If you haven’t heard of Elizabeth Grant, a.k.a. Lana Del Rey, by now you must be living under a rock.
Whether you’ve been following her since she exploded onto the pop music scene this last summer when she posted “Video Games” to YouTube, or you’re like the rest of America who has come to know her as “that girl that screwed up on SNL, receiving plenty of flack from critics, celebrities and even a baffled Brian Williams for receiving as many see it, “too much too soon.”
While it’s true that Born to Die is Del Rey’s debut album following an appearance on SNL after only releasing one official single, one performance cannot deny the amount of raw talent that she does possess.
Del Rey’s “gimmick” thus far has been relying on the nostalgic feeling her music has.
She went as far as self-describing herself as a “gangsta Nancy Sinatra.”
This description couldn’t hit the nail more on the head when it comes to Del Rey.
Sinatra is in fact the daughter of Frank, but she was well known for her own celebrity, being a successful singer, actress and model.
Del Rey has molded herself into a modern day Sinatra with a hip-hop edge, obsessing with fame and love over beautifully produced orchestral pieces with big hip-hop bass in the background.
Along with her smooth and sultry voice, it’s the perfect match made in Heaven and she finds a way to pull this off well.
While Del Rey never openly expresses the want to die in any one track, her longing for, and despair due to, relationships makes Born to Die play out like some sort of elongated suicide note – going as far as accompanying the liner notes with fake blood splatter. Based off of her first full effort (as Lana Del Rey) alone, it seems that the most important thing in Del Rey’s life next to fame is love and the trouble that comes with it.
In fact the opening words to the album on “Born to Die” is “Feet don’t fail me now/ Take me to the finish line/ Oh my heart it breaks every step that I take/ But I’m hoping at the gates, they’ll tell me that you’re mine.”
Internet sensations “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” both have similar tales of Del Rey longing to be wanted by her male counterpart and in one way or the other, getting rejected.
While “Video Games” has Del Rey singing her heart out about doing anything in her power to please her man and get him to notice her, “Blue Jeans” is the perfect combination of nostalgic meets modern.
In a mere three-and-a-half minutes, Del Rey paints a picture of encountering a James Dean-like rebel whom she falls in love with instantly, but is forced to let go of him as he goes on to “chase paper.”
In “Diet Mountain Dew”, Del Rey deals with more bad boys she’s strangely attracted to and lays down the clever line, “Let’s take Jesus off the dashboard/ Got enough on his mind/ We both know just what we’re here for/ Saved too many times.”
Aside from these gems, the rest of Born to Die sticks to a somewhat similar formula.
Overproduced orchestral beats coupled with Del Rey pining over a certain male (“Off to the Races”), wanting what she can’t (“Million Dollar Man” or shouldn’t (“Dark Paradise”, “Radio”) have, and ultimately lusting for eternal love (“Summertime Sadness”).
Fame takes the spotlight as the album progresses.
In “National Anthem”, Del Rey stars off with “Money is the anthem of success” as she is whisked away by a male lover on an expensive getaway.
But deeper into the song, more references to fame are made, including one to the infamous Page Six of The New York Post’s celebrity coverage saying “It’s a love story for the new age/ For the sixth page/ We’re on a quick, sick rampage/ wining and dining, drinking and driving/ Excessive buying overdose and dying/ On our drugs and our love and our dreams and our rage.”
In the album’s darkest moment, Del Rey’s character opens up about the troubles of fame on “Carmen” expressing “You don’t want to be like me/ don’t want to see all the things I’ve seen…/ You don’t want to get this way/ famous and dumb at an early age…”
Del Rey closes the album by cementing the marriage of love and fame to Born to Die in “Without You” with “Everything I want, I have/ Money, notoriety and rivieras/ I even think I found God in the flashbulbs of your pretty cameras,” and “I can be your china doll if you want to see me fall/ Boy you’re so dope, your love is deadly…/ They all think I have it all/ I have nothing without you/ All my dreams and all the lights mean/ nothing without you.”
Plain and simple, Born to Die is a well done nod to nostalgic pop of the 60s and 70s, while mixing it with modern hip-hop tones.
Each track is masterfully produced, a little too overproduced in some places; and despite the shallow depth of the album’s lyrical content, the character and world that Del Rey has created to go along with the music fits perfectly.
While the album is in no way considered a perfect album, it should definitely be enough to silent Del Rey’s critics for the time being.
With experience in maturity, Lana Del Rey could be a force to reckon with in the Pop world for years to come.
Grade: 76%