Stetsons at the ready â Lana Del Rey has confirmed that her next album is well underway, and will be taking things in a “country” direction.
Speaking at a pre-Grammys event, she also revealed that her new record is called Lasso, and will be released in September.
“If you can’t already tell by our award winners and our performers, the music business is going country,” she told the audience at Billboard’s pre-ceremony party. She added that in-demand producer Jack Antonoff, one of her go-to collaborators since 2019’s acclaimed Norman F**king Rockwell, is back on board for Lasso. The pair have been working together on the upcoming album in the US South for the past four years.
“We’re going country. It’s happening,” she said. “That’s why Jack has followed me to Muscle Shoals [in Alabama], Nashville, Mississippi, over the last four years.”
She also praised Antonoff, who releases music under his Bleachers moniker, and counts Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Del Rey as some of his closest creative collaborators. Del Rey revealed that she first met him at a pre-Grammys party in 2018, just days after a break-up, and they struck up a friendship right away.
After heading to the studio, the pair found that they were a great creative match, and wrote five songs in a single day. Del Rey called him “one in a million,” before adding that his “instincts are unique. And apparently award winning.”
Antonoff has won eight Grammys so far, and is nominated for a further six at 2024’s awards, including Producer of the Year. As well as Norman F**king Rockwell, he is a co-producer on Del Rey’s albums Chemtrails over the Country Club (2021) and 2023’s Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
This isn’t the first we’ve heard of Lana dipping her toes into all things country-western. Besides the increasing number of cowboy hats popping up on her social media accounts, there have also been a few other clues. Last month, the star shared a snippet of what appears to be a new song on Instagram, accompanied by the caption Henry, come on. “Henry can you please tell Lana to release the full song,” quipped one fan in the comments.
She also tagged Luke Laird in the caption. A country producer, he is best known for working with Kacey Musgraves and Carrie Underwood.
Late last year, Del Rey also shared a cover of John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads. “Think we’ve about covered all of those back roads in the last seven months and its really been somethin,” she wrote. “But there’s so much more to see.” She’s also covered Tammy Wynette‘s Stand By Your Man on multiple occasions, including at iconic honky-tonk spot Robert’s Western World in Nashville.
Lana Del Rey is set to headline Coachella later this year, so stay tuned for early previews come April.
