?”
Ultimately, the “Summertime Sadness” singer is aware of country music’s power in the industry today. “When I gave Jack Antonoff his award for best producer of the year, I said, ‘Welcome Nashville to Hollywood and Hollywood, welcome to Nashville because the music business has gone, gone country.’ And it went silent; 5000 people, dead silent,” she told the outlet. “Then the next week, we had three major artists announce big country albums.”
