"Its all marketing". "Its pure media hype". "She´s been bank-rolled by her wealthy father" .... all accusations that have
been thrown at Lana del Rey who releases her long awaited début
"Born to Die" this week.
Much of the fuss about her however has simply been a result of timing. At the end of
the year when music magazines and media outlets have complied their
top 100 / 50 best of the year polls they then desperately need to focus on new
talent for the forthcoming year, cue one Lana del Rey.
Lana del Rey is really the persona created by New Yorker, Lizzy
Grant, a husky diva and femme fatal with a trip hop backbeat, or as
The Independent on Sundays´ Simon Price put it, "a delicious
hybrid of Nancy Sinatra meets Portishead".
So after the covers of NME, Q Magazine, overload on message boards, features in the Sunday supplements....the million dollar
question is ... after all the fuss, what about the music?
The albums proceeding singles "Video Games" and title track "Born
to Die" set the tone for a truly compelling début release. The album
is a dark affair and sometimes bleak principally due to the trip hop
beats omnipresent on the bulk of the album however, this is compensated
with beautiful production and lush orchestration and great songs.
Melodrama, love gone wrong and doomed affairs mark the theme of many of the albums tracks.
The overall result is ample proof that despite all the hype Lana del Rey
has made a unique and distinctive album and a record to silence the
cynics.
video for the single "Born to Die"
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