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Raphael Navarro

Judith R. McCann

English 1301 section 129

16 October 2022

Chemtrails Over The Country Club

Life is Dark But Just a Game as said in

the album. This is an album of her highlights

and downfalls of her life which we can clearly

see by the imagery in the album cover. For

starters, this album uses the darker

background to show the dark parts of Lana's

life but then contrasts them with white to

show the highlights of her life. This use of

black and white emphasizes the darkness of her downfalls and depressions of her life while using

the white which pops out more, meaning that the highlights of her life are more memorable and

stand out more to her then the darkness, to override the dark parts of the album cover. Another

way we can interpret the black and white is that black and white is usually connected with the

past and with remeising. We can also connect this back to the good and bad memories of her life,

she's reminiscing and thinking back to the past. Another tell tell sign that this album is about the

past is by the clothes the girls are wearing, very old fashion clothing and styles, the hair and

jewelry in particular. The use of the Black and white filter, the early 1900’s Fashion and the way

they are being portrayed emotionally allowed the artist to show the listener and the audience of

the album what it was gonna be about before they listened to it.
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Starting with the background, The elements we see are very homey, casual,

friends out events. It's a very loud and crowded background with signs and flags everywhere,

from just this we can tell that the place they are in isn't very formal, so this reflects onto the

album by knowing that the songs will be about more casual and relatable topics to the listener.

Another key element in the background is the greenery. It seems to be a swampy area and the

south is known for having many swamp lands, this can give the viewer of the album cover a

clearer idea of what genre the album could be. Since we can see that the picture is in a southern

part of the country, we can be sure to say that the album has some country and folk genre

inspiration.

The fashion shown in this cover art is a clear tell tell sign that this album will be about

the past, either in reminiscing or telling someone else's story. We can see alot of pearls, the

pearled bags, and pearl necklaces. Pearls were on a rise in popularity back in the 1920s due to the

new generation of women wanting to go against the gender norms and wanting to start wearing

more shiny and flashy things. The use of the black flats and pumps are another sign that we are

in the early 1900s since this shoe style and color was very popular with women around that age

range. The dresses match the style of dresses worn back in the early 1900s, you can see 2

different types of styles, pre transition and post transition. What I mean by transition is again

going against societal norms. We can only see about 2 pre-transition dresses, which consists of:

long sleeves, covered necks, and long dresses. The majority of the girls in the picture are wearing

post-transition dresses, which consists of: shorter, more revealing, and short or no sleeves. These

fashion trends can really tell us what era this album will be set around.

The black and white filter, back in the early 1900s pictures did not have color yet, this

can once again tell us what era this album will be set in. Connected with the old fashion this can
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really cement that this album will be set in the early 1900s and can have a variety of popular

instruments from the early 1900s used in the music. Another great way to interpret the black and

white filter is with her memories. We usually associate good memories with bright and light

colors, the opposite is for bad memories. We tend to associate bad memories with darker and

deeper colors. We can see that the darker colors and more in the back mean that she is trying to

store the bad memories away. There are 2 ways we can interpret the white and lighter colors in

the front. One way is that she thinks the better memories have more importance and she wants to

override the bad memories with the good ones. The other way to interpret this is that she wants

to leave her sad and bad memories in the past by reminding herself that there's good memories to

some, hence the reason to have the white be more concentrated in the front. This can tell us that

the album will be about how she doesnt like to remember the bad things about the past and tries

to focus on the better memories or the better moments to come in the future.

The way they are being portrayed physically and emotionally can show us what is

happening in the moment. We can see that they are all smiling and laughing. This can tell us that

they are having a good time and that she wants to keep it that way. The way they are positioned

shows that they wanna keep the darkness away from the light. They are positioned in 2 different

levels that can resemble the way protective barriers are shaped and molded to keep whatever

they are trying to keep away out and protect what lies ahead. They are keeping the darkness and

bad memories get in the way of the better memories they are making, reminiscing or that lie

ahead.

Given these points, The Chemtrails Over The Country club album cover can really give

us a glimpse of what the album will be about. It’s a very useful and straightforward cover which
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all of the components within the cover art highlight what era and topics will be mentioned in the

album's music.
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Work cited

Cover art for the album Chemtrails Over The Country Club. Lana Del Rey, 2020,

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/e7a/c25/06f95091cdf58ea039e0c10f3765db9ce6-18-Lana-Del-

Rey-Album-Drop.2x.rsocial.w600.jpg