Blue Banisters

“Blue Banisters” might lack the majesty of “Norman Fucking Rockwell” or the commercial sheen of “Born To Die,” but it offers a rare glimpse of an artist securing her legacy, one song at a time.

A lyrically strong album. [Jan 2022, p.82]

A set of drifting piano ballads that allow her rich and profane lyrics to hit home. [Jan 2022, p.22]

She has often made intimacy seem transactional. But here, it feels pure.

Banisters is far from the flashiest or most radio-friendly album Del Ray has produced, but rarely have fans gotten such crystalline, autobiographical work from the guarded star, who appeared to revel in the cool distance of her early albums. Now, she feels more present, and much closer to her music.

Del Rey’s claims that this is her most personal album yet are not quite true – it is far more elliptical and mysterious than it first appears.

It feels like Del Rey’s way of reminding us we still don’t know as much about her as we like to think. Blue Banisters hints, tantalisingly, that there is far more to reveal, while putting us firmly in our place. Make no mistake about it: Del Rey will do it all strictly on her own terms.

Though still world-weary as ever, Del Rey is, on Blue Banisters, for the first time diaristic and ad hoc. This album is a stunner.

By stripping back the sonic density of her previous work and taking its sweet time to unfold, Blue Banisters further fleshes out Del Rey’s increasingly vivid personal world.

‘Blue Banisters’ presents a collection of sun-kissed moments and hazy memories, free from judgement and firmly rooted in place.

There are moments on ‘Blue Banisters’ that don’t quite match up to the high bar Del Rey has set for her output. ... For the most part, though, ‘Blue Banisters’ reminds us that, beyond the social media fires and press backlashes, Del Rey is still as great as she’s always been.

Blue Banisters sprawls and elaborates past the point where we can place our own projections onto it. We know too much. But at its best, this music offers an even more rewarding thrill: It manages to entertain, enrapture, and even surprise because of how well we know Lana Del Rey—and how much there is still to learn.

While the days of Born to Die have long since passed, Lana Del Rey is still seeking paradise, closer now than ever as she turns her search inward, seemingly recognizing that paradise is ultimately found within the best of oneself. Still, if there is indeed a physical Arcadia to be revealed, it has not emerged in its entirety on Blue Banisters. That said, its intoxicating hints are enough to keep seekers thirsty.

The accumulation of these ideas can become monochromatic, meandering, and repetitive; apt background music for loitering in the bath. The most pleasurable and moving, even unsettling, moments on Blue Banisters arrive when Del Rey breaches, however gently, her own boundaries.

Yes, this will drive some away, and allow critics to easily point to its messiness (as if NFR wasn’t all over the place aesthetically – something Antonoff’s production homogeneity cleverly disguised – same with Lust for Life, or the underrated Born to Die), but it is also rewarding and surprising.

Much of Blue Banisters has this kind of casual, first-take energy, and functions more like a mixtape than an album as Del Rey cultivates a sustained atmosphere, but still makes room to try out new ideas and inject some unexpected moves into her established sound.

The whole record feels like a big sigh, a huge outpouring of personal tracks or long running loves that she’s finally able to release right. ... If there’s one criticism 'Blue Banisters' will draw, it’s that it’s the same old same old in its sonics. Playing the same chords and singing in her same tone, this might be one piano ballad too far for less lyrically-inclined listeners.

Ultimately, while her opus may lie elsewhere in her discography, Blue Banisters achieves precisely what it set out to - free from distractions, it’s a welcome insight into some of her most warm and introspective moments.

Blue Banisters could do with a sharper focus – some of these 15 songs are outtakes dating back years – and a hip-hopped-Morricone instrumental interlude feels like an incongruous eruption from her “gangster Nancy Sinatra” era. But it offers glimpses of vistas to be explored beyond Lana’s customary LA backdrops and a legacy already secure.