Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd - Post-Release Discussion Thread + Poll

[Candy Necklace 4,046]

Can’t believe it’s been a year, where has time gone!!  It might sound cliche to say but this came out at the perfect time for me (I said the same thing for every other album).  Love every song on it but right now my favorite is probably Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep sea fishing or The Grants 

[Golden Hour 4,971]

Happy anniversary Tunnie! What a beautifully complex, introspective, and personal album. Honored to even have Lana choose to share these songs with us. Another beautiful addition to her discography, an instant classic. 

[spinmeround 1,175]

 

12 hours ago, pin up galore said:

I find it relieving how good this album is cause it allows me to comfortably admit that both COCC and Blue Banisters were both letdowns and I don’t really find myself going back to them, Blue Banisters less than Chemtrails, and still I deadass have bad associations with both eras cause of how Lana wanted to act during them  like Blue Banisters really does just reek of her being butthurt over her image and I think the themes that she wanted to discuss on COCC and Blue Banisters are done MUCH better on Ocean Blvd. I think mainly due to her not fucking herself over with imaginary deadlines she wanted to hold herself accountable to  But neway Ocean Blvd really was the next BIG lana album we got after NFR! and in many ways I consider this album the true successor to Norman and better than Norman YUP  I remember BOZ describing it along the lines of a diary of a woman who’s lost in life, and I feel like that really describes how the album reads especially with how many different sounds there are and how truthfully blunt she is with us for the first time about her personal life. I think as a longterm fan this album is the most satisfying listen because of how deep and forreal she gets mixed with her fun “im so crazy 🤪” moments. This album is definitely up in my top 3 Lana albums with Honeymoon and Ultraviolence like she’s just that girl.

Track by track:

The Grants:

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I remember this being probably my least fav single b4 release but within context of the album this song just HITS different, and definitely grew on me since release I can’t recall another Lana song that has moved me to tears recently besides A&W. The idea of your memories being the only thing our souls take with us after we pass is really powerful and instantly puts me in a mood. And it seems like the “do you think about Heaven? Do you think about me?” Starts to open up the theme of her wanting a man thats gonna stay, like on Kintsugi when she’s like “you think about who would be with you, then there’s Donoghue”  I love when albums have these connecting ideas between tracks. Neways I really love this track now she has so many INSANE openers its hard to decide where to rank it its like I wanna rank it high but when they’re all classics I think there’s a certain threshold where two songs are too good to be ranked against one another

DYKTTATUOB:

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WHOOOOOOOOOOO we all remember where we were when this came out. I still remember when the demo snippet leaked and just hearing the title “There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.” was crazyyyyyy and the full title was even crazier than the Pearl Watch Me on Ring a Bell Psycho Lifeguard is just batshit I love her so much who else can come up with word salad like ha  with someone with like 2 friends, I also feel like the tunnel under Ocean Blvd. waiting to be forgotten about  and what a powerful statement for her to be like NO I deserve to be remembered. The writing on this song is just tew good the Harry Nilsson line? How tf does she come up with that Ive never heard a writer point to a specific timestamp of a song to describe how she’s feeling in a song buts its still so relatable to have certain moments in our favorite songs that strike us emotionally for different reasons and for her to conceptualize that on this song is so wild. I love how this song builds up to the end it kinda has that same windy quality that COCC title track has seeing this live was so good and I think its badass as fuck as an album title when it came up at the Grammys next to all the other nominee’s names it was just like look at the level of artistry? Bitches be too scared to name their album anything longer than 3 words

Sweet:

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One of my favorite modern Lana ballads it took me a second to get it but there was a period of time in like August-September when I played this song CONSTANTLY in my car like I was obsessed. And rightfully so this song is gorgeous I mean look at her. The wait for life melody sample is so good such a timeless and haunting melody and I love how this song is just her yearning for that good ol’ off the grid up in the pines not all those who wander are lost untamed small town life and I get it. I think the marathons in Long Beach by the sea line is a lil weird still like I don’t know Lana but if there’s one thing I doubt she likes to do its run  and like period girl its the worst form of cardio

A&W:

