Music / Norman Fucking Rockwell!

"It's me, your little Venice bitch."

Norman Fucking Rockwell! is the sixth studio album by singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey.

While it was released through both Interscope Records and Polydor Records on 30 August 2019, the two lead singles "Mariners Apartment Complex" and "Venice Bitch" had previewed almost eleven months earlier on the 12 and 18 September 2018, respectively. Three additional singles were released: "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but I have it", the Sublime cover "Doin' Time" and "The Greatest".

Often abbreviated to NFR!, the album marks the first of many collaborations with Jack Antonoff (of both fun. and Bleachers fame) as record producer. The album is considered an example of soft rock, with strong influences from psychedelic, folk and surf rock. The "Hollywood sadcore" popularised by her earlier work has largely disappeared, with the only legacy styles being the Trip Hop-style beats that appear in songs such as "The Next Best American Record" and "How to Disappear".

Tracklist:

1. "Norman Fucking Rockwell" (4:08)
2. "Mariners Apartment Complex" (4:06)
3. "Venice Bitch" (9:38)
4. "Fuck It I Love You" (3:38)
5. "Doin' Time" (3:22)
6. "Love Song" (3:51)
7. "Cinnamon Girl" (5:00)
8. "How to Disappear" (3:48)
9. "California" (5:05)
10. "The Next Best American Record" (5:49)
11. "The Greatest" (5:00)
12. "Bartender" (4:23)
13. "Happiness Is a Butterfly" (4:32)
14. "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but I have it" (5:24)

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"Goddamn, man-child. You troped me so good that I almost said, 'I love you.'"

• Album Closure: The heartwrenching, stripped-down piano ballad "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but I have it".
• Album Title Drop: Averted - "Norman Fucking Rockwell" is not sang verbatim anywhere in the album. "Norman Rockwell", however, appears without the swear in "Venice Bitch"
• Censored Title: Norman Fucking Rockwell isn't censored on iTunes or Spotify, but in online press, the media, and on the album cover, the title is censored to "Norman F*** Rockwell". In interviews, it's either called "Norman Effing Rockwell", or shortened to "Norman Rockwell" or even "NFR!"
• Changing Chorus: The final chorus for "How to Disappear" switches from title dropping to:
  I'm always going to be right here
  No one's going anywhere
• Concept Video: "Doin' Time" is an Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever parody, while separate short films were realised for "Fuck It I Love You"-"The Greatest" and "Norman Fucking Rockwell"-"Bartender"-"Happiness is a Butterfly"
• Cover Version: "Doin' Time" is a cover of the song by Sublime, which Lana has cited as an influence of hers.
• Darker and Edgier: While nowhere near as dark as Born to Die or Ultraviolence, the overriding theme of Lana critiquing modern American culture and her status as both a woman and a pop star contrasts with the happier, more hopeful tone of 2017's Lust for Life and, to a lesser extent, the more family-oriented folk rock of 2021's Chemtrails over the Country Club.
• Epic Rocking: "Venice Bitch" clocks in at a full 9 minutes and 41 seconds with nearly half of the track purely instrumental.
• Evolving Music: "The Next Best American Record" was originally written for Lust for Life as "Best American Record" but wasn't included due to being slower and mellower compared to the rest of the album. Lana loved the song, however, and rewrote the pre-choruses, choruses and outro in order to make it fit in on NFR!.
• Giant Woman: The "Doin' Time" video.
• Intentionally Awkward Title: Both the album, the title track, and "Fuck It I Love You".
• Intercourse with You: The opening of "Norman Fucking Rockwell" describes Lana enjoying such an act.
• Location Song: "California" and "Mariners Apartment Complex."
• Non-Appearing Title: The title track, "Doin' Time" and "Cinnamon Girl."
• Nostalgia Filter: Common. Most prominent in "The Greatest"
  The culture is lit, and if this is it‚ I had a ball
  I guess that I'm burned out after all
• One-Word Title: "California" and "Bartender."
• Precision F-Strike: Too many to list. Lana confirmed the reasoning behind the album title being the result of Lana daydreaming about the artist Norman Rockwell during the production of the record, and imagining what he would think of present-day America:
  “It was kind of an exclamation mark: so this is the American dream, right now, this is where we’re at — Norman fucking Rockwell. We’re going to go to Mars, and Trump is president, all right.”
• Recurring Character: Live performances of "How to Disappear" replace "Joe" in the second verse with "Jim"
• Scatting: Half of the chorus for "Cinnamon Girl" consists of this.
• Show Within a Show: In the music video for "Doin' Time", Lana appears as a Giant Woman in what is revealed to be a movie playing on a drive-in. She then steps out of the screen to deal with a cheating boyfriend.
• Silly Love Songs: "Fuck It I Love You" and "Love Song"
• Song of Song Titles: "The Greatest" features references to "Kokomo" and "Life On Mars?"
• Take That!!: An immature unnamed ex-boyfriend trying to be a poet got this treatment in "Norman Fucking Rockwell. Fan speculation has named James Franco as the likely target.
• Verbal Tic: A prominent one in the chorus for "Bar-t-t-tender".