Chemtrails Over The Country Club by Lana Del Rey // 5 Year Anniversary Album Review, Vinyl Collection + Signed CD

Chemtrails Over The Country Club is a true gem in Lana Del Rey's discography and the first of two pandemic-era records she released in 2021, with Blue Banisters following later that year. These sister albums are sandwiched between two of Lana's most beloved and critically acclaimed releases thus far, Norman Fucking Rockwell! in 2019 and Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd in 2023. Chemtrails stands as an underrated chapter for Lana between those two masterpieces, giving a glimpse into the direction she would continue to take with future releases.

It features some of her most diaristic writing yet, and is quintessentially Lana in the most personal way possible. The album strips back any persona or grandiosity that defined parts of her earlier catalog, leaving something understated, dreamy, and deeply intimate. Sonically, it is largely rooted in the traditional sounds of 1960's and 70's Laurel Canyon folk music, highly reminiscent of Joni Mitchell's work from that time. In many ways, it feels like Lana's own take on Ladies of the Canyon, even down to the imagery used across the visuals for the record. There is a clear emphasis on the communal feminine connections and friendships that she found in her life at the time, which the art direction beautifully reflects.

To make those parallels even more pertinent, Lana covers Joni's classic "For Free" as the closing track of this album, which also features Zella Day and Weyes Blood as well. It embodies the ethos of this record in such a beautiful way and is deeply representative of Lana's ongoing passion for the music she makes and what it means for her at this stage of her life and career. It also brings the narrative full circle from where she begins on "White Dress", which is a crucial song in understanding who Lana is as an artist in every sense of the word.

The rest of the album features some of her most personal and evocative songwriting to date, reflective of the why she is who she is, as well as the family, friends and influences that shaped her. It is shaped by her own history and of the people closest to her. She has continued to expand upon these themes with even more detail on songs like "Sweet Carolina", "The Grants", and "Textbook", on future releases, but the intimate nature of which she writes from on this album is also reflected across Chemtrails. The diaristic, familial portraits that she paints through the music is also tied into the visuals of the record in such a special way as well, as the photoshoots and music videos prominently feature her sister, brother, friends, and longtime bandmates throughout.

Lyrically, she continues to carry the heavy Americana influences that has defined much of her music from the very start. It is a theme that she has continually pulled from over the years, but it has also evolved with her too. The "candle in the wind" motif that appears across multiple songs ties into the album's larger emotional arc too, as she sings of finding her independence and identity in a really beautiful way. The longing for reinvention and escapism is also especially prevalent. Her desire to start over, move away from California, find love and start a family also deepen the overall narrative of Chemtrails.

She made the entirety of the album with frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, with the exception of "Yosemite", which was produced with Rick Nowels and originally written during the Ultraviolence sessions. The album feels like a natural evolution of the sound Lana and Jack developed on Norman Fucking Rockwell! while also pushing her work forward, offering a glimpse into the style she would continue to explore in the years that followed. In many ways, Chemtrails Over The Country Club set the stage for much of the music that came after it. Without this record, we wouldn't have had so much of the work she has created in the five+ years since, serving as the bridge for so many of her subsequent artistic strides.

The opening track, "White Dress", takes the listener all the way back to the very beginning, which is crucial to understanding the perspective she then writes from throughout the rest of the album - and in many ways, her entire discography. She is able to write songs like "Dark But Just A Game", "Wild At Heart" and "Not All Who Wander Are Lost", among others, because of the vantage point "White Dress" as the opener establishes. It feels like a confessional look back at her origin story, sung in not much more than a whisper throughout most of it. On "White Dress", Lana recalls her days singing in the streets and working the nightshift as a waitress at nineteen years old, with all the success and everything she has now existing only as her wildest dreams at the time. "Look how I do this, look how I got this," she wistfully reflects in the chorus.

The song also brings forward some of her most important reflections on fame as well, now able to look back on her life with a sense of clarity, realizing that she truly did get everything she once dreamed of, but is still grounded in a sense of nostalgia for the young woman she was back then and the simpler life she could have led instead. "We were talking about life, we were sitting outside 'til dawn, but I would still go back, if I could do it all again, I thought," she sings in the bridge. "Because it made me feel, made me feel like a god" - which then is later repeated in the outro with the added, "It kinda makes me feel, like maybe I was better off".

The title track, "Chemtrails Over The Country Club" further romanticizes the idea of living a simple life, but one that is still drenched in an innate sense of glamour within it. It is such a dreamy song, one that sets the tone for so much of the music that follows on this album, while still standing out as one of the most polished and fully-realized tracks on Chemtrails. She sings of wearing jewels in the country club swimming pool with her sister, turquoise and sports cars, and also about dreaming of a traditional, suburban, idyllic life at the same time.

