Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

Released - 27th January 2012

Polydor

Album Listing

1. Born to Die

2. Off to the Races

3. Blue Jeans

4. Video Games

5. Diet Mountain Dew

6. National Anthem

7. Dark Paradise

8. Radio

9. Carmen

10. Million Dollar Man

11. Summertime Sadness

12. This is What Makes Us Girls

13. Without You

14. Lolita

15. Lucky Ones

Lana Del Rey

Review

One of the most hyped debut albums of the year comes from New York`s Lana Del Rey. With two strong singles in "Video Games" and "Born to Die",  both sounding like brooding, apocalyptical hymns with Del Rey`s sultry, sixties-style voice bringing both sadness and sensitivity, hopes were understandably high. But does it meet those expectations ?

Sadly, for me, no. 

Lyrically, the album is no better than a Britney Spears or Lady Gaga offering, with heavy handed sentiment and forced storytelling. The lyrics, all tell the same or a similar story, that sound neither personal or heartfelt and weakens her as an artist and damages the album very badly. Take "Radio", where Del Rey sings about how hard her life was, but now everything is sweet because she is heard on radio (much to the chagrin of those who never believed in her). Firstly, every self-obsessed pop star seems to write a song like this and when one considers Del Rey`s background ( her father is very wealthy and took out a full page ad in Adirondack Daily Enterprise to promote her album).

Her voice at times is her greatest weapon. "Blue Jeans" is a slow burner where she sounds like Edith Piaf in a David Lynch movie. Both singles, highlighted her unique vocal style to perfection, despite that awful Saturday Night Live performance. However on misguided vocal performances, such as the Gorillaz-lite intro to "Diet Mountain Dew", the half-spoken/mumbled "National Anthem" where she sounds like a crappy M.I.A, "Carmen" where the notes stretch the upper register of her vocal into terrible, reedy territory, and the less said the better, "Lolita", (which may well be the worst song of the year), it is also her Achilles Heel.

What is outstanding on this record, even on the bad songs is the sense of melody. A lot of thought has gone into creating hooks into this doom-pop record, and some of them are sumptuous. Take "Diet Mountain Dew" that has a great chorus, that you will find yourself humming at some point, or "Dark Paradise", a slow-moving pop gem, that sounds like the Emo sister of Coldplay`s "Paradise".

I feel that Del Rey has an interesting voice and some beautiful melodies, but is unsure of her musical voice or direction. Her debut album is overlong, pompous and has some terrible mis-steps, but there are some beautiful songs on here.

DOWNLOAD - Born to Die, Video Games, Dark Paradise

RATING - 4 (out of 10)