Lana Del Rey is alive and rapping again on new single A&W from Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.?

Lana Del Rey has released A&W, the latest track from her forthcoming ninth studio album, Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.?

The track - produced by regular collaborator Jack Antonoff - is one of Lana's longest ever, coming in at an epic 7 minutes 43 seconds (although it still doesn't hold a candle to Venice Bitch's 9 minutes and 36 seconds. 

Starting with an ominous guitar chord, A&W (which stands for American Whore) is a spacious jazz-folk record, which sees Lana recount some childhood memories, following on from the highly self-examinatory lens of Did you know there's a tunnel...which saw Lana question her own lasting legacy.

"It's not about having someone to love me anymore," Lana says on the hook. "This is the experience of being an American whore."

MORE: Lana Del Rey's Official Charts history in full

In Antonoff's capable hands, the production of A&W then shifts entirely, trading in its guitars for a dark and gloomy, highly electronic trap beat - with Lana's vocals swirling around in a cacophony of sound before she starts rapping.

It's one of the bravest sonic evolutions Lana has made in recent years - a return, in parts, to the aesthetic of Born To Die. As Blue Jeans and Off To The Races proved, Lana actually has bars. She can spit, sorry. 

"Your mom called," she dead pans, "I told her, you're f*cking up big time."

While her recent output - Blue Banisters and Chemtrails Under The Country Club especially - have seen Lana almost strip her enigmatic sound to its bare, folk roots, A&W proves that she's not done experimenting or exploring new areas of her persona.

Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.? is scheduled to drop March 23, the first new material from Lana in nearly two years. 2021 was a busy year for her, releasing two albums - Chemtrails, which debuted at Number 1 in the UK, and Blue Banisters. 2022 was quite a quiet one for her, but she did issue one standalone single, Watercolor Eyes, from the soundtrack to HBO's teen drama Euphoria.

With Chemtrails debuting at Number 1, Lana now ties Celine Dion for the fifth most Number 1 albums by a female solo artist in the UK. Only Madonna, Taylor Swift, Kylie Minogue and Barbra Streisand have claimed more. 

2022 also marked the mammoth ten-year anniversary of Lana's landmark debut Born To Die making its debut - read more about Born To Die and it's long-reaching influence on popular culture here.

Article Image: Interscope