Lana Del Rey - Arcadia - Single [Review]

 

"Arcadia" is the fourth single released from Lana Del Rey's upcoming ninth studio album Blue Banisters, and it is by far my favorite of the four. Preceded by the title track, "Text Book," and "Wildflower Wildfire" (all three of which I reviewed here), "Arcadia" reminds me a great deal of Born to Die's hit "Video Games" and her pre Born to Die demo "Afraid," especially in its melody. As has been typical of much of Lana's music especially since 2019's masterpiece Norman Fucking Rockwell!, the song is a ballad driven by piano, and it features a lot of the same themes that she has been implementing on recent works such as poetry book and spoken word album Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass and Chemtrails over the Country Club - themes such as her love of California (especially the Los Angeles area) and her personifying of it, such as she does on the Violet poem "LA Who Am I to Love You." "Arcadia, Arcadia," Lana addresses the Los Angeles County city in the song's angelic chorus, "all roads that lead to you as integral to me as arteries that get the blood flowing straight to the heart of me." The song, in large part because of its aforementioned melodic resemblance to "Video Games" in its verses, makes me feel nostalgic about Lana's old days, reminding me a lot of Born to Die and Paradise. It's such a light and beautiful song, and I am hopeful that it is representative of what most of Blue Banisters has to offer, especially since, as I said, it's definitely my favorite of the four singles so far.