Here's our first post of 2012 and it's all about the new phenomenon known as "Lana Del Rey," otherwise known by her real name, Lizzy Grant. With all the hoopla - and there HAS been a lot of hoopla - it's kind of surprising that her debut album, "Born To Die," is surprisingly solid in a very non-earth-shattering type of way. Described (by herself, or by someone else who credited it to Lana) as a "gangsta Nancy Sinatra," Del Rey cleverly has packaged herself (or been packaged) as a sort of modern torch singer, mixing in the glamour of 1960's Hamptons with more street-wise, hip-hop elements. She can definitely make her voice sound all "old fashioned" as demonstrated in a couple of the darker numbers, which happen to be the hits, "Blue Jeans" (our personal favorite here at Aural-O), the internet meme sensation "Video Games," as well as the title track. The "gangsta" part seems to come from the few tracks that do include Del Rey using more of a rap-style vocal delivery, such as the frenetic "Off To The Races," and the sublimely beautiful (and for some reason, critically reviled) "National Anthem," (which happens to be our second-favorite song.)
If it seems that we are using a lot of parenthesis in this review (and indeed, we are) it may be due to the highly contentious nature of most of the aforementioned "hoopla" surrounding Del Rey and her persona. If you hadn't ever met Del Rey (I have) or seen her perform live in the flesh, and if you had only paid attention to what you read in the blogs or heard from your hipster friends, you'd think that Del Rey had, as Kristin Wiig stated during her impression of the young singer on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live, "clubbed a baby seal while singing the taliban national anthem" during her US premiere on that very same show several weeks earlier. The rage was immediate and harsh, ranging from mean tweets from celebrities, to countless "she sucks" comments on various online articles about the singer. Here are the common claims: that her dad is a millionaire so she bought her success, that she changed her name/look/sound to try to be more successful, that she had her lips surgically enhanced, and that she is inexperienced and unpolished as a live performer. Why these complaints have been lodged so forcefully, and with such great ire by so many, seems to speak more to the current state of society than anything Del Rey herself did or did not do. Being a singer has always been akin to being an actor. The song is your script and it is up to you how you are going to interpret it, how you are going to emote the feelings contained in the lyrics using your voice and body. Any singer signed to a major label in the history of music has been packaged and marketed by the suits in the corporate office. A huge amount of successful musicians and other celebrities have changed their names, looks, and styles either before their success or during the course of it, often many times. Look at Madonna: who would dare to criticize her for changing her looks? It's always been a part of who she is and what she does.
We could sit here and debate the merits and authenticity of Lana Del Rey all day, as many people apparently are wont to do, but the fact is that as a performer and a singer/songwriter, she has something special that clearly evokes lots of emotions in others - some good, some bad. The fact that her album just debuted at #2 on the Billboard album charts seems to show that there are plenty of people who dig Del Rey. Despite what the haters may say, we at Aural-O think she is a bright new star in the music industry and has a great career in front of her.
Oh, and one last thing: to those who argue that she bought her way to the top, please think about this: How many girls (and guys) who's parents belong to the 1% do you think have done everything in their power to turn their money into fame and success? If it was that easy, don't you think the radio would be filled with the voices of spoiled rich kids having used daddy's money to hire producers to auto-tune them into oblivion? In reality, that story is a rarity. Even "Posh Spice" didn't really come from a rich family. Most rich kids are too lazy to lug an acoustic guitar around to open mic nights in Brooklyn, so whether it's true that Del Rey's father is an internet impresario is frankly irrelevant. But, haters gonna hate...
Rating: OOOO (Four out of Five O's)
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