Lana Del Rey

Week 13: Lana Del Rey- Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

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The opening track to her ninth studio album is called ‘the Grants’, and it features her in the studio( you can hear interactions between her and the production crew) that leads into a gospel intro with backing vocals. As with most of the record, it is her usual piano ballad. From what I listened to, this is the only track that slightly deviates away from the typical piano ballad. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a boring listen because she has plenty of conscious lyrics to compensate, but there is little regarding the instrumentation. The strings give some flesh to the ballads.

Song recommendations: ‘A&W’, ‘Candy Necklace’, ‘the Grants’

Week 13: Lana Del Rey- Chemtrails Over the Country Club

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Ah, the luxury of not researching the history of an artist for once. Why? I reviewed her 2017 album “Lust for Life”, where she wasn’t holding back when she went after the former president on issues such as racism and class division. The title of her latest record will raise a few eyebrows, significantly since “Chemtrails” has been dropped in. That is controversial in itself because she’s aware that chemtrails are chemicals dropped from planes into the atmosphere that are used to decrease population or for mind control. You already sense that Lana will touch on some interesting subjects that the world superpowers will not like. The “Country Club” part is just a place where you are more than likely to play Golf or go Horse riding. Other things to enjoy include Tennis, the gym and a health spa. Anyway, onto the review…

This is Lana’s (Or Lizzie Grant’s) seventh studio album, where the sound is inspired more by the mid-west than the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles. Once again, Jack Antonoff is on production. You might recall I mentioned him in the recent review of Taylor Swift’s “Folklore”, and Jack has taken away a lot from those sessions and added them to Lana’s album. The record starts with the piano ballad ‘White Dress’, which I prefer out of most of the tracks with Lana’s almost whispered vocals and the subject of when she started in the music business. You have an essence: Lana has grown tired of LA and is looking for a much slower pace at this juncture in her life and maybe her career. I hope not because she makes good music, and it would be a shame if she decides to have a hiatus for five years.

 There’s even room for a Joni Mitchell cover (Which is the final track.), with her first features over the Americana and country-inspired record spanning over eleven tracks. I am not sure what the contributions of Nikki Lane and Weyes Blood are because I only hear Lana’s vocals with backing vocals in the chorus. Of course, maybe I needed to listen more carefully to the aforementioned featured artists in the verses. The album, with its lyrical content, subjects, delivery, excellent drumming, and the brilliance of Jack’s production, seems to be about Lana looking for the simple things in life, like swapping diamond earrings for tan wood earrings and Beverley Hills for Mammoth Spring State Park.

Song recommendations: “White Dress”, “Let Me Love You Like a Woman”, “For Free”

7/10 

Week Thirty: Lana Del Rey- Lust for Life

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Since Lana burst onto the scene back in 2012 with her second album, “Born to Die”(As this is the album that made her.), with her baroque pop that was somehow mainstream friendly, she has managed to be on both sides of the establishment vs anti-establishment wall. Blending both pop and indie with such little effort and controversy. She is also something of an enigma, yet very accessible as well.

Lana Del Rey released her self-titled debut album with her alias included on the cover (Lizzy Grant.), which is her real name, Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, which a wealthy family raised in the city of New York (Lake Placid to be exact). Anyway, enough of the history lesson and back to the review. Lana didn’t make an impact in the UK until “Video Games” after She uploaded videos on Youtube of that song and “Blue Jeans”, which would feature on her forthcoming album, “Born to Die”, the following year. Those videos also would be the template for how Lana would be sonically from there on in. The sound would hark back to the early 1990s trip-hop, laced with her soulful vocals.

She hasn’t changed sonically nor lyrically with her fifth album, “Lust For Life”, yet this record is her best since her breakthrough, “Born to Die”. There are many featured artists on this 71-minute, 16-song tracklist. Some I have never heard of, and other artists like rapper A$AP Rocky, who I think are shit and are not fit enough to touch 2Pac’s mike stand, let alone his microphone. Another rapper, Playboi Carti, also features, and then we have the likes of Fleetwood Mac’s, Stevie Nicks and the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Sean Ono Lennon (The lesser known of the Brothers.). And let’s remember the very talented rnb artist, The Weeknd.

So, with such a long guest list, does the record deliver? From the opening track, “Love”, I would say that it does. It starts off very moody before building into a majestic chorus with consummate ease, a hook that gets stuck into your head. This theme continues on the title track featuring The Weeknd. Expect provocative lyrics on the title track, but if you have seen some of her videos, you should know what to expect.

The standout track has to be “When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing”, which is a politically charged song about how to deal with and live your life in America under the presidential rule of Donald Trump, which has brought with it plenty of controversy with sexism, fascism and pro-NRA baggage. This has to be the best song Lana has written for its theme and the message conveyed within the lyrics. I like very conscious lyrics, so this song jumps out at me. The political theme continues with “God Bless America (And All the Beautiful Women in It)”, which attacks the Republican government on their views of women’s rights in the country. Again, I was very impressed with the conscious lyrics and had even more respect for Lana for daring to challenge the establishment. Such subjects can make record companies recoil in horror, but more power to Lana for going against the grain.

Some might moan about her collaboration with Sean Ono Lennon on “Tomorrow Never Came”, saying it sounds too much like the Beatles or Bob Dylan, but I like this. Unfortunately, just like his brother Julian, Sean sounds precisely like his father John, which certainly didn’t help Julian on his musical quest (Whether it’ll help Sean remains to be seen.). Therefore, many might be disappointed with this track, but I couldn’t care less if Sean sounds like his dad. If anything, it’s a reminder of what John would sound like in the modern era with modern technology, so think of it that way, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it rather than throw criticism at it; plus, you have the Dylan-esque aura on the song. 

The most disappointing track on the record has to be “Beautiful People, Beautiful Problems”, which is a shame as it has Stevie Nicks on it. Still, the track seems like Lana’s momentarily lapse in creativity or just a filler to make up the tracklisting. It’s such a shame that the track turned out that way, as Stevie’s contribution is monumental, as you can imagine.

The record has a strong ending with “Muted Heroin”, a piano ballad leading into the final track, “Get Free”, where there are some very poetically beautiful lyrics about crossing over from the ordinary world into your heart. This is a good album that could have reached monumental status with some tweaking here and there, but this is her best album since “Born to Die”, which keeps her legacy very much intact. Although I would still rank “Born to Die” above this and any other of her records, yes “, Lust for Life” (Inspired by Iggy Pop? I don’t know.) does deliver.

8/10