Lana Del Rey has some bad news, but she eased her fans into it with the release of “Henry, Come On,” a sweet country ballad that serves as the lead single from her 10th studio album. The catch is that the album, originally titled The Right Person Will Stay and scheduled for release on May 21, will no longer arrive on that date or under that title. But veteran Del Rey fans should have known better than to get their hopes up.
“You know it’s not going to come on time, right?” Del Rey asked at the end of an Instagram Reel about kicking off this album cycle. “Should I even tell you that the name changed again? Should I tell you that now, while you’re so happy that you even have a song? Yeah, maybe I’ll wait.”
The musician has yet to unveil the new title, though she almost certainly isn’t going back to the record’s previously suspected title, Lasso. She also hasn’t set an updated release date, leaving an indefinite wait time ahead for everyone who was counting down to the end of May.
In the meantime, Del Rey is already teasing more singles from the album and her forthcoming set at the country music festival Stagecoach on April 25. A new song titled “Blue Bird” is coming next week, she said, adding: “It’s not lost on me about how amazing it is that we got to headline Coachella last year and that we get to sing at the top of the night at Stagecoach on the smaller stage this year. My band is so excited. I’m really excited, and I’m really happy for this album to be moving along.”
Del Rey didn’t give away too much about “Blue Bird,” but it has a lot to live up to as a follow up to “Henry, Come On,” which she expressed a particular fondness towards. “I’m really happy it’s out there for you to hear. I don’t want to say it’s my favorite song, but I do really think it’s the song that the album hinges on,” she said. “I want you to hear the demo with the dry vocals, so you can sort of see how it started.”
Whenever that demo arrives, it’ll be another piece of evidence that country isn’t all that different from what Del Rey has been doing for years. “All my albums are somewhat rooted in Americana, unless it’s an album like Honeymoon which has a jazz flair, so I don’t think it will be a heavy departure,” she told Vogue last year. “If anything, it will just be a little lighter lyrically, and more pointed in a classic country, American, or Southern Gothic production — which again, so many of my songs already are.”
