Perhaps the only thing Lana Del Rey is better at than making music is putting her foot in her mouth. The songwriter has come under fire for a tone-deaf comment she made about inclusivity following the unveiling of the artwork and tracklist for her forthcoming seventh album Chemtrails Over The Country Club.
Lana Del Rey took to Instagram today to share details of her forthcoming record that she announced back in 2019. Del Rey unveiled the gorgeous album cover art, a black-and-white image of a group of women lounging in a barn. It would have been perfect, divine and poetic had Lana not opted to attempt to legitimize the women of colour featured in the photo with a hamfisted Instagram comment.
“I also want to say that with everything going on this year! And no this was not intended-these are my best friends, since you are asking today,” she wrote. “And damn! As it happens when it comes to my amazing friends and this cover yes there are people of color on this records picture and that’s all I’ll say about that but thank you.”
Lana went on to speak about the women featured in the artwork, before executing a truly bizarre spiel about how she is friends with many women and people of colour.
“My beautiful friend Valerie from Del Rio Mexico, my dearest friend Alex and my gorgeous friend Dakota Rain as well as my sweetheart Tatiana. these are my friends this is my life,” she wrote.
“We are all a beautiful mix of everything- some more than others which is visible and celebrated in everything I do. In 11 years working I have always been extremely inclusive without even trying to. My best friends are rappers my boyfriends have been rappers.”
She continued, “My dearest friends have been from all over the place, so before you make comments again about a WOC/POC issue, I’m not the one storming the capital, I’m literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven. Respect it.”
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Lana Del Rey copped widespread backlash after the album’s initial announcement back in May last year when she accompanied the news of her Norman Fucking Rockwell! follow-up with a spiel that posed a “question for the culture.”
Within the essay-length announcement, Lana Del Rey responded to criticism that she glamourises abusive relationships by highlighting that artists like “Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyonce,” have all reached number one “with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating etc.”
“With all of the topics women are finally allowed to explore I just want to say over the last ten years I think it’s pathetic that my minor lyrical exploration detailing my sometimes submissive or passive roles in my relationships has often made people say I’ve set women back hundreds of years,” she wrote. Lana’s comments were heavily condemned due to the nature of her aiming her critique at almost exclusively women of colour.
Chemtrails Over the Country Club was initially slated to arrive in September last year, however the coronavirus pandemic delayed its release til 2021. You can find the album artwork and tracklist below.
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Chemtrails Over the Country Club:
1. ‘White Dress’
2. ‘Chemtrails Over the Country Club’
3. ‘Tulsa Jesus Freak’
4. ‘Let Me Love You Like a Woman’
5. ‘Wild at Heart’
6. ‘Dark But Just a Game’
7. ‘Not All Who Wander Are Lost’
8. ‘Yosemite’
9. ‘Breaking Up Slowly’
10. ‘Dance Till We Die’
11. ‘For Free’
