I spent a good amount of time defending Lana already, so there's really no need to re-hash that. There's an actual album of music in our hands now and it's time, as hard as that may seem to be, to review the music for what is - as opposed to what the music should or should not be, as based on your preconceptions of Lana Del Rey.
First things first, I am curious as to whether or not I seem to be suffering from the exact opposite problem that so many other people are having with LDR's career and music: Is it possible that I've spent so much time defending her and wanting to enjoy her music that its biased the fact that - yes, I really like this album? That was a legitimate concern I had, and in these days that's an easy thing to question yourself on. There are quite a few reviews out there right now that have less flattering things to say about her. So then I ask myself: What am I missing here?
So, no, this isn't time for an essay on the relativity of music opinion and reviews. I don't need to defend my enjoyment of Born to Die, the finale of six months worth of hype and backlash. What I need to do, however, is to say: Yes, I really liked this album. I need you, discerning music fan, to hear that just in case you are looking for one more opinion to push you to one side or the other of the fence. Why? Because I don't want to see Lana Del Rey fade into obscurity, nor do I want to have to say five years from now: "It's a shame she only put out this one album."
No, I don't see that happening either. Still, isn't it nice to say that you at least spoke up in an artist's favor when you wanted to support them?
Hey, Lana (Lizzy, if you prefer), good news, all twenty-something of my daily visitors are about to read how much I enjoyed your album. You are very welcome.
The first half of Born to Die is easily the better half. At first I suspected that it was because these were just the songs I was familiar with. "Born to Die," "Video Games," "Off to the Races" and even "Diet Mtn. Dew" are the songs that made me familiar of LDR in the first place and its obvious to see why they were the first songs we heard of hers: these are the songs that best showcase who Lana is and what she does. When there are loads of descriptions of her out there that sound similar to "a gangsterish modern-day Nancy Sinatra," these are the songs that you'd listen to and say "Okay, well that sounds like exactly like what I was expecting." And, if the description of an artist as "a gangsterish modern-day Nancy Sinatra"excites you (or at least interests you), than you're going to be happy with what you hear. I was happy with what I heard.
It's the latter half of the album that becomes a little trickier to defend. These are the songs we haven't been rubbed into our skins by the music blogs for the past few months. This is where LDR has the chance to impress us or to deter us.
There are misses here, let's be honest. "Radio" and "Carmen" do absolutely nothing for me, with the former being exactly the kind of song that I was hoping Lana would avoid making. There are other songs, like "National Anthem" that I'd like to say didn't work for me, or that fell outside the sound of her music that I preferred, yet the fact that the song often gets embedded in my brain for hours speaks a little stronger in its favor.
Meanwhile, "Dark Paradise" and "Million Dollar Man" are soaring and fantastic. Especially "Dark Paradise," which embraces the poppier side of her sound for what is just a solid track worthy of getting stuck on repeat endlessly.
I've read comments criticizing songs on this album for sounding "high-budget" or "corporate pop," and, honestly, I couldn't care less. This, no doubt, points back to the debate over her authenticity, yet I still don't think that that even matters anymore. Lana Del Rey is a pop artist now. She isn't, nor was she ever, the gritty ant-pop pop-star that some people wanted her to be. She is a pop artist who offers a bit of fresh air into the stagnate stable of Top 40 pop. That's a lot of uses of the word "pop" in one paragraph.
A fair argument could be made for the fact that the biggest thing missing from Born to Die, as a whole, is a sense of depth. No, perhaps not all music needs to have depth or an emotional foundation to it, but a majority of the album sometimes feels a little like fireworks in the middle of November...pretty explosions with no actual purpose. I'm hesitant to write this, because I'm afraid it will come off as a major criticism of the album. It's a sticking point, sure, but there's something else that this album has that makes the lack of depth seem forgiveable: Grandeur.
This album feels epic. It feels big. That's because it is. It's an hour of music, first of all, a lot to take in for a pop record. The album feels like watching someone dream about home-movies of their life. The album feels like you're taking a cross-country road trip through the American Dream. The thoughts and visions that this album stirs in my imagination are unlike any that another album has created in a long time...if ever. That, in itself, is a tremendous feat.
Ultimately, I'd say this album deserves something of a 7.5/10. If it sounds high, it's because there's that emotional and stirring feeling in the album that really drives it to be something greater than it might seem at first listen. If that seems low its because of the lack of depth and the lost potential.
Lana Del Rey, honestly, has a chance to do something really interesting right now. She's going to have to transcend a heavy backlash and make an effort to defend the decisions that she's made thus far. The coming year is going to be tough for her professionally, but it has the potential to generate some amazing things. I see another album from her in the future, fueled by the experiences and opinions that surrounded her rise to fame and the making of Born to Die. I see an album that combines the amazing persona and sounds of Born to Die with the emotional depth and experience that she may just have not acquired yet at this stage of the game.
Born to Die isn't the groundbreaking album that "Video Games" might have suggested was possible. This isn't the Album of the Year. This isn't the sound of six months of hype being met. This is a great album, though, and is now (somehow) the sound of an underdog.
I really like this album, and I really want you to like it too.
No comments:
Post a Comment