“Mariners Apartment Complex”

By cycling through different aspects of her artistic persona, Lana Del Rey keeps coming closer to its essence. The trip- and hip-hop sheen of 2012’s Born to Die gave way to the psych-rock smolder of 2014’s Ultraviolence, which led to the opulent languor of 2015’s Honeymoon. Last year’s gleaming Lust for Life presented alt-pop’s quintessential sad girl as actually—could it be?—happy. “Mariners Apartment Complex,” her first new solo single since that album, goes one step further. It posits a Lana Del Rey who is not only a fully rounded character but also a port in a storm, as recognizable and reassuring as the old AM radio staples the song updates.

She revels in her accumulated powers here. It’s her first collaboration with Jack Antonoff, a producer who was so ubiquitous last year that his presence on a track could be distracting, but that isn’t the case here; as with LDR’s previous collaborations, including with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach across Ultraviolence, this one becomes fully hers. Musically, it’s a somber 1970s-style rock ballad with piano, acoustic guitar, and swooping strings. The lyrics, which she whispers as much as sings, are sly and sphinx-like as usual, referring to pop culture like it’s a modern Greek mythology. Through it all, she insists that she’s not what we thought she was—she’s stronger. “I ain’t no candle in the wind,” she declares, and then, later, “You're lost at sea, then I'll command your boat to me again.” The point is clear: This is Lana’s world, we’re just living in it.