Lana Del Rey didn't go country after all. For a few years, we've been waiting on a new album that's gone through a few different titles, most recently Stove. Apparently, it's on track to come out this year, and now Del Rey has shared "White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter," the new single that she announced announced and has been previewing on Instagram. This is not a country song. It's a way-out orchestral psychedelic whisper-rap situation. It doesn't really sound like any other Lana Del Rey songs, but it still completely sounds like Lana Del Rey, if that makes any sense.
If I were to compare "White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter" to another Del Rey song, it would probably be "her great "A&W," an instant classic when it came out in 2023. But this song doesn't actually sound anything like that one in any way other than the flirty sprechgesang delivery. This one is a dizzy love song that's presumably about Del Rey's new husband, the alligator tour guide Jeremy Dufrene: "He's my white feather hawk tail deer hunter/ Likes to keep me cool in the hot breeze summer/ Likes to push me on this green John Deere mower/ I know you wish you had a man like him, it's such a bummer." It samples Ella Fitzgerald's 1964 recording of "Laura." Oh, and Dufrene co-wrote the song.
Lana Del Rey and Jeremy Dufrene had some other co-writers on "White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter," too: Del Rey's sister Chuck Grant and her brother-in-law Jason Pickens. Grant and Pickens are both photographers, not musicians, but who cares? They did great here. Del Rey co-produced the song with her regular collaborators Jack Antonoff and Drew Erickson, the latter of whom did the extremely cool string arrangement. On Instagram, Antonoff call it his favorite he's done with LDR, "right there with venice / white dress / a&w."
This "WFHTDH" lyric may provide some context about the new album title: "And I wanted to know if I could use your stove/ To cook somethin’ up for you ‘cause you’re positively voodoo, everything that you do/ Did you know exactly how magical you are?" She also sings "know how absolutely bad I'm with an oven" and in the no-budget video she sticks her head in one.
We don't have any firm info on when Stove is coming, but Del Rey recently claimed on her Instagram Story that it'll be out in about three months. In another new Instagram video she confirms it is still called Stove, shutting down rumors that the LP had another new name. My immediate reaction is that this song is awesome. Check it out for yourself below.
