Tomorrow Never Came features Sean Ono Lennon on a track that not only signposts The Beatles but crams in references to Bob Dylan and Elton John as well. ThereвЂ™s developments elsewhere too the production is again heady, perfumed and hip-hop informed, but this time the musicвЂ™s decorated with a dressing up box of 60s and 70s references. Of course, this being Lana Del Rey, the politics comes with a side order of high camp: God Bless America вЂ“ and All the Beautiful Women In It is a Metro BoominвЂ™ assisted torch song punctuated by guitar and gunshots.

вЂњ Is it the end of America?вЂќ she asks on When the World Kept Dancing, before the 32-year-old advises us to, вЂњ Lean into the fucking youthвЂќ. In a recent Pitchfork profile she confessed sheвЂ™d sooner stand in front of static than the American flag, and Lust for Life marks the moment that popвЂ™s favourite sad girl turns her gaze to the bigger picture. In the lead up to this record, Lana Del Rey broke her embargo on politics by inviting fans to hex the incumbent Trump administration. But now, her beloved вЂmurica has screwed her over as bad as any of those douchebags she was dating: as she was assembling her own American falsehoods, someone else was too. These qualities wouldnвЂ™t have been lost on an artist whoвЂ™s fine-tuned her own iconography by draping herself in a red, white and blue patchwork of mythologies вЂ“ from Old Hollywood to Brooklyn hipsterism.

For each of her four album covers, the artist has been pictured alongside an automobile, that great American symbol that purrs with ideas of power and freedom.

Lust lana del rey album cover