Next, ‘Born To Die’ comes a cropper with ‘National Anthem’, a co-write with former Fame Academy winner David Sneddon, which features some unfortunate quasi-rapping and addresses the record’s themes in a way that’s all fingers and thumbs compared to ‘Video Games’’ flawless seduction.
She follows that with ‘Diet Mountain Dew’, a breathless, mid-tempo R&B number. And the latter has lost none of its uncanny power, those lilting piano chords suggesting the perfect hopelessness of a cherished old photograph. The former’s lush Chris Isaak shades shimmer like sea-spume on Helena Christensen’s naked thighs as Del Rey longs for her James Dean. Next up it’s the ‘Blue Jeans’/‘Video Games’ double whammy. The slightly unhinged-sounding ‘Off To The Races’, meanwhile, swaps the tattooed Romeo of the former track’s vid for a coke-snorting sugar daddy, revelling in the amoral pleasures of being a kept woman with no questions asked. Strings usher us mournfully into the palace of Del Rey’s sadness, her voice curling like art deco smoke-plumes – “ sometimes love is not enough,” she sighs. And ‘Born To Die’ certainly isn’t shy out of the traps, gliding in with the title track’s big-budget remodelling of the LDR template. Fame and romantic love are the dominant narratives sold to us by modern culture, and who better to call it than this freakishly beautiful, David Lynch-addicted, 25-year-old millionaire’s daughter? Looking back on the controversies that followed ‘Video Games’’ runaway success last year – big lips, career false starts, et al, ad nauseam – they begin to resemble not so much a case for the prosecution as they do a vindication of her ‘Hollywood sadcore’ shtick. Then again, it’s tempting to wonder if Del Rey doesn’t relish the critics’ barbs on some level. Amazingly, we’re still not sure which story got most publicity. In the same week that Mark Wahlberg claimed he would have stopped 9/11 if he’d been on board one of the planes that crashed, the self-described ‘gangsta Nancy Sinatra’ caught hell from half the internet and sundry ’slebs of dubious import for her shaky performance of ‘Video Games’, before compère Daniel Radcliffe rushed to her defence. Unfortunately, this one is neither.It speaks volumes about the fuss surrounding Lana Del Rey’s recent Saturday Night Live performance that, after the show, even Harry Potter’s fabled magic wand could do nothing to stem the flow of unkind words directed her way. In case you miss the concept, “Without You” spells it out: It’s all about “the dark side of the American dream.” But American dreams are tempting, which is why they’re dangerous. As any fan of Madonna, Britney or Steely Dan could tell you, lyrics about the perils of seduction work better when attached to seductive tunes. (Loads of Lolita references, though her literary template seems to be Poison’s “Fallen Angel.”) She has clever lines in “Diet Mtn Dew,” she rhymes “Take another drag, turn me to ashes” with “Says he’s gonna teach me just what fast is.”īut her voice is pinched and prim, and her song doctors need to go the fuck back to med school. The big theme: femininity as a scam, as lost girls preen for the gaze of imaginary sugar daddies. Her strength is the lyrics, which have the pop-trash perversity that the music lacks. It goes for folky trip-hop ballads with a tragic vibe, kinda like Beth Orton used to do. Given her chic image, it’s a surprise how dull, dreary and pop-starved Born to Die is. But for the rest of us, she’s just another aspiring singer who wasn’t ready to make an album yet. She’s a starlet to music bloggers, who’ve been buzzing over her for the past year. Give Lana Del Rey credit: At least she didn’t break down and cry on Saturday Night Live.
0 kommentar(er)
