First Reaction: Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

Generally I prefer album reviews that have been written after listening to the album a few (or more) times and thinking about it. But Lana Del Rey, the Internet star/phenomenon/meme, has prompted almost exclusively knee-jerk responses, so I feel this is appropriate. I have just finished listening to the her debut album Born To Die for the first time, and I am going to write a reactionary review of it.

When I saw Lana Del Rey's performance on SNL, I hoped that it would be one of the low points in her career. While I do think “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” are good songs, the performances were admittedly pretty horrendous. After all, she's a girl who is very new to this. If you were booked to play SNL before even having your debut album out, I'm sure you would be nervous, too. Despite that, many of the reactions people had after the performances weren't just attacking the specific performances or the songs themselves. 

Some weren't even about Lana Del Rey as an artist. A lot of the reactions were wholly unconcerned with the musical aspect, instead commenting on her fake persona or the faux-hipster music video for “Video Games.” (After all, when she originally released an album under her actual name, Lizzy Grant, two years ago, she looked quite different, with noticeably smaller lips.) Diamond Rugs (the new supergroup featuring members of Deer Tick, Black Lips, Los Lobos, and others) recently told Paste, “Musicians are the people that sell you guitar strings at a guitar store, and entertainers are the people you go out and have fun to watch, and we are entertainers....”

Tom Waits has shared similar thoughts in regards to stories in his songs that are not always completely believable—he is an entertainer, not a historian. Yet I doubt nearly all the LDR critics who harp on her manufactured look would say the same thing about Diamond Rugs, Tom Waits, even Lady Gaga. As an entertainer, these things don't matter much, and criticizing them both is unnecessary and misses the point.

Earlier this month she released an EP of four songs to appear on Born To Die (and which had also been online for awhile), and the songs were not bad. “Video Games” is a great pop song, as is “Blue Jeans;” “Born to Die” was good; and “Off to the Races” wasn't that bad, either. These are the first four songs on the album. This is a bit of a bad move on the label's part, because while it's fine to start off the album with a bit of familiarity, by the fourth song I found myself thinking, “Okay, I've heard this, let's get on to the new stuff.”

Another reason why they might have done better to space these four songs throughout the album is because they are by far the best on the album. I was hoping they would establish the feel of the album. While they did this—technically—they were only able to do this because the rest of the songs are more or less copies of these songs. The subtle differences lie in hokey electronic instruments and faux-hip hop backing beats; they all do a sufficient job at blending together into a mediocre mess.

It is very clear that most of all Lana Del Rey wants to be the token hipster princess—one part glamour, one part thrift store. But it is also clear that her knowledge of hipster culture is observed from a distance more than she has actually been living it. In the last track, “This Is What Makes Us Girls,” her attempt to seductively say, “Pabst Blue Ribbon on ice” made me audibly chuckle. Just call it PBR, Lana/Lizzy! Even despite that, it just sounds silly and out of place, which is actually kind of a theme on the album.

I had (some) hopes for this album, if for no other reason than I hoped her SNL performance would have been the low point of her music career. I think everyone has realized that this album could not possibly live up to all the hype it has gotten on the Internet, w kind of bums me out for LDR, especially since the whole Lana Del Rey persona (including the songs) seems more controlled by managers and producers than cy Lizzy Grant. The fact remains that she is a young songwriter/performer and has a lot of growing to do. However, barring a few good tracks, Born To Die on the whole proves that an album can simultaneously be lazily produced and overproduced. Sorry, LDR. I tried to like it. But just so you know, I will still be keeping up with your modeling career.

EDIT: ADDENDUM [2/03]: Some miscellaneous thoughts I had after posting the blog:

• She is a singing Urban Outfitters ad.
• Alternately, she is a singing American Apparel ad.
•  I'm not sure why the Internet is so polarized on such a non-polarizing singer.
• She seems confident in her looks but timid in her singing/songwriting.

Okay. Back to the Internet you go.

EDIT 2 [2/06]: I know this is the ever-expanding blog post about a subject all of the Internet is already talking about, but I had to include this LDR sketch from SNL—a good defense disguised as a good sketch.

Now having spent two weeks with the album, I want to say that I've warmed up a bit to it, and I think my big qualms with it mostly sound like decisions made in the production in it—things that I assume were mostly out of her hands. I'm interested to see how she grows as an artist.