Norman Fucking Rockwell!

Lana Del Rey announced her sixth studio album during an interview with Annie Mac after the premiere of “Mariners Apartment Complex,” the lead single for her upcoming project, on September 12th, 2018. She later confirmed the title of the record in a conversation with Zane Lowe after the premiere of her second single “Venice Bitch,” on September 18th.

Lana has allegedly been working on the album since December 2017, with new collaborator and producer Jack Antonoff. She said that the album might be released in the first quarter of 2019, after publishing a little poetry book she’s been working on titled Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass.

Del Rey mentioned that the new album experiments with surf elements, electric guitars and Laurel Canyon sounds, adding that she was inspired by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Lana spoke about the story/inspiration behind the album and its title track during her interview with Beats Radio 1’s Zane Lowe:

It’s called Norman Fucking Rockwell!, it was the album title since March. I mean, working with Jack I was in a little bit of a lighter mood ‘cause he’s so funny, so the title track and it are kind of about this guy who like, he is such a genius artist but he thinks he’s the shit and he knows it, and like he won’t shut talking about it. The narrative goes on and on. It’s so awesome I ended up with, you know, like, being creative on a pipe story or whatever. I just like the title track so much, that I was like, 'Okay, definitely want the record to be called that.’

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Lana talked about the concept of the album saying:

It was weird how that actual title came to me. I was riffing over a couple of chords that Jack was playing for the title track, which ended up being called “Norman Fucking Rockwell.” 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. Me and Jack, we just joke around constantly about all the random headlines we might see that week, so it’s a slight cultural reference. But it’s not a cynical thing, really. To me, it’s hopeful, to see everything as a little bit funnier. The chaos of the culture is interesting, and I’m hopeful that there’s room for there to be some movement and excitement within it.

On July 31st, she officially announced that Norman Fucking Rockwell! would be released on August 30th, 2019, in multiple posts on her social media platforms. She also released the tracklist along with the album cover.