While Lana Del Rey Fans Patiently Await ‘Stove’ Country Album, She Secretly Recorded a Companion LP, ‘Spyda’

While Lana Del Rey‘s fans continue to patiently await a release date for her long-teased country album Stove, the singer revealed a plot twist on Wednesday (July 15) when she announced a surprise companion album, Spyda.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Del Rey explained, “So much has happened over the last four years, so much time waiting for things to come together and so much time wondering if it was ok that things were falling apart. Patience was the key, and in between the songs came new thoughts about old friends and new dreams and from the doubt of whether the tree I had been planting would grow — came new sprouts and so grew a new rose bush underneath the willow.”

She described the “large” companion album, compiled by “as many people as I could find to help me gather my thoughts about how much was changing,” as the perfect cosmic twin to Stove, calling the latter a “classic” album that is “so lovely and intact as it was intended to be.” While LDR has still not revealed a release date for what has been tipped as her lean into country, she did drop the haunted, “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter” single — co-produced by Jack Antonoff and co-written with the singer’s husband, Jeremy Dufrene — earlier this year, calling it her “favorite” track on the album.

She described Spyda, which also doesn’t have a release date, as a “commentary of sorts on everything that has been going on, and the patience that was required — and the trust I had to have that not all the things that weren’t working was just because of me.” She said she was grateful for her large team of unnamed collaborators who worked on the collection, adding that she needs another month to finish pulling it together and then send both LPs to vinyl.

“Thank you for waiting. It certainly is two of my most beautiful pieces of work, rooted in what I thought would be made out of growth and joy but was peppered with a secondary compilation of songs that sprouted from doubt, hopefulness, and the understanding that new beginnings truly mean starting completely fresh and over,” she added. “When life decides to send you down another river, it’s really not your choice and it’s truly an adventure of its own.”

LDR began touting the follow-up to her acclaimed 2023 album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd in 2024, initially calling it Lasso, then The Right Person Will Stay and now seemingly settling on Stove. Since then she’s released the singles “Tough,” “Henry, Come On” and “Bluebird,” as well as writing the surprise title track for the James Bond universe video game First Light.

The Instagram post announcing Spyda including a clip of Del Rey cradling her cat, showing off a pair of painted leather boots and hanging with her husband on the Fourth of July, ending with what appear to be the similarly themed rustic covers for the two albums.

“I wrote about it. Now it’s time to trust the process and go downstream,” Del Rey concluded in her post. “I’m so grateful to everyone who’s still on board with me. And of course, I wish the best to everyone who stayed on land. Of course I understand. Just kidding. I thought we were in the boat together.”

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.