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It’s like what do I even say about this song that hasn’t been said before like this is literally the best song to be released in the 2020’s EASILY I’m still not over this. I remember driving home from the gym listening to this for the first time and I just barely made it out the parking lot before I started crying at the “I say I live in Rosemead, really I’m at the Ramada” line because this song reached a new level of good fucking food that I feared she lost the ability to make again. And going back to the beginning the intro with that guitar and piano Is one of my favorite intros to a Lana song ever it’s so fucking moody!!! Pitchfork said A&W is like a storm cloud that looms over DYKTTATUOB and that is so fucking true like there may be sadder songs on the record but the haunting and bleak atmosphere that she paints in these verses is crazyyyyy mixed with the brain rot trap at the end like this is some real ass esoteric Lynchian virgin suicides shit right here

Judah Smith Interlude:

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I think a lot of fans, especially the younger and TikTok ones, failed to stop and think for maybe 30 seconds about why Lana put this track in the record and it makes me disappointed because even in reaction videos I’ve watched where the person live-streamed themselves listening to the record, this track rolls around and everyone in the chat is spamming SKIP! Which instantly puts this negative impression on the person and they never get to have a deeper discussion about the track cause they go into thinking its shit and try to move on as fast as possible and its like damn  cause like someone else said A&W - Judah Smith - Candy Necklace is the most Lynchian thing she’s done and its not even like the pastors message is anything bad a lot of y’all need his advice honestly  and especially the last three lines “I used to think my preaching was mostly about you, an you’re not gonna like this but I’m gonna tell you the truth, I’ve discovered my preaching is mostly about me” is like the MOST VBBOTG era Lana shit ever Iike bitches wanna do the most over this interlude when this is the same girl that wrote “my life is my poetry, my love making is my legacy”

Candy Necklace (ft. Jon Batiste)

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Imagine if this song WAS replaced with Zodiac and Jon Batiste Interlude was his only feature and our first snippet of the album was scrapped like that would’ve been weird af honestly. Neways I go through phases with this song where I play it a ton then forget about it for a lil but it’s like a mid tier lana song I loveeee the sitting on the sofa feeling super suicidal! Hate to say the word but hand on the Bible I do, feel like its you, the one who’s bringing me down” like WOW I love how it flows and I love how she’s like yeah you make me wanna kill myself so what? AND the lore with her posting all those photos on the sofa in Jack Donoghue’s apartment like wowww she’s so life imitates art and I think opens the door to showing how her relationship with him is like? and I love Jon Batiste at the end their voices go together very well it reminds me of Riverside with his low ass voice

Jon Batiste Interlude:

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OKAYYYY avant garde queen! This is always a fun listen I never listen to this except when playing the whole album but there are some GORGEOUS melodies from Lana on this it makes me want an actual track inspired by this. i love his jumpscare vocals and how the productions builds into the crashy wave like swells its just a very pretty track not much to say

Kintsugi/Fingertips:

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I pretend I do not have trauma. I do have trauma. Im gonna talk about these together because in my mind these are both two sides of one 12 minute trauma dump and holy fucking shit are these two songs just so emotional. She’s never been this unfiltered and forreal before on a song and for her to have two back to back on one album is very fulfilling to hear as someone who’s been a fan for so long. She honors these people she’s lost so beautifully on these tracks while still filling out these gaps we had in her pre-fame life and describing why certain things in her life happened like the boarding school/Spain trip, her mom, and her uncle like I just know these two song had to have been hard to write let alone release for everyone to hear and im proud of her being comfortable enough to finally set the record straight on these things. The opening lines to fingertips that she revealed in W mag are just tew good as well “as I look back, tracing fingertips over plastic bags, thinking I wish I could extrapolate some small intention, or maybe just get your attention, for a minute or two” and people say Taylor Swift is the best female writer of our generation  like look at the fucking material. Also I had never heard of telomeres before Lana but since then ive heard of them everywhere like in Emergency Intercom and stuff and shits crazy! We live in a weird world

Paris, Texas:

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THANK YOU TIKTOK and thank you to whoever first said it sounds like a Coraline song cause I know a lotta white bitches got put onto this song by that one sentence alone. And they were right it def gives Coraline I like that it seems Lana took SYML’s song title “I Wanted To Leave” as inspiration when writing the lyrics I think its cool that her version still keeps the original idea of the song intact while still making it her own  Love the Venice, California! Backing vocals when she talks about going home very cute. It’s a pretty simple song I feel like there’s not much to talk about lmao she’s good tho!

