Born to Die

Lana Del Rey

I can’t remember an artist in my lifetime who’s been as polarizing as Lana Del Rey. You can’t get a performing gig on SNL without attaining a big fan base (especially without even having put out a record at the time). Alas, haters love to hate her. I mean they REALLY love to hate her. So many blogs and forums have made it their mission in life to tear her apart, even though Del Rey (a.k.a. Lizzy Grant) only released a handful of tunes under her current moniker. And after Del Rey completely tanked on SNL, it seemed the haters had won the battle.

I wanted to listen to this album with a very open mind. Truth be told, I really wanted this album to be good just to put an end to the unfair backlash she's received over the past few months. Most of it had to do with her “fake” image and her stage name. It’s ridiculous how many people fake their image in music, so why does Lana Del Rey get so much shit for it? I don’t for one minute believe that Lady Gaga has always exhibited the weird and outlandish behavior does, yet she got nowhere near the amount flack Del Rey’s received when she broke out with "Just Dance". Speaking of which, Lady Gaga is not her real name. Neither is Prince. Nor Jay-Z, Bob Dylan, or Common. So why can’t Lizzy Grant perform under the name “Lana Del Rey”? But, I digress…

This review isn’t about any of that. It’s about Lana Del Rey’s first LP Born to Die and whether or not she can back up the hype that’s surrounded her since last summer.

Her debut album focuses mostly on problems with men. I use “men” very loosely because many of the songs give off a very teenage vibe. But, I’d feel so lame if I said “boy problems.”

I had already heard the title track “Born to Die” and “Video Games” prior to the album’s release and I honestly like them. I still stand by them now as both being good songs. Especially the latter, which offers an honest perspective of what it’s like to love someone so much and feel like something isn’t being reciprocated.

Unfortunately, I can’t speak so highly of the rest of the album. All of the songs are so one-note and don’t measure up to par with the aforementioned tracks. Born to Die is an album almost exclusively about love and boys and wanting to feel loved by boys. This is fine as a topic for a few songs, but honestly ends up falling flat because none of the songs are really memorable at all. They have the same slow, lusting rhythm without much variation. I’m guessing the idea was to focus more on the lyrics and sultry seduction in Del Rey’s voice rather than crafting a synthy pop beat. This is good in theory (like communism), but doesn’t work at all and completely backfires (like communism). The result is an album of boring and forgettable tracks.

It’s not that Del Rey doesn’t have a good voice. She just doesn’t exhibit much vocal range on any of the songs on this album. Then again, maybe she doesn’t have a good voice at all and the production crew did a great job of mixing and perfecting the vocals. Either way, by the time “Million Dollar Man” rolled around, I was so tired of hearing the same song about how fickle boys can be that I had given up hope that it would redeem itself lyrically. And it didn’t. The album hit a complete thud with such drivel as “This is What Makes Us Girls” and “Without You”, the latter of which contains the lyrics “Summertime is nice and hot / My life is sweet like vanilla is”. “Lolita” might be the worst of the bunch. It’s basically what you’d get if Ke$ha’s and Katy Perry’s songwriters collaborated.

I’m sorry to say it, but the haters have been vindicated. At least for now.

Recommended Tracks: “Born to Die”, “Video Games”