A year of scrutinies and critical debates followed the release of Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die: The Paradise Edition, which features both her second studio album and her latest EP Paradise.
With a total of 23 tracks, what is the verdict of merging these together? A Lana overload.
There is no doubt that she nails the sexy brooding singer bit, with her 1960s swagger like a bittersweet modern day Marilyn Munroe, however the consistency of her tracks is what lets her down for this record.
Mixing her deep haunting vocals with heavy drum beats, creeping violins and piano, her tracks are all powerful when they stand alone, but comprised together in the same album it becomes a blur of melted together melodies and exhausted gloomy themes.
Tracks like “Carmen” are well written, excellent portrayals of the themes Del Rey is trying to expose in this album.
Sinking into the promiscuous world of sex, drugs, and the demons swallowing up a young teenage girl, “honestly how charming can she be, fooling everyone, telling them she’s having fun”.
A lovely demonstration of her expanding powerful contralto vocals occurs in track “Radio”, where she alternates between girlish whispers to deep, smouldering versus.
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Del Rey’s record paints a picture of a classic sleazy bar accommodating a lonely isolated woman and countless shots of tequila, drowning out the glum torture of her limp love life.
It is unfortunate that her collection of powerful tracks, although beautiful and engaging, become an anti-climax, never reaching that dangerous peak, leaving the album seeming drawn out, tame, and typical.