"Washing my hair, doing the laundry, late night TV, I want you on me like when we were kids under chemtrails and country clubs," she sings in the bridge. "It's never too late, baby, so don't give up". That lyric captures the heart of the song so beautifully, with her longing for simplicity and the hopefulness that she can return to that pure state of being soon.

"Dance Till We Die" also stands out as one of the most important narrative moments of the record. Closing out the album before her cover of "For Free", this song truly serves as a celebration of the community she has built around herself, both in her personal life and in the music industry. In many ways, it feels like the entire album is building to that moment.

"I'm covering Joni and I'm dancing with Joan, Stevie is calling on the telephone, Court almost burnt down my home, but God, it feels good not to be alone," she sings in the opening lines. The way Lana reflects on the significance of being influenced by artists like Joan Baez, Stevie Nicks, and Courtney Love, to now having close friendships and creative connections with them is beautifully captured. "Troubled by my circumstancе, burdened by the wеight of fame," she sings in one of the most introspective and personally revealing lyrics of the second verse. "Clementine's not just a fruit, it's my daughter's chosen name".

The rest of the song carries the listener through her night out dancing the Afro‑Caribbean two‑step with Joan while on tour in San Francisco, grounding the track in the memory of that night. "And we won't say when, we won't ask why, we won't stop dancin' 'til we die, we'll keep walkin' on the sunny side and we won't stop dancin' 'til we die," she sings in the final lines. "Dance Till We Die" becomes a beautiful representation of the self‑discovery and personal growth she experienced throughout the making of this album and the community she surrounded herself with in the process.

Alongside the five year anniversary of Chemtrails Over the Country Club, it felt like the perfect time to highlight my collection of this album on vinyl. I have four copies of it, which is definitely more than I would typically buy for any other album, but I loved the distinct aesthetics each one has and the different ways they represent the record. They are also among my very favorites in my entire collection.

There were a few different cover variants available, and I'm always a sucker for that, especially because I love the art direction of this era and how each cover embodies a different tone of the album. The first is the indie‑exclusive cream‑yellow pressing with the standard cover, which is definitely my favorite. I love all of the alternative covers and variants, and how, in their own ways, they each capture the album's sound in a visual format. With that being said, I will always have a soft spot for the joyous feeling that the original photo evokes.

I also love the photo used on the Target exclusive pressing, which definitely had potential to be a fantastic option as the standard album cover. I have the very first pressing they made, which is an opaque bright red. The subsequent represses ended up being a totally different shade, so this actually became a more unique variation of this edition than initially expected.

I also have the picture disc, which was the Spotify exclusive variant sold on her webstore. In some ways the photo feels similar to the standard album cover, but it puts even more emphasis on the Americana vibe of the music, as well as her family and collaborators. In addition to Lana, her siblings Chuck and Charlie, along with collaborators Zella Day, Weyes Blood, and Nikki Lane are all featured. It is a perfect reflection of the friends, family, and ranch imagery that shape the heart of this album.

Another favorite is the Record Store Day exclusive translucent blue variant, sold only at indie record stores on Black Friday 2021 and was limited to 15,000 copies worldwide. I love the cover of this edition too, which features Lana posing next to a wolf on the set of the "Chemtrails Over the Country Club" music video. That is such an incredible video with so many stunning shots.

Lastly, the very special signed CD! This is the only signed Lana item in my collection, and it's truly one of the most cherished pieces I own, not just among my Lana collection, but across my entire collection of signed music items.

Chemtrails Over The Country Club was also one of the earliest album reviews I ever wrote back in 2021, and for many years it was one of the most popular posts on my blog. It will always hold a special place in my heart for that reason. In that time, it has been such a fulfilling experience to continue growing and expanding my music coverage with each passing year. It all started with the albums that spoke to me on a deeper level and the ones I felt I needed to tell someone about in detail, in the way I do with my reviews. It's crazy to think it's already been more than five years of doing so.

Music has always been a marker for different periods of my life. What I was listening to on heavy rotation during very specific and formative moments shaped me in ways I often can't fully put into words and in ways I don't even realize until a milestone like a five or ten year anniversary brings it all back. This album will always stand out as one of the first that inspired me to write about and analyze music, to put into words the reasons why I love what I love and what I connect with when I listen on a deeper level.

Lana's gorgeous songwriting has long inspired me, and being able to grow with it and return to it to find new meaning as time passes is such a beautiful experience.