GPSOTSOMFWHDSF:

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Like HOLY FUCKING SHIT. What a song. the true successor to Norman’s sound this song feels so monumental. The way her vocals just SOAR in with the three white butterflies lines it was so off putting my first listen I never thought of her opening a song with song strong vocals like that  and nawt this one song addressing her thoughts on the critics/general publics opinions and beliefs about her better than she was able to articulate on COCC/Blue Banisters combined like wow the benefits of giving yourself time to get your thoughts together and and plan the album before setting a deadline. Her Alan’s Moritsette moment before the second chorus that just HITSSSSSSSS the way the song just opens up with those distorted saxophone?, synths?, mellotron? Probably all 3? Come in and it sounds like the fucking titanic is creaking by while the song is playing like wowwwwww I saw the vision she seems so enlightened and triumphant on this song its one of my favorites

Let The Light In (ft. Father John Misty)

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YUPPPPPPPP yup. instant classic like when I hope Lana mentioned making simpler songs for Lasso she meant shit like THIS because THIS. this is music. my new favorite “people pleaser” Lana song I think its literally impossible to dislike this track we need to start its campaign to be added to the national registry YUP  the melody is perfection so many catchy moments it makes sense why TikTok ate it up the “cause I love to love to love to love you” is tewwww good their vocals sound great together I think its best that on FJM/Lana collabs they don’t write their own verses and instead just do vocals  they both have great pen game but I think next to one another on the same song just wouldn’t work too well lmao. But this is just incredible it never gets old

Margaret (ft. Bleachers)

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This is probably my least fav non-interlude track on this album and I feel confident saying that because I still really like this song. Its obviously not taking itself seriously and doesn’t but its just bursting at the seems with heart and genuine love for Jack and Margaret and the idea of them making this song together and her releasing then performing it at their wedding is just tew muchhhh im emo now. Its so sweet of her to make this and AGAIN with the simple catchy ass “when you know you know, when you know you know” that TikTok ate up her success with this album on that app is probably the wildest part of this album. “I mean join the party 🤪, by the way, the party’s December 18th” is too corny to work as well as it does in the song

Fishtail

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This and Peppers were the only two songs that I heard the LQ leak of before I listened on release day and what a wild two songs to hear before release I wasn’t really sure what to think of either  and I did not get this song for a WHILE after release this was prob the last one for me to come around to but once I realized she captured that perfect Miss Daytona Collection 2007/2008 Unreleased Pin Up galore - 1949 - Trash Magic vibe like the “palm trees in black and white reference???” CRAZYYY SHES CRAZYYY I fell in love with this song and ive been obsessed ever since like this climbed all the way from like 12-13 on my ranking to like top 6 the beat drop HITS its got this kinda early 2000s metro noir vibe LMAO I dont know how else I would describe it this song is very purple to me

Peppers (ft. Tommy Genesis)

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Listening to this in the LQ leak was crazy I could barely hear her vocals and the sample coming in sounded so trippy and weird and it still does in HQ but like in a way that makes sense? This song is so fucking crazy idk how Lana even began putting it together but this is like top 2 on this album EASILY. Some of my fav lyrics on the album I love the edgy more character based lyrics it reminds me of BTD with the jackets and knives and bikes. Even though its surface level and kinda brain rot she does it so well and in a way no other pop girl has the range to do tbh. The covid line is one for the history books too  And the messy ass ending with the wipeout convo and surf vibes its just tew good

Taco Truck x VB:

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Lana proving once again that bitches be wack but she’s wacker. Bitches be crazy but she’s crazier. Bitches be wild but she’s wilder. Love the no fucks given performance at the beginning “pass me my vape im feeling sick I need to take a puff” again another instantly classic lana line for the books. The chorus is so good here too I can’t believe she actually canonized Lanita as her name in this song like that she’s too much sometimes  I wasn’t expecting the VB remix to sound the way it does based on what the leakers were saying but now that we’ve had the track for a year ive come around to it and it pretty vibey  I definitely like it as a closure to the record like we went through some deep ass shit like 20 minutes ago but like is crazyyyyy

Whew that was a lot of writing and most of it is probably worded poorly but idc lmao 

i loved hearing your input, you're very well spoken - you should totally write like poetry or a book! 

