BBC Review
Intelligent, ambitious and brilliantly realised, Born to Die defies any backlash.
Jaime Gill 2012-01-26
If you want an explanation for the unlikely rise of Lana Del Rey, it isn’t that hard to find. Ignore accusations of cynical marketing and inauthenticity, or speculation about surgery and Daddy’s money – that’s not important. And don’t get distracted by the YouTube statistics or the online hyperbole, this isn’t about new media. It’s about something older and more mysterious than that; the extraordinary, resilient power of the pop song. For all of her trashy Americana and startling beauty, if Del Rey hadn’t arrived last summer with a song as luminously beautiful as Video Games, none of this would be happening.
So the only truly important question about Born to Die is whether there’s more where that came from. Cynics look away: the answer is an emphatic yes. Nothing else quite matches Video Games’ eerie perfection of form and melody – after all, 99% of singers go an entire career without finding one song that good – but several run it perilously close, while revealing there’s more to her than the love-stunned torch singer of Video Games.
What makes Born to Die so richly fascinating – and what marks Del Rey out from the standard issue "I’m hot, you’re hot" pop starlet – is her preoccupation with Hollywood archetypes of American femininity, and her ability to shape-shift between them. So, on the stately, bloodstained title-track, Del Rey plays femme fatale, deliciously stoned and doomed, with an imperious vocal to match. On the addictive, sugar-rushing Off to the Races she’s trailer trash living the high life, her vocal veering deftly between husky cynicism and hiccupping glee; while on the tender This Is What Makes Us Girls she’s the poor little rich girl looking melancholically back on youthful hedonism.
It all reaches its apotheosis on National Anthem where Del Rey, dissatisfied with merely being an all-American girl, becomes America itself, offering up deadpan slogans like "money is the reason we exist" before demanding utter patriotic devotion on the swaggering chorus. If that sounds knowing that’s because it is, not to mention intelligent, ambitious, and more interesting than anything Adele is likely to write even by the time her inevitable 72 collection hits the shelves of the future. It’s also brilliantly realised, thanks to Del Rey’s extraordinary delivery, her ability to slip from deep-toned haughtiness to breathless ecstasy to velvety vamping – often in the same gorgeous melody.
Born to Die isn’t perfect: it slumps slightly towards the end, and the glossy trip-hop production grows wearying on lesser gothic melodramas like Dark Paradise. But it’s the most distinctive and assured debut since Glasvegas’ eponymous disc in 2008, and makes you desperate to see where she goes from here. Del Rey’s defenders can take a break: Born to Die does their job better than they could hope to.
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Comment number 1.
At 14:17 26th Jan 2012, maxtheyid wrote:"The most distinctive and assured debut since Glasvegas’ eponymous disc in 2008"
That's not praise at all. Also, ridiculously baseless and untrue.
C- Must try harder Jaime
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Comment number 2.
At 14:22 26th Jan 2012, Mike Diver wrote:You don't think the Glasvegas album sounded distinctive? Whether you think it was good or not is something else - but it certainly didn't sound like much else out that year.
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Comment number 3.
At 14:48 26th Jan 2012, charli wrote:The rise of LDR isn't really unlikely when you consider how much money and hype has gone into her, hype you continue to force down peoples throats cause your all making cash out of it....you think we don't know how all this works. The album is disaapointing and that's being polite, did we expect anything else...not really
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Comment number 4.
At 15:07 26th Jan 2012, maxtheyid wrote:If you want the biggest, most distinctive and most assured record this month, look no further than right here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/vhq4
British, fiercely independent, and as an added bonus they actually finish recording their tracks before releasing them. Unlike Miss Del Rey...
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Comment number 5.
At 15:13 26th Jan 2012, popslave wrote:maxtheyid, can i just check - have you heard the LDR album?
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Comment number 6.
At 15:35 26th Jan 2012, SteveDave wrote:No mention that DAVID SNEDDON (AKA The Sned) wrote National Anthem? For shame.
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Comment number 7.
At 16:24 26th Jan 2012, popslave wrote:SteveDave - You're right - the Sned should have got his rightful acclaim for co-writing such an amazing song
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Comment number 8.
At 06:32 27th Jan 2012, acash1 wrote:I love her music! Video Games inspired me to make this :)
http://youtu.be/zscrbDdWzCk
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Comment number 9.
At 01:10 28th Jan 2012, gotadragononmyback wrote:I'm sorry, but in my opinion this http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/arts/music/born-to-die-lana-del-reys-debut-album.html?pagewanted=all is far more insightful review...
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Comment number 10.
At 06:24 28th Jan 2012, popslave wrote:gotadragononmyback - it's not exactly a like for like comparison. This lengthy, rambling thought piece seems like yet another attack on Lana Del Rey's public profile, with commentary on her TV performances - the album is mentioned almost in passing. Only one (already well known) song appears to be mentioned by name
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Comment number 11.
At 09:34 3rd Feb 2012, StuBox wrote:I'll not reiterate my entire argument, which you can find here: http://tinyurl.com/6uxm3hu but he label 'manufactured artist' is ridiculous. The whole music industry is contrived. It's a construct designed to make money from music. Every single track on your ipod is manufactured. All you need ask yourself is: do you like this album or don't you? Either way, stop complaining.
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Comment number 12.
At 10:19 3rd Feb 2012, popslave wrote:Agreed StuBox. The really really funny thing about all of this is the idea that Lana Del Rey has been precision engineered for success. At which record company meeting did they say "do you know what we need to sell millions of records? doomy, funereally paced torch songs, sung by someone who is doused in obscure Americana and David Lynch iconography, and whose lyrics are about sleazy doomed romances and existential ennui." Would you have bought shares in such an enterprise?
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Comment number 13.
At 22:53 4th Feb 2012, mattneric wrote:mattneric's review: http://mattneric.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/lana-del-rey-born-to-die/
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Comment number 14.
At 19:16 10th Feb 2012, LUFC - Falcon1986 wrote:StuBox/Popslave, if you truly believe all music is created for the sole purpose of profit I feel very sorry for you, admitedly 90% of what the beeb pedals here and on its standard bearing stations can justify that accusation, but there is more to music than that.
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