LEEDS, ENGLAND - AUGUST 25: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Lana Del Rey performs on the Main Stage during day ...
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Everything We Know About Lana Del Rey’s 10th Album

The singer put 'Lasso' on hold because she “didn’t recognize myself in it.”

by Carson Mlnarik

Lana Del Rey isn’t in her country era anymore, but she might be in her “Southern gothic” one.

Over the past year, the singer has teased a 10th album tentatively called Lasso, leaning into Americana as opposed to the sprawling and experimental alt-pop sound of 2023’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. However, the singer walked back reports that she was “going country” in a new interview with Vogue Italia, revealing that, while the sound and even the title might be changing, it will still be pure Lana.

Although Lasso was originally set for a September 2024 release, Del Rey revealed she was reevaluating and reworking the record, which she started alongside producer Jack Antonoff based on recent travels between Mississippi and Arkansas. “It had too much ‘American storytelling flair,’” she explained. “I put it on hold because I didn’t recognize myself in it.”

While her label was “excited because the energy of the music of the album was meant to reflect [her] new life,” she hinted that the past few months have inspired her to chart a different path. “I might turn [the album] into something more ‘Southern gothic,’ like it was meant to be from the start, and less country,” she said.

It’s unclear whether or not the sonic departure will affect her plans to release two more singles “by the end of the year” as she promised Vogue in August, nor whether her charming covers of Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man” and John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” still serve as inspiration. That said, LDR10 may not be as dramatic of a change as fans anticipate, considering the singer told Vogue “many of [her] songs already are” in the vein of “classic country, American, or Southern Gothic production.”

Nevertheless, Del Rey assured Vogue Italia that she’s “entering a new era,” and the feeling is filling in the blanks for album 10. “It happened also with Chemtrails Over the Country Club and Blue Banisters, I made these albums by myself,” she said. “It has a lot to do with living in Oklahoma and feeling different. My eyes have seen so many open spaces, I’ve felt the wind, and that’s the kind of energy I want to talk about now.”

While the project formerly known as Lasso likely won’t arrive in 2024, there are a few details we can count on. Del Rey’s typically cinematic tunes are nearly a guarantee — “I think of my songs as if they were films,” she said — as is her trademark vulnerable lyricism. “People used to think my lyrics were problematic, but now every singer is spilling away their hearts,” she told Vogue Italia. “I think that’s a good thing. Maybe if I’d started now instead of 12 years ago, I'd be a real poet of pain and wouldn’t have suffered so much.”