[PARADIXO 31,606]

 

Ocean Blvd Turns 1: A Classic in the Making

Lana Del Rey released her ninth studio album Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd one year ago, on March 24, 2023.

Opening with “The Grants”, a bluesy gospel track, Lana sets the tone for the project: heavy on piano, spiritual, deeply emotive, connected to nature and the more human side of things, and also constantly metaphysical – it’s a classic conversation on life and death, less mythical than her previous style and more intimate or confessional. She worries about her own mortality and the legacy she’ll leave behind, be it a family or a prolific music career. She sings about her own personal life, yet effectively connects with the audience through universal emotions or situations, such as dealing with the loss of a relative or loved one. The title track explores loneliness and insecurity, comparing herself with a Beaux Arts tunnel in Long Beach that was once popular among locals and tourists in the 30s and 40s and then sealed and forgotten a few decades later. The orchestral soft rock number is inspired by Harry Nilsson’s “Don’t Forget Me” and even states that she “[wishes] to have a friend like [Nilsson]”, in what’s arguably the song’s most heartbreaking moment, where Lana and the choir, powered by increasingly intense guitars and strings, sing like it’s the end of the world – “Don’t forget me / Like the tunnel under Ocean Boulevard.” Things soften up a bit with “Sweet”, a simpler piano track featuring the most romantic moment on the entire album; she’s “in the woods somewhere” with her lover, or alone thinking of him, wondering – 
 

Quote

“What you doing with your life?
Do you think about it?
Do you contemplate where we came from?
Lately we’ve been making out a lot, not talking about the stuff that’s at the very heart of things
Do you want children? Do you want to marry me?
Do you want to run marathons in Long Beach by sea?
I’ve got things to do like nothing at all; I want to do them with you
Do you want to do them with me?”

These three songs mark the start of the tunnel; before entering, one might be frightened, unsure about what could be waiting in the dark. “A&W”, the fourth track, brings in some of that darkness. Discussing womanhood in ways Lana has never explored before, the 7-minute piece deals with innocence, her mother, physical integrity, casual sex, giving up on monogamy and the ideal of love, toxic relationships, drug use and even sexual assault; “This is the experience of being an American whore,” she sums up. To make things even more disturbing, the first half of the song is an eerie psychedelic folk composition featuring a chromatic mediant progression (an unusual harmony system often used in jazz and old film scores) played on a cold piano and a thick, raw-sounding 12-string acoustic guitar. It’s straight out of a psychological horror film where Radiohead and Nirvana are part of the tracklist. The song gets deeper and darker until it collapses and deconstructs itself -- “If I told you that I was raped / Do you really think that anybody would think I didn’t ask for it? / I didn’t ask for it / I won’t testify / Already fucked up my story,” she confronts before multiple layers of synthesizers, sound effects, kicks, snares and sub-bass clash with each other, transforming the track in a hard-hitting East Coast hip hop anthem – “I already lost my mind,” she sings, playful yet unnerving. The darkness of the tunnel is translated into complex compositional choices; the already experimental “A&W” is followed by a 4-minute psychedelic piece where a suspenseful electric guitar accompanies a sermon by Hollywood pastor Judah Smith and some laughter and chattering by Lana. The unexpected track, simply titled “Judah Smith Interlude”, delves further into marriage, monogamy, morality, love and lust. 

“Candy Necklace”, featuring piano and vocals by Jon Batiste, is a somber, cacophonous ballad where Lana, through abstract lyricism, discusses the tragic side of fame and getting into the entertainment industry. In its 10-minute, metatextual short film, she embodies Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Short and Veronica Lake, women who “changed their name, changed their hair” and “fell into these different snakeholes,” as she explains in the video. As we discussed earlier, much of Ocean Blvd is about legacy and death, and Lana decides to honor women who were tricked into the industry and later oppressed and censored by men. “Candy Necklace” also connects with “Patent Leather Do-Over”, a poem Lana shared in 2020.
 

