"Born to Die" first impressions

[Douglas Alan]

What with all the hype there's been in music-land over Lana Del Rey, I bet you've all been wondering what |>oug thinks of her new album. So I came across her upcoming album yesterday and I've been listening to it a little bit. As of yet, I'm not exactly sure what to make of it. The core of her material is kind of country-tinged trip hop singer-songer songs sung in a a pleasant low, breathy kind of voice. I.e., what you've no doubt heard by listening to her song "Video Games".

The album is filled with similar material, though not in that pure form. Instead, on most of the songs, she sings in three different registers. There's the aforementioned low singer-songwriter register, and then she has two higher registers. One of them is a kind of ethereal Tori Amos/Kate Bush-like high register, and the other is a kind of Britney Spears funky pop high register. Unfortunately to my ears, these other registers aren't very convincing, and the way that she transitions between them is a bit disconcerting. Well, sure, Kate does this kind of stuff, so one shouldn't necessarily poo-poo such a thing, but I think these kind of vocal theatrics are the kind of thing that easily go awry when not performed by someone who has complete mastery of these techniques. From the wrong throat, theatrics such as these come off sounding very affected and calculated, rather than affective and powerful. Who knows, maybe this feeling of mine will pass upon further listening.

Another strange thing about the album is how songs will transition back and forth between the atmospheric trip hoppy singer song writer mode and straight ahead pop rap, all within a single song. Lana Del Rey rapping sounds about as convincing to me as Ke$ha does rapping--actually even less so--and I'm not sure what Ke$ha is doing in my trip hop. At the moment, I don't find them to be two great tastes that taste great together. And once again the transitions come off sounding to me as affected and calculated, as if there is was a deliberate attempt to figure out how to capture both alternative and pop markets at the same time. On the other hand, it might be seen as an artistic way to mix things up a bit on an album that otherwise might have felt rather monochromatic.

All this being said, the album is beautifully and lushly recorded, and the melodies are pleasant. I'll have to listen to the album more to say whether I find any of the melodies to be very compelling. In any case, Lana Del Rey is certainly worth checking out to see if you might like her, and I'm sure I'll want to keep an eye out on her in the future to see what she comes up with.

|>ouglas

[angela]

Now maybe I'm thinking she should be president. I will get her album
now, I just hope she can remember to
be bothered to sing her songs it's because she doesn't care she
sounds so good effortlessly. At last someone om my wavelength

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/entertainment-arts-16729651?SThisEM
Angela

[Douglas Alan]

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 3:29 PM, angela <angelac...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Now maybe I'm thinking she should be president.

I'd vote for her. She certainly couldn't be worse than any of the other bozos.

I will get her album now,

You should. I like it. It's grown on me, though as one critic stated, it's still not clear to me whether she's a serious artist or a pop star shot with Hipstamatic.

 

I just hope she can remember to be bothered to sing her songs it's because she doesn't care she
sounds so good effortlessly.  At last someone om my wavelength

She does sound good when she sings in her effortless voice. The rest of her singing needs a lot of work, if you ask me. But, what the hey, it's still better than 99.9% of what passes for music these days.

|>ouglas

[angela]

It heard some of her rapping it reminded me of the Chilli Peppers but
slowed down.
Also she has a off kilter sense of humour in Kinda Outta Luck
http://youtu.be/4DtZNmkJYks

On Jan 27, 9:14 pm, Douglas Alan <darkwate...@gmail.com> wrote: