Behind Lana Del Rey’s NSFW 2023 Album Cover That Never Was

On March 24, Lana Del Rey released her latest album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. The record cover features her looking sullen in a blue-hued image, chin in the palm of a fist, not a flicker of glee on her face. But fans of the singer—who, on the WTF podcast, Courtney Love recently called one of the best artists making music today and a true “genius”—may like to know that there was an alternative album cover shot for the record that Del Rey even shared on social media.

Del Rey talked about it in a conversation with Billie Eilish earlier this year for Interview magazine.

“My original cover was nude, then I thought about it, and I was like, maybe not right now because there are some other things I want to do where I feel like that could get in the way,” said Del Rey, adding that the nude image was meant to be a metaphor that represented “being exposed for things that weren’t true.” 

The “Video Games” singer continued, “I wanted to reveal something about myself that I actually thought was beautiful, but in the end, I got nervous about doing that because I was like, ‘Is this an artistic inspiration that came to me or is this a reaction to something I feel is critical about me?’ I never liked to do anything in response to something that’s fear-based or based on what people think about me. I don’t know if that’ll ever come out, but if it did, I would just want to make sure it came out when I thought it was super fun and not because I had to show something to people.”

The release of the album on March 24, 2023, came after a two-week delay from Del Rey. In announcing the delay, Del Rey posted, on her private Instagram, an image of the NSFW cover she talked about with Eilish. NME also shared the artwork.

While she opted for the less controversial, more benign cover, saying she wanted to “let the songs do the talking for now,” Del Rey seems to always have something up her envelope-pushing sleeve. That’s what artists do and why people like Love admire her. The photo for the cover was taken by Neil Krug, chosen from some 65 different photos, including the one in which she was nude.

And now that her latest record is out, the work, which features artists like Jon Batiste and Father John Misty and hit No. 3 on the Billboard albums chart, marks another highlight in Del Rey’s career, no matter what cover she opted for.

Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images