Quote

“Sylvia, Marilyn, Violet, Diana,
All of my kind women who came before me, blonde.
I dyed my hair black for you,
I turned my back on that black pond – 
I swear I won't stop until I'm dead.”

The song is followed by “Jon Batiste Interlude”, an acid jazz/space rock improvisation between Lana and Batiste, reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig In the Sky”. The topic of death reaches a highly sensitive spot with “Kintsugi” and “Fingertips”, arguably Lana’s most intimate revelations to date. In the former, which sounds like it was recorded in one take, Lana discusses the loss of her uncle, grandfather and grandmother, her struggle with facing death and funerals and how she found comfort in the rest of her family. “Fingertips”, in the other hand, is the ultimate fear of death song. It features whispery vocals, strings and organ and was written in “automatic singing” style, resulting in a loose composition where the focus is on words rather than structure or melody. She declares her “Father, Sister, Brother” as a Holy Trinity, she’s interested in the development of DNA repair to attain immortality and sadly embraces the idea of not having children. She mentions her dependency for “the cocktail of things that twist neurons inside,” a suicide attempt and the death of her first boyfriend back in Lake Placid. She also reveals more details on her uncle’s passing (“Hung himself real high / In the National Park sky”) and how she found out only hours before a concert; also, how bad is her relationship with her mother, to the point of even censoring the word –

 

Quote

“Caroline, what kind of mother was she to say I'd end up in institutions?
All I wanted to do was kiss Aaron Greene and sit by the lake,
Twisting lime into the drinks that they made,
Have a baby at sixteen in the town I was born in, and die.
Aaron ended up dead and not me.
What the fuck's wrong in your head to send me away, never to come back?
Exotic places and people don't take the place of being your child;
I give myself two seconds to cry.”

“Paris, Texas” continues the story of how she was sent away by her mother due to alcoholism. It’s a cinematic, ethereal ballad about intuition, protecting yourself and finding your own safe place which, in Lana’s case, was “Venice, California,” as she whispers in the outro. “Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep sea fishing” is an intense, nautical-themed post-rock song, an ode to her father and his late father and how they provide her strength and direction when it comes to her career and her place in the public eye.
Love is back with “Let the Light In”, arguably the album’s biggest hit. A country rock collaboration with Father John Misty, the singer asks her lover to quit secrecy and settle down with her. “Margaret” is a waltzy dream pop number, dedicated to her friends Jack Antonoff (who sings on the track) and Margaret Qualley, who got married last year. The song, romantic as it gets, briefly narrates how the couple met and discusses the idea of love at first sight, capsuled in a lovely and catchy “When you know, you know.” The song finds Lana in a very positive light, celebrating her friends’ story and wishing for a similar experience – “And if you don’t know / Maybe tomorrow you’ll know,” she harmonizes, a message to the listener but also most likely for herself, as we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The final section of the album, often described by fans and critics as the credits at the end of a movie, finds Lana in a humorous, sensual and laid back attitude. The music takes an unexpected turn, a mixture of humid trap beats and surf rock instrumentation. “Fishtail” exposes a neglectful lover, while “Peppers” is a wild ode to love during the pandemic. Lana gets a bit more confrontational on closing track “Taco Truck x VB”. She raises a middle finger to the critics, while sampling “Venice Bitch” from 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell!, the album that changed the critics’ perspective on her and turned her into one of the most acclaimed artists of our time. Lana reminds us that no matter what people say, she’ll do whatever she wants, always keeping in mind who was there for her and who tried to bring her down.

Overall, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is a dense and complex piece of music where the audience gets to experience an intimate, raw take on death, family bonds, emotions and music. It’s her most artistic and theatrical effort, where Lana and her musicians perfectly balanced light, spiritual and ethereal moments with more tense, somber and dramatic compositions. She reaches and undeniable level of songwriting, gaining new respect as one of the most interesting, unique and prolific songwriters of the century – if that’s the legacy she was aiming to cement, she definitely made it.

