If you haven't heard of Lana Del Rey by now, then you've probably just crawled out from under a rock (we have a black President now, by the way...) Lana has garnered a pretty loyal fan base over the last year following a string of popular Youtube music vids from her EP. She has also come to the attention of many others (myself included) more recently following an SNL performance that garnered much negative attention, including tweets from the likes of has-been actresses Juliette Lewis and Eliza Dushku. Everyone waited with anticipation for the release of this album to see if she could put the money where her pouty mouth is.

And I think she more than paid off! The album is a love-letter to fans of trip-hop and lushly orchestrated ballads. Lana is a vocal breath of fresh air, eschewing the auto-tune that is the current bane of the music industry. And the tracks are varied enough to not get stale, and as I mentioned, well orchestrated and multi-layered. It's a sonic delight that compels multiple play-throughs. It's been awhile since an album has dominated my player as much as this one has. I've listened to it nearly exclusively over the past week, and even the few tracks that I didn't like at first have become favorites!

The album opens with the four songs that comprised her EP from 2011. BORN TO DIE, OFF TO THE RACES, BLUE JEANS, and VIDEO GAMES. To me, these were all fresh as I never heard the EP before. OFF TO THE RACES is an album favorite of mine, and is frankly the reason I finally decided to download the entire album. VIDEO GAMES, of course, is the song she will be forever identified with (until she tops it, anyway). And it is indeed a fantastic and dark ballad, though I think the album boasts plenty of songs to rival it.

Following this is a handful of tracks updated from her previous recording sessions, and some new tracks. Highlights include more trip hop goodness with DIET MOUNTAIN DEW, a Fiona Apple-esque ballad MILLION DOLLAR MAN, and the swirling (though profane) RADIO.

Through multiple listens, and putting pieces together from her interviews and biography, it becomes clear this album is meant as a snapshot of her teen and young adult years. We see two sides of Lana here, singing about partying with her girlfriends on tracks like WHAT MAKES US GIRLS and in full Jersey Girl Twang with NATIONAL ANTHEM ("Gawd, yeh so hansum..."), and then covering more personal ground as the fragile, lovelorn girl who has loved and lost and fears being used, in tracks like the now infamous VIDEO GAMES and MILLION DOLLAR MAN. Between these two extremes lay tales of how girls are used as sex objects ... stories of drinking, drugs, and the many other things teens do today to cope with their burgeoning adulthood.

Many of her critics brutalized her for their misconception of her as being a shallow artist singing about partying and nothing much else. But there is much more depth here than appears at first glance. I caught it at the end of the last song - Lana laments how she was taken away from her best friends in WHAT MAKES US GIRLS: "They were the only friends I ever had / We got into trouble and when stuff got bad / I got sent away, I was waving on the train platform / Crying 'cause I know I'm never coming back." Whatever happened during her youth, it ended with her parents sending her to Boarding school - and with this line, the entire album comes into focus. It's a lament, a funeral dirge for her lost youth and the friends and loves she was forced to leave behind.

Which leads to the excellent (and seemingly overlooked) album cover. Lana appears against a mostly clear blue sky with tightly coiffed hair and a white collared shirt, buttoned all the way up to the neck - an image that screams conservative! She's all grown up now. But then there's that red bra ghosting through - a reminder that she still retains that wild, party girl somewhere inside her. You can take the girl out of the party scene, but you can't take away the party girl! What a fantastically appropriate image for the album!

In short, Lana rode into town this year amidst a sea of insensitive critics who were more obsessed with her background and the size of her lips than her actual music. Can anyone remember the last time a male artist was chastised for being fake or too handsome!? Who was the last male artist who was declared a manufactured product of the music industry!? It's a shame that in our current day and age, we still can't give women a fair shake. Well, fortunately miss Del Rey has more than proven herself, and I look forward to more to come from her in the future!

Brand	N/A
Rating	4.8 (11706 ratings)
Price	$26.99
Category	Indie & Lo-Fi

Born To Die

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