[Review/Listen] – Lana Del Rey – “Born To Die”

I guess the only way to start off what will likely be one of the most read reviews on this entire website is by saying this: Lana Del Rey is not who she appeared to be, and whether that matters or not has become quite the hot topic. In the second half of 2011, a music video made its way on to the internet that not only sent powerful shockwaves through the independent music blogosphere, but drew in one of the strangest collectives of fans ever obtained. The song that the short film depicted contained one of the more emotionally powerful melodies in recent memory, as well as lyrics which were open to intense and revealing analysis. No one knew anything about the artist behind the music. The song was called “Video Games”, the artist: Lana Del Rey. Now that the artist behind one of the biggest sonic mysteries since The Weeknd or WU LYF has released not only more singles, but an entire LP, I think I can take a relatively close shot as to what the exact goal of “Video Games” was, and why Lana Del Rey’s career is panning out as it is. Before I do that, let’s talk about what definitely matters: the music.

The first question anyone should have about “Born To Die” is what it actually sounds like. Many hoped Lana Del Rey would continue to climb the mountain of deeply personal lyricism, excellent mastering, and well-crafted ballads. Others like myself, who were also listening to the B-side of “Video Games”, “Blue Jeans”, hoped she could continue to produce incredibly well-executed pop music, with indie-pop sensibilities. The end result, however jumbled it may initially appear, sees both of those concepts combined with mixed results.

In places it’s awful. Take for example the second single from the album, the title track. The personal lyrics are there, but there’s no emotional connection or passionate delivery to make me care about them. The pop sensibilities are there, but the production is about as lackluster as pop gets, especially the string arrangements. Another track, “National Anthem”, offers a pretty excellent beat, along with nice backing vocals, but is cheesy and ingenuine to the point that I get no enjoyment out of playing it.

Still, in other places we’re reminded of why people were excited about Lana Del Rey in the first place. “Off To the Races” offers an eerie, flawlessly executed pre-chorus along with the best chorus aside from “Video Games” on the whole album. Speaking of “Video Games”, let’s not forget that it has one of the most beautiful choruses of 2011, along with absolutely killer emotion and arrangements. Even the last track, “This Is What Makes Us Girls”, offers an extremely passionate and well-done melody to match some overtly lackluster lyricism.

Still, the fact remains that much of the album is marred by a lack of passion, ingenuine lyricism and songwriting, and tunes that wouldn’t be out of place on a NOW album. Why? Because Lana Del Rey is a product. Make absolutely no mistake about it, all the “lo-fi” or “experimental” sensibilities which initially applied to her have been used to make a musical product unique to most mainstream songwriters. The ultimate goal of “Video Games” was to draw in the independent music crowd, who are always looking for true passion and masterful songwriting. Once that was said and done, Elizabeth Grant, er, Lana Del Rey signed to Interscope and began to release music obviously geared towards a more radio-friendly audience. If she could just draw in both the independent music audience, and soccer-moms with insecure pre-teen girls, she could unite the music community.

It’s not a bad idea at all. Nor is it new: pop music has always been indelibly tied up with image and marketing and we’d do ourselves a favour if we didn’t act so surprised when an artist ocasionally makes that as clear to us as Lana Del Rey has. The problem with Lana Del Rey isn’t her ultimate goal, or even her motivation, the problem is that “Born To Die” simply isn’t good enough to carry it off. Besides a few choice tracks it hardly contains anything worth hearing. It’s a bland, inconsistent and occasionally incoherent album that quashes any remaining hopes for Lana Del Rey’s once vaunted indie-pop potential. Maybe it’s just better than I ever even knew.

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