Lana Del Rey’s new single released on February 17, 2026, titled “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter,” has been criticized by many Poly Prep students. A survey on the students’ opinions on her song and anticipation for her next album “Stove” received many negative reviews, but revealed some higher hopes—especially from within her fanbase—of a good set to come.
Three out of the six respondents, who consider themselves Lana Del Rey fans, expressed generally poor reviews of the song. Marley Parikh ’29 said “[the song] is horrible. Her voice is majestic and she’s not even singing,” showing frustration even within her fanbase due to the style she experimented with in this single. Another fan, Lillian Ziff ’29 said, “[the song] was a bit strange,” an opinion that seemed to be widely shared among the other respondents, as well as The New York Times, which described it as “hypnotic, deeply romantic and a little bit spooky.”
Tochi Ugboajah ’28 related Del Rey’s lyrics and style in this song to a “Snow White turned evil,” finding the song itself to be sinister and vengeful, even calling it funny. However, Ugboajah was also one of the two respondents who had communicated both criticism and positive feedback on this song. She further wrote, “I loved the instrumentals. They sounded amazing and really felt like silver-age Disney. The strings were also very nice.”
Adelaide Swartz ’27 explained that while this song was not one that she would add to a playlist—even describing its title as a “list of words”—“that’s what [Lana Del Rey] does. Not a lot of her songs are straightforward, but that’s what makes her great.” When asked to compare this song with the rest of her work, Swartz said, “there are definitely some recognizable parts of [the song]: styles that she likes to use, techniques she likes to use. But it was some of her, weirder, more alternative, methods of creating music, singing, word choices and lyrics, compared to her other songs.” Additionally, The New York Times discussed the song and album’s theme, claiming, “Lana Del Rey doodles her own offbeat and highly personalized image of domesticity on this track,” and Swartz similarly claimed that Del Rey’s message in the song was “‘oh, you’re not expecting this from me, but this is how I am right now.’”
Clara Sarcos ’29 expressed her expectations for the new album, saying, “[I think Stove] will be all over the place due to her changing her styles all the time,” even providing a relevant example, claiming, “This album was supposed to come out a year ago and it was supposed to be country. She always changes it.” Although this single may seem out of place with Del Rey’s other works to some Poly students, others like Swartz and Sarcos may see it as in alignment with her distinctly inconsistent writing style.
Ugboajah, who is planning on listening to the album upon its release, said that, “I’d just like to understand the album name (Stove) and be able to enjoy or maybe resonate with the music.” Others, like Parikh, claimed that they will listen to the album “Because [Lana Del Rey’s] the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).” The outlier of this survey, Soleil Peña ’27, explained that she likely would not listen to the album because of its title, saying, “‘Stove’? That’s the name of her album? That seems interesting but not my style.” However, despite these negative reviews of her single, most student listeners at Poly plan to listen to Del Rey’s album, “Stove,” suggesting that they expect the album to be better than the single.
