Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

"Video Games" is still a very good. Nothing can, or will, tarnish that fact. Born To Die, Lana Del Rey's debut, isn't terrible. Hell, it's actually sort of enjoyable. The title track "Born To Die," if you ignore the hipster-death-punk video, is a good enough. Even the candy-coated, vocally confusing "Off To The Races" isn't all that bad. The problem with Lana Del Rey doesn't really lie in her music. If this album had come out blind, her reviews would have been far more favorable. The music is interesting, if sometimes dispassionate and bland, and the lyrics, though sometimes wanky, are good too. No, the problem here isn't with the music. The problem is with the internet. And Del Rey's use of it to gain stardom. See, had "Video Games," "Blue Jeans" and "Diet Mountain Dew" not blown up as they did last summer, this album wouldn't have drawn the bile and ire it is now. Del Rey is prey to the old problem. She has over-promised and under-delivered, instead of adhering to the axiom's opposite advice. That's not her fault entirely. It's the fault of the machine in place here online that turned her into a sensation, when really, a tempered opinion would have been more appropriate. It is, as many have pointed out, the online world did this to Black Kids, another band who was loved for an EP and hated for an LP.

Is Born To Die good? No. It's reasonably decent. On the backs of the tracks we know, Del Rey is enjoyable. And complaints about her inability to sing, or at least demonstrate some Adele-esque range, are foolish. She's not a good singer. That's not the point. She's an image. She's the broken, childish, oversexed, lost and confused image of a generation of women and girls whose sexualities and personalities have become interchangeable. Del Rey isn't a good example. She's the weak, man-needing character that decades of liberation have tried to dissuade. If she's a parody, hooray. But I don't think she is. Still, it's not about her voice. It's not about the music. Her failure, at this point, hinges entirely on the promise we perceived and the disappointment we feel from overly raised expectations. It's a problem as old as time. There's nothing about Del Rey that is less concocted than Britney Spears, Katy Perry, or Rhianna. She's formulaic. She's normal. She's just not as talented. And her team didn't do as good a job for her as those of the respective pop starlets I just listed. And that's okay. Born To Die isn't great. And if not for all the press, it wouldn't have had to be.

Sure, the lyrics are alternately profound and cheesy. Sure, Del Rey's voice populates many ranges but none particularly well. But, claims that the music is inherently forgettable are unfair. The first half of the album is actually pretty memorable and solid. It's the second half that's the problem. And that's because, boom, fame, followed by a frantic rush to compile enough songs to fill and LP. It's not a good excuse, but pop artists have been forced to throw albums together for generations. Look at Beatles For Sale, and the Rolling Stones' Black and Blue. Not everything is a hit. I'm not saying Del Rey is on par with the greats either, but the glasses through which she was viewed switched from rose-colored to shit-tinted in 15 minutes. And in all fairness, songs like "National Anthem" are hackneyed and slack. Del Rey isn't great. She's hit-or-miss. Listen to Born To Die on Spotify. It's free there. And it's worth the experience. At least once.

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Thoughts on Lana Del Rey's SNL Performance

Yes, Lana Del Rey was far less than good last night on Saturday Night Live. She warbled, often seeming to forget how, yes HOW to sing her songs. And while some places have said she was pitchy or off-key, it was more that Elizabeth Grant seemed unable to sing the songs the way she had on the YouTube videos for both "Blue Jeans" and "Video Games." Her stiff stage presence has come under fire, but I don't care about that nearly as much. SNL has a small stage despite its vast reach, so Del Rey's stillness is fine. The problem really was the singing. And it wasn't that she was even that bad, you see, she just wasn't anywhere near the hype that had built over the entire preceding Summer of 2011. Is that okay? Yes. If we each thought about it, we'd probably be just as nervous and stage-frightened to have been thrust suddenly into the live spotlight after months of harmless web-based fame. But, here's the thing that IS troubling. I think I, yes, me, could sing her songs more to the exact tune of the videos than she did. And that's all she had to do. She didn't need to take chances, or try vocal histrionics, or bust out Rhianna-style dance moves. All Del Rey had to do last night was sing the songs the way they are on YouTube.

She did not. She lost the melody multiple times. She garbled words. She seemed almost drugged to the point of disaffection. So, it brings to mind the greater Lana Del Rey issue: Is she any good... really? Her inability to perform either song well, or even just warm up by the end and rock on, is troubling because she is an internet phenom artist. Is it possible that she can't sing these songs? She did it once. Or. She succeeded in creating the pieces once. That's my main question. Can she do this or is she strictly a studio, carefully produced artist? The bigger issue, though, is what she really is and what she really wants to be. Grant (again her real name) released an album in 2010 called Lana Del Ray (with the "a" instead of the "e") that was bank-rolled by her father, and after being available for a short time, completely disappeared. By all accounts it was a fairly non-exciting pop album, but even I can't be sure. Then, one year later, "Video Games," a new image, a new style, a new persona (potentially) and lots of pseudo-indie-web-cred.

Who is Lana Del Rey really? Is she this new iteration, or is she a more traditional pop artist? (Videos from her new album would point to latter.) I'm starting to think that she's the musical equivalent of a Barbie Doll. She's poseable, but not very. You can dress her up in lots of pretty costumes and you can put her in lots of interesting settings wherein she, too, becomes interesting. But, I don't mean to rag on her either. She has put out at least 2 great songs. And whether she's the Second Coming, or just a flash in the pan, "Video Games" made my best songs list for last year. Still, if she's an entirely fabricated creation, who would let her go out and do so little, so seemingly doped up and unsure? I mean, the least she could've done is tear in half a picture of the pope. Especially if you're nervous... MAKE IT A JOKE. At least then, people can say, well, she wasn't too good, but she sure can cover her ass with more than a jig. <= Because Ashlee Simpson is once more briefly relevant!

We will see how Lana Del Rey bounces back. My guess is that she'll be fine, but her album will meet with mixed reviews here in the States. And with time, she'll hone her live performing skills, and she'll decide how to sing her songs, and she'll own this. Because, here's the thing, if she can really sing, if she really loves music, then she's earned this. And if not, then she may just be a repackaged attempt to sell some records and make some rich asshole richer. It's a tough call, but considering that most of SNL is as inconsistent, it seems unfair, at least, to lambast her right now. And if you haven't seen them, take a look at the videos below.

 

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