Lana Del Rey Is Teasing Something Magical

After the unexpected but delightful release of Lana Del Rey's music video for "Love" on Saturday, I've eagerly been waiting for Del Rey to drop news of a new album. And it looks like we're starting to get clues of something: on Thursday night, she tweeted to her fans to look to "the stroke of midnight Feb. 24, March 26, April 24, May 23." Then, sandwiched between a heart emoji and a cake emoji, she declared, "Ingredients can b found online." The cryptic delivery seems very on brand for Del Rey, but I'm desperate to decrypt it.

Stereogum was quick to point out that the dates align with the mass binding spell on Donald Trump, a ritual to be performed by witches across the nation on the midnight of every waning moon until he's removed from office. That first spell was slated for Feb. 24, and so that seems to be the direct reference, right? Del Rey wants us to help cast a spell, which also seems somehow very, very on-brand. But is it crazy to think there may be something else deeper going on there? Perhaps some musical, magical piece of work brewing? Because it seems like a very weird time for the singer to get suddenly political.

Perhaps with each ritual she'll release something small... a new demo here, a promo image there, to encourage her followers to keep spellcasting. Maybe each night she'll release a picture of her new album cover on her instagram until it pieces together the follow-up to Honeymoon. Maybe she's working on songs directly tied to overpowering toxic men with the dark arts, Love Witch-style.

And I'm just throwing it out there that the "ingredients" and cake emoji seems suspect. Maybe she's going to just systematically release excerpts from her new cookbook on every waning moon. Maybe it's dessert themed. I wouldn't even put it past her.

Then again, if Del Rey were to choose a moment to get political, it would be on an occasion where hexes were involved. Again, anything vaguely witchy seems somewhat on brand for her. However, I think it's fair to hope that something good will come out of those dates, whether that means banishing our President out of office, or the Lana Del Rey book of pastries we never knew we needed. I'd really prefer the former, but honestly I'd take whatever I can get.