Five singles were released to promote the album: "Mariners Apartment Complex", "Venice Bitch", "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have – but I Have It", "Doin' Time", and "The Greatest".
When in attendance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, Lana Del Rey confirmed in an interview that she had begun work on her next album.
[8] In October 2018, Del Rey performed alongside Jack Antonoff, with whom she had collaborated on the record, at an Apple Music event, where she premiered the song "How to Disappear".
[13] Flood Magazine described the album's sound as "a mellow soft rock" and noted Del Rey's improved lyrics tackle larger themes than her previous work.
[15][16] Consequence described the record as featuring "psych-pop lullabies, tales of complicated, consuming romantic love, and overt odes to the tarnished dream of California.
[22] Kitty Empire of The Observer noted that "strings and synth washes soundtrack multiple love songs", and also noted several classic rock references throughout the album, including Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl", Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy.
[23] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone noted the album's "Laurel Canyon '70s soft-rock fantasies", including references to Joni Mitchell and the Eagles.
as "a remarkably sharp pop record that retains her fascination with pop-culture iconography and the rosey simplicity of a post-war America where classic rock and blue jeans ruled and takes them to much deeper places".
[30] Throughout 2018, Del Rey shared snippets via social media of several songs intended for the album, including "Happiness Is a Butterfly",[31] "How to Disappear",[32] and "Cinnamon Girl".
[44] On December 20, 2019, Del Rey released a 14-minute-long short film featuring the songs "Norman Fucking Rockwell", "Bartender", and "Happiness is a Butterfly".
[46] Jenn Pelly of Pitchfork wrote that the album "establishes [Del Rey] as one of America’s greatest living songwriters".
[20] In his review for Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield wrote "the long-awaited Norman Fucking Rockwell is even more massive and majestic than everyone hoped it would be.
Lana turns her fifth and finest album into a tour of sordid American dreams, going deep cover in all our nation's most twisted fantasies of glamour and danger.
"[51] Kristel Jax of Now wrote "Del Rey has shifted her kitschy patriotic fixation, dropping her flag-draped persona and making peace with a more complex, dystopian reality", also giving the album five stars.
"[21] In his 'premature evaluation' for Stereogum, Tom Breihan wrote that the album is "a beautiful opus for a new dark age — a fond look back at the world we just wrecked", calling it "yoga music for the apocalypse.
"[54] Entertainment Weekly critic Maura Johnston said, "Del Rey digs deep into the atmospherics; her perpetually wounded drawl hovers above swooning strings and swirling synths, which rise up in extended codas and on power-ballad-worthy guitar solos".
[49] In a more mixed review, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described the album as "an alternately beguiling and frustrating experience", concluding that despite Del Rey's evident talent, "it's hard not to wish that she would broaden her perspective, adopt a different persona, shake things up a little.