Lana Del Rey’s newest album “Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard” is a deep exploration of family, legacy, and religion. Similar to her second most recent album, “Blue Banisters,” DYKTATUOB is full of slow and melodic ballads. However, it also boasts several faster-paced songs to break up the energy.

Looking at Lana Del Rey’s discography over the past decade, it’s clear that her music has followed her in both maturity and theme. Her first album, “Born to Die” is full of high-energy, youthful songs mostly talking about partying and love. While “Born to Die” is certainly a fantastic album, it can’t hold a candle to DYKTATUOB both musically and lyrically.

In my opinion, this whole album is lyrically amazing. It is littered with meaning and metaphors, showing how Rey has progressed through the years. These songs also explore dark areas of her life and things that happened to her that made her who she is today. She presents these things to us surrounded by beautiful music to show not only how she has grown, but also how she is choosing to live her life in the future.

The first song on the album, “The Grants” explores the theme of death and what you bring with you when you die. It opens with a choir of women singing the main chorus of the song “I’m gonna take mine of you with me.” Not only is this a great opening to the album, but it also reminds one of family and togetherness. Additionally in the song, Rey says that when she dies, she wants to take the memories of her family, the Grants, with her (Rey’s real name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant.) This is an emotional song about not only family but legacy. She then explains how this part of her has been forgotten and forgone in the title track of the album as well.

In “Fingertips,” Rey is looking toward the future and also about what will happen later on in her life. She talks about her family and how they should stop smoking. She wonders if one day she will have a child of her own, as she explores her trauma with her family and how it has affected her. Rey repeatedly references the normality of death, about how one is expected to go on after a tragedy has happened to their loved ones and how she only gets “two seconds to be me.”

This album also has a somewhat religious context, with both the first interlude “Judah Smith Interlude” and the Father John Misty feature, as well as the lyrics in several of the songs. The “Judah Smith Interlude” is a recording of the megachurch pastor, Judah Smith, layered with this haunting piano and laughter from the people recording it. The sermon he is delivering is about living a life dominated by love, not lust and somewhat summarizes the album in that simple message.

There are three more upbeat songs on this album that are much more reminiscent of early Lana than others. “A&W,” “Peppers,” and “Taco Truck x VB” are all more fast-paced than others on this album, yet still explore deep topics. “A&W” in particular, although going viral on TikTok because of its melody, explores (once again) Rey’s family legacy and how she wants to move on from the reputation of her youth. She mentions “it’s not about having someone to love me anymore, this is the experience of bein’ an American,” which emphasizes that she cannot escape this reputation, that it plagues her and how it affects how others treat her.

One of the more surprising songs of the album was “Let The Light In ft. Father John Misty.” It doesn’t necessarily stick out from the majority of songs in the album, but its melody stands out as one of the bests. It’s also unique because of the feature; although Misty’s voice contrasts with Rey’s, it all blends together beautifully in the song.

The final song of the album “Taco Truck x VB” features one of Reys most beloved songs off of the album “Norman F***king Rockwell”: “Venice b***h.” This is a spectacular way to close off the album, showing that although Rey wants to grow from her past, she also appreciates it and acknowledges its influence on her.

To say this album is a masterpiece is the understatement of the century. Words cannot describe the pure joy I felt listening to it at 12 a.m. on a Friday night. I think if I were to write everything I had to say about this album, my keyboard would break. I look forward to the future of Lana Del Rey and if this album indicates what that may be like, I truly think she might go down as one of the best musicians of all time.