 

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THANK YOU Ocean Blvd, my favorite Lana album and one of my favorite albums OF ALL TIME.

[honeymoon is alive 15,113]

this was beautiful!!! @PARADIXO

came here to say that anne hathaway was listening to fingertips while doing the photoshoot for her vanity fair magazine cover! she’s a true stan 

[Xenoblade 3 2,065]

This is sending me .

https://x.com/popcrave/status/1772394376892690503?s=61

 

A&W video that could have been

https://x.com/CinamonSluh/status/1772385007073480752?s=20

 

[GeminiLanaFan 45,798]

With OB, Lana has entered the rare and elusive state of transcending her own legend to become musical mythology 

its out of this world and one of her best. 

[bluechemtrails 22,915]

12 hours ago, Xenoblade 3 said:

This is sending me .

https://x.com/popcrave/status/1772394376892690503?s=61

 

A&W video that could have been

https://x.com/CinamonSluh/status/1772385007073480752?s=20

 

the spotify reply

[Ocean Boulevard 39,038]

I know I'm a week late but happy first year anniversary to this amazing album It was great the first time I heard it but as the time went on I realized how genius and brilliant this album really is My favorite Lana album along with Honeymoon It's actually hard to even pick a top 5 because there are so many tracks I love so deeply. Also I managed to finally drive to the sea in the anniversary week and listened to DYKTTATUOB there. It was amazing and listening to Grandfather at the sea was one of the most beautiful moments in my life

Tbh this became a no skip album for me, I even love the interludes and Margaret grow so much on me

I'm not that smart but I have things to say

[IanadeIrey 60,717]

I’m late to the one year anniversary but this album is my absolute favourite - I put it on all the time that it’s become a part of me 🩵. 

[Liz Taylor Blues 17,616]

1 hour ago, IanadeIrey said:

I’m late to the one year anniversary but this album is my absolute favourite - I put it on all the time that it’s become a part of me 🩵. 

its so deep and powerful and there's so many layers its murky and haunting like the ocean. I love it so much

[PARADIXO 31,606]

10 hours ago, IanadeIrey said:

I’m late to the one year anniversary but this album is my absolute favourite - I put it on all the time that it’s become a part of me 🩵. 

 

Same here. I feel like this is the album my soul was waiting for her to make and she finally did and now it's part of me. 

[Embach 21,109]

FEW DAYS AGO THIS BRILLIANT AND AMAZING ART OF A MASTERPIECE REACHED ONE BILLION STREAMS ON SPOTIFY! CONGRATULATIONS, DEAREST OCEAN BOULEVARD, YOU FUCKING DESERVED IT!!!!!

[honeymoon is alive 15,113]

5 hours ago, Embach said:

FEW DAYS AGO THIS BRILLIANT AND AMAZING ART OF A MASTERPIECE REACHED ONE BILLION STREAMS ON SPOTIFY! CONGRATULATIONS, DEAREST OCEAN BOULEVARD, YOU FUCKING DESERVED IT!!!!!

YASSSSS and it was the fastest to achieve this milestone! oh ocean blvd the hit that you are… 

[DemonMic2003 3,143]

Deserved a Grammy #grammysareoverparty

[Make me your Dream Life 83,157]

I'm wondering if she'll ever do a smaller, more intimate studio session with The Grants and the title track. She really loves the songs, and I'm wondering if she'll ever preserve them in this kinda way. 

[Wtauf 390]

The way this album still feels so fresh after more than a year after release is amazing. Ocean Blvd u will always be famous

[Pink Flamingo 16,097]

the title track is so beautiful, this song has so many layers, the lyrics are beautiful, easily one of her best songs.

[ulttraviolenncee 1,720]

8 hours ago, Wtauf said:

The way this album still feels so fresh after more than a year after release is amazing. Ocean Blvd u will always be famous

all lana albums seems so ahead of its time like look how uv and btd aged well, ocean blvd will easily be a classic in some years

[Churchome Rep 3,205]

In light of Taylor’s new record and the following Jack Antonoff discourse…let the record reflect that there are only like 3 songs he solo produced. Paris, Texas, Grandfather, and probably? Fishtail were sampled instrumentals from other artists