Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

Lana Del Rey's major label debut second album (her actual self-titled debut was basically trash-canned after a lackluster release) is a mash up of Baroque Pop and Trip Hop? Ok, i'll bite, i love lavishly unnecessary string arrangements and downtempo noir, bring on the borning to die, i guess. 

Sure, that technically qualifies as Trip Hop, Off To The Races ups the intensity rather than killing it, and damn it's good. It better be right? I mean we're holding it to Massive Attack/Portishead standards, aren't we? Lana Del Rey has a unique deadpan delivery, perfect for her image as a reluctant Stepford Wife in training. Outside she's a country club princess, inside she's Cyndi Lauper, as evidenced by the red bra under the white shirt. 

Yeah, this is a spectacular mashup of orchestra and electronica, if you hate this you really just hate the timbre of her voice. There i can't help you, you just gotta get over it. I'll have to pull out Chemtrails Over The Country Club to verify, but right at the moment i like this better. That's a seriously good Side A. You get the "fair warning, i'm a crazy bitch" at the beginning, ride the roller coaster, and end up at "money is the real national anthem." 

Now, back in 2012 she got a ton of shade for this album, mostly in the form of "FAKE!" She was accused of trying to garner Indie credibility, but her response was "i don't know what Indie is, i was an alcoholic street kid and then i stopped drinking when i got major label distribution, and all my songs are basically unrequited love songs to ostensibly New York City, but mostly they're about how much i miss alcohol." Not sure why you'd demand authenticity from a pseudonym, but i'll indulge it. Critics called her a "gangsta Nancy Sinatra," and i can totally hear that, but can you say that about anybody else? No, i don't think you can, it's pretty identifiably Lana Del Rey. You can compare her to Billie Eilish in terms of singing, but not so much musically beyond a vague foundation of Hip Hop and a trajectory toward Torch Ballads. Billie Eilish is essentially Horrorcore Trap while Lana Del Rey is decidedly Cinema Noir, and those are two completely different, though expressively similar, worlds in my mind. Granted, they both have a strong existentialist undercurrent but who's gonna confuse LDR's sweeping orchestras for BE's twerky synth leads? They both do silly voices. 

Anywho, we've got a Side B to codepend on. I hear tell it somehow sounds better, but i expect that to not really be a thing because Side A sounded lovely. 

Damn, this is dark. Side B really clarifies the sardonic nostalgia that encompasses the whole album. That's basically what critics missed the first time around, they all took it at face value as a hedonistic romp through late millenial teenagehood, and now a decade later they have to backpedal. I'm Bottle and even for me this is hard to put into words; this album is a sad-stalgic rememberance of the life that killed her. She's metaphorically dead now, the party killed her. Who pours a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon over ice as the chaser for shots of cherry schnapps? Party girls with the summertime blues whose future aliveness is seriously questionable. 

I mean look, whether you like Lana Del Rey or not, Born To Die is an absolutely phenomenal album. I'm not just saying that because i like it and my head was bobbing the entire time, it ticks off all the boxes. On focus concept from cover art to conclusion, check. Putting your unique personal stamp on a relatable topic, check. Musical style/genre as a meaningfully integral part of the work itself, check. That's it, that's all the criteria, fantastic album. 

Lana Del Rey is a character. No doubt the life experiences of Elizabeth Grant feature prominently in that character's essence the same way the Bottle that is me is at the mercy of the brain i'm trapped inside, but she's definitely a believable, if not entirely redeemable, character. 

Seriously, you gotta give this album a proper listen, it's really good.