Lana Del Rey, the pop world’s favorite sad-girl-in-chief, has always felt like America’s melancholy prom queen. With her latest album, “The Right Person Will Stay,” releasing on May 21, 2025, she’s decided to toss her crown into a honky-tonk jukebox and pour herself a double shot of pure, unfiltered Americana. It’s an ambitious pivot that’s part brilliant, part unhinged, and entirely Lana.
The album kicks off with “Henry,” a slow-burning ballad that sounds suspiciously like Lana drunkenly stumbled into a Tennessee recording studio and refused to leave. Lyrics like, “Henry, you left me at the gate / Cigarettes and promises, you’re always running late,” capture the haunting nostalgia Lana loves to serve up.
Next up, “Motel 6 & Holy Water” delivers exactly what the title promises: cheap romance sprinkled with religious guilt. Rumor has it Lana insisted the track be authentically recorded in an actual Motel 6, using nothing but vintage microphones and a makeshift bathtub vocal booth. It’s Lana at her melodramatic best, crooning about roadside motels with the earnestness of someone genuinely haunted by scratchy sheets and Gideon Bibles.
Dolly Parton’s appearance on “Stand by Your Man” brings some necessary gravitas, though Parton sounds a bit like your grandma nervously reassuring guests at a wild family wedding. Still, it’s oddly comforting. Allegedly, the duet was recorded at Dolly’s own Tennessee ranch over biscuits and gravy, which frankly, makes too much sense to question.
“Tequila Tears” could easily be mistaken for parody if not for Lana’s sincere misery. Think Patsy Cline meets a drunk voicemail left on an ex’s answering machine. “Pour another round, drown these tequila tears / Can’t leave you behind after all these years,” she sings, raw and overly earnest.
Halfway through the album, “Hey Blue Baby” and “American Junkyard” find Lana inexplicably embracing a persona that’s half waitress, half chain-smoking poet. The lyrics are absurdly specific, with vivid imagery of rusting Ford trucks, Marlboro Lights, and gas station coffee, all sung with the seriousness of an Oscar bait biopic. Reportedly, Lana wrote “American Junkyard” while literally wandering through abandoned car lots, scribbling lyrics on diner napkins. This sincerity is what makes the chaos strangely endearing.
“I Must Be Stupid for Being So Happy” is a standout, with Lana openly mocking her own gloomy brand in a delightfully meta moment of self-awareness. It’s a sharp turn towards upbeat nihilism that proves she knows exactly how ridiculous this whole experiment is. Then comes “How to Leave Texas,” which serves as a sarcastic, twang-infused instruction manual for escaping toxic cowboys and regrettable tattoos, so specific you wonder if Lana herself took this advice firsthand.
“Prettiest Girl in Country Music” hilariously doubles down on Lana’s delusion of grandeur, with a chorus so catchy it’s bound to infuriate genuine Nashville starlets currently clawing their way up the charts. The audacity alone makes it unforgettable.
But it’s with “In God’s Time” and “Trailer Park Gospel” that the album reaches peak absurdity and brilliance simultaneously. Lana channels Tammy Wynette if she’d attended a Californian liberal arts college and discovered tarot cards and therapy. Both tracks revel in the contradictions of spiritual reckoning and trailer park sermons, serving Americana on a chipped porcelain plate.
Finally, the title track, “The Right Person Will Stay,” encapsulates the entire album perfectly. It’s romantic, naive, borderline pathetic, yet hopelessly endearing. Lana’s vocal fragility matched with lyrics like, “If love was easy, I’d be long gone / But the right person will stay, even when it’s wrong,” feels like watching a friend drunkenly propose at a dive bar, embarrassing yet heartwarming.
Ultimately, “The Right Person Will Stay” feels like Lana Del Rey decided to cosplay an entire Southern gothic novel in audio form, and somehow, inexplicably, succeeded. It’s an absurd, spectacular mess, a musical equivalent of comfort food you know is bad for you but tastes damn good anyway. Lana’s leap into country might be the weirdest thing she’s ever done, and frankly, we’re completely here for it.
Tracklist:
- Henry
- Motel 6 & Holy Water
- Stand by Your Man (feat. Dolly Parton)
- Tequila Tears
- Hey Blue Baby
- American Junkyard
- I Must Be Stupid for Being So Happy
- How to Leave Texas
- Prettiest Girl in Country Music
- In God’s Time
- Trailer Park Gospel
- The Right Person Will Stay
