Lana Del Rey’s New Song Lives Up To Its Long Title

Lana Del Rey is feeling forgotten. On Dec. 7, the singer released her ballad, “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” off her forthcoming album of the same name. The singer is well-known for forlorn songs about heartbreak and loneliness, and she kept to these themes in this release. Specifically, she sings about her fear of being lost to time and ultimately abandoned.

Sonically, it appears this track might reflect what her upcoming album will sound like. In May, the singer told W Magazine that she practiced “meditative automatic singing” in her new drafted music. This musical direction — which resulted in her singing her raw thoughts into her Voice Notes app — allowed her lyrics to feel more conversational and intentionally wordy. With that revelation, the lengthy album and song title makes more sense now.

According to Lana, she sent her voice notes to composer Drew Erickson, who added an orchestra and reverb to the recordings. Both of these creative decisions are particularly notable in Lana’s delivery of weepy, yet nearly clunky lyrics on the new track. In certain parts, it sounds like she’s having a late-night talk with friends over wine about the deeper meaning of life, rather than her stepping into the studio to lay down some backing vocals. Let’s dive into the lyrics.

Over somber chords, Lana begins the ballad by describing Jergins Tunnel, an abandoned underground transit center in Long Beach, California. The passageway connected to the beach opened in 1928 and closed nearly 40 years later in 1967, according to a tweet from the Long Beach Public Library. Describing the tunnel’s “mosaic ceilings” and frayed “painted tiles,” Lana compares herself to the ornate landmark that was eventually boarded up. The thought of this happening to her is frightening.

“I can’t help but feel somewhat like my body marred my soul / Handmade beauty sealed up by two man-made walls,” she croons in the first verse.

The fear of fate carries over into the chorus, where Lana wonders if she’ll always feel sealed off from the world. She richly pleads for someone to rescue her from these thoughts and take a chance on her, a form of grace that hasn’t been given to Jergins Tunnel since its closing. She coos,

“When’s it gonna be my turn? / Open me up, tell me you like it / F*ck me to death, love me until I love myself / There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard.”

It seems Lana is seeking raw, physical passion. Since she feels forgotten, she wants to experience a love so grand that makes her feel alive and present. Those lush arrangements ease into the second and third verse, where Lana sings of classic 1970s songs exemplifying the loneliness she’s experiencing. She gushes about the Eagles’ “Hotel California” and dedicates the third verse to “Don’t Forget Me” by Harry Nilsson. In Nilsson’s ballad, he desperately wails for his partner to remember him because the thought of him fading from their memory would be crushing. Lana finds solace in this reference.

“Harry Nilsson has a song, his voice breaks at 2:05 / Something about the way he says ‘Don't forget me’ makes me feel like I just wish I had a friend like him, someone to get me by,” she sultrily sings.

The track’s orchestral arrangements give way to an outro where Lana hauntingly beckons once again to be remembered. Lana’s ghostly wails speaks to a yearning for a continued life of importance, something the passing of time can be quite cruel toward — like it was to the Jergins Tunnel.

Listen to “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” below, and check out the full lyrics via Genius.