Born To Die by Lana Del Rey Reviewed!

Occasionally, Amazon will run these really great sales on MP3 albums, which I usually don't get, but sometimes it's just too tempting to pass up.

So I was checking my updates from them tonight and I had five bucks left from a bookstore trip, and Lana Del Rey's "Born To Die" pops up under the lovely price of three dollars, so I gave it a go.


Out of the 12 tracks on the album, only about five of them are worth even listening to. And most of those were on the short EP that was released before the album.
The fact of the matter is that the lyrical tone, pace, and instrumentation of the album is consistently the same except for two songs. It's slow, sad, swirling, lush music put to the syrupy, 60's inspired "vocals' of Miss Del Rey.  If that description makes you a bit sleepy, the actual album will be more effective than a sleep pill for you.
I'm not saying that it's all horrible and awful and nobody should be allowed to listen, it's just very blah and boring. Lana tries for scandalous beats and an old fashioned sense of sensuality, but hits the "I'm trying really hard to be hipster" level. It's almost sad really, because there are some genuine moments on the album.
For example, the song that launched her fame, Video Games is easily the best song on the album. It sounds like what everything on this album wants to be, but isn't. There is a sense of sweet sadness and the slow, moving, instrumentation is all really soothing.
One of the other highlights is Diet Mountain Dew. Whereas the early demo was slow and dreamy, this one is the only track on Born To Die where the speed of the song actually speeds up and feels alive.
I also liked Blue Jeans, Summertime Sadness, and the title Track, because while Lana's sound is distinct and easily recognizable, it's also very boring after 12 tracks. These 5 tracks are the best taste of the album you will get.

The other 7 tracks are disappointing to say in the least. Off To The Races and Carmen are especially abysmal. Something happened during the writing of Born To Die, and it seems like all the creative power that may or may not have been Lana Del Rey lost steam and really really wanted to write about something else instead of the melancholy love story that is all Born To Die seems to talk about. Literally three quarters of the lyrical content can be summed up in a bit of the chorus from Blue Jeans: "I will love you 'til the end of time/I would wait a million years/Promise you'll remember that you're mine/Baby, can you sit through the tears?
I myself could not sit through said tears. While I will admit that my life is not sunshine and rainbows, this album is so slow and depressing towards the end that it's hard to keep from falling asleep or doing laundry while listening.
It feels like Miss Del Rey was trying to create a portrait of a corrupted world where hot guys with tattoos always leave like you expected them to stay, trips to The Hamptons aren't that expensive, and maybe material success isn't all you'd hoped it would be. ALL of the album tone can be summed up in more lyrics, this time from the aptly titled National Anthem: "Money is the anthem of success/Now before we go out, kiss kiss/....or /God, you're so handsome/take me to the Hamptons.

I can honestly say that if this album had been more varied in it's lyrical content and instrumentaion, I would've liked it better. Lana's voice is smooth and her image is interesting, but it becomes so old and stale and boring after the first five songs that it's easy to give up on.


Say what you will about Born To Die, but there are some shining moments. They're just outdone by all the bland tracks that follow.

-Randi

The Lana Del Rey Dilemma

"What are you watching?" My brother walks into the room, glancing at the TV warily.
"Saturday Night Live." I answer sheepishly.
"Why?"
"Daniel Radcliffe."
"Oh." he walks away without question.
So while you do have to be kind of drunk to enjoy Saturday Night Live, I really just wanted to check in with the lovely Dan Rad, who was actually pretty fun. But I don't think hardly anyone remembers Dan was hosting that night. They remember Lana.

A few months earlier, I'd heard an early version of one of Del Rey's songs (Diet Mountain Dew) on my favorite XM radio station. I kind of liked it. It was kind of dreamy, a little bit sixties, a little hip hop, ect.
And then came that legendarily horrid SNL performance.

This isn't a defense of Lana Del Rey. This is a dilemma for me.
I watched both of the performances on the show. I had been flipping channels during the commercial breaks and landed on SNL again just as they started playing Video Games. I thought it was a skit at first.

So of course the next day I went and looked up the studio versions of Video Games and Blue Jeans and a few others. The only one I really fell for was Video Games, and to be honest, I still like it.

I didn't know the whole SNL thing was gonna blow up like it did though. I just thought it was a weird flop. I still think a lot of people are over-reacting to it.

The thing is, it finally made me realize something: The indie community can be fooled by the big guys.

Seriously, when the original Lana Del Rey EP came on the scene, everyone was digging it. I thought it was just ok. She really was a gangster Nancy Sinatra. And then she finally sang live. She has become the Rebecca Black of the hipster community.
But Lana Del Rey still has some charm in my mind. She's got a really mellow melancholy sound, and sad as it is to say, I did enjoy her stuff for a while.

However, I tried to listen to all of Born To Die on Spotify, and her voice became annoying after the first few tracks.

So lets move on already. Let the fans be fans, and the rest of just move on. Who knows? I might hear something I like from Del Rey in a year or two, but I'm done for now.

-Randi

P.S. Sorry if this doesn't make any sense.