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Lana Del Rey: Born to Die

Pop

The much-hyped/backlash-prone artist makes a solid debut, but is that enough?

First published on 27 Jan 2012. Updated on 2 May 2012.

Depending on which corners of the internet you prefer, US singer Lana Del Rey is either the Future of Contemporary Music (according to Universal Music’s portals and those whose advertising is based heavily on them) or a completely manufactured creature designed to appeal to online tastemakers but as two dimensional as an American Idol runner-up (all sites at which the use of the term “hipster” garners angry comment posts).

And both have a point: “Lana Del Rey” was the name chosen by shadowy marketing folks for failed popstress Lizzy Grant, privileged daughter of millionaire internet speculator Rob Grant. However, pop music’s never been about authenticity, as everyone from Bob "Robert Zimmerman" Dylan to Lady "Stefani Germanotta" Gaga can attest. And while it’s always fun to play the “all labels are evil: discuss”/”what is pop music, really?” debates, the only real issue is whether Born to Die is, y’know, a good record.

So: is it?

Let’s start with the singles: the bold, drum-free ‘Video Games’ is a great single whichever way you cut it, although every listen confirms in my heart that Placebo would do an incredible version (it’s made for Brian Molko’s voice, if you ask me) and the stately title track starts the album on the right note. ‘Diet Mountain Dew’ also screams to be a single, with its shuffling beat and “do you think we’ll be in love forever? / Do you think we’ll be in love?” hook.

The thing is that the trick that sounded so bold and unusual on ‘Video Games’ – giddy strings over Del Rey’s honeyed vocal – gets pretty dull after the sixth or seventh song that does the exact same damn thing. ‘Dark Paradise’ would probably be great on its own, but gets lost in the middle of a pack of near-identical songs.

It’s also clear that Del Rey’s natural vocal range is much higher than where she’s actually singing most of the time. She has a typical pop voice pushed down into a more sultry, torch song pitch – which is what differentiates her from a million wannabes but is also clearly an enormous effort for her, as made embarrassingly clear on her infamous, sub-par Saturday Night Live appearance. The breathy soprano in the chorus of ‘Radio’ sounds effortless, but there’s none of that ease in the crooned verses – and there are blue notes in the following ‘Carmen’ where the melody dips just below the bottom of her range. The wittering ‘Without You’ offers her most comfortable performance, sung right in her vocal sweet spot, but is – not coincidentally – also the most anonymous track on the album.

There are moments where she’s off pitch (‘Carmen,’ again) though the effect is more charming than irritating. Conversely, ‘Million Dollar Man’ has clearly been given some serious digital smoothing out with a vocal track obviously cobbled together from dozens of different takes.

For all of the little criticisms, Born to Die suffers most by being too long for a pop record: a strong ten track offering would be far easier to love than this bloated 15 track affair. Tracks like ‘Summertime Sadness’ and the ghastly sub-Gaga ‘Lolita’ shouldn’t have passed muster as b-sides, and there’s not a lot of A-grade material on the disc’s second half.

So, is she a genius or a fraud? Well, neither: the highs on Born to Die are legitimately high, and the lows are more about lack of variety than that the material being egregiously awful. However, it’s been overtaken by events: this might have been a perfectly solid debut when it came out of the mastering suite at some point last year, but post-SNL and the internet backlash it really had to be a world-beater on release – and that's one thing it most assuredly is not.

In five years time the name Lana Del Rey may signify a legitimate musical artist or exist only as shorthand for music industry astroturfing. For better and for worse, Born to Die foreshadows either outcome equally well.

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