Lana Del Rey.
Everyone by now should know that name. If you don't, she's a new kind of pop singer. A vintage, lonely, anti-feminist hipster caught up in the tropes of L.A. and finding love and acceptance through men. There's been a lot of talk about her image, which people perceive as fake, which is probably true for nearly every entertainer out there today, but as long as you release some dope songs, all is forgiven.
Lana dropped her debut Born To Die two years ago and it was perfection. I mean, most of the songs sounded the same, but they were so good that it didn't matter. Then she hit us with The Paradise Edition which kept that strong momentum going. She released 8 songs on Paradise and they were all pretty good and mostly better than what was on Born To Die. Needless to say, Lana is more than accepted in the hipster/vintage world.
Then after a year or so of hibernation, she comes back with "Young and Beautiful" from The Great Gatsby, which I fully believe should have been nominated for an Oscar. That song was just another credential Lana could add to her already extremely impressive arsenal. Then she had her best selling hit with that god awful techno-dance remix to "Summertime Sadness," which I think was a tragedy.
So that brings us to Ultraviolence, which was announced after that BULLSHIT of a video called Tropico. I was excited from the moment the title of this album dropped and I was even more excited whenever she started to release some of the songs. She dropped 4 total: "West Coast", "Ultraviolence", "Brooklyn Baby", and "Shades of Cool". Two of these songs were FLAMES. One was okay, and the other was about as good as hearing someone just claw a chalkboard.
Lana said that this was going to be a departure from Born To Die and that Tropico was the end of Born. So did this album live up to the hype? Is it better? Will she flop? Will she get the recognition she deserves? Lana is a unique talent, but I'm not exactly buying into her act, which I can say for 99% of musicians out today, and I'm probably one of her biggest supporters. So let's get into this.
Ultraviolence Review
1. Cruel World
So we start off the album with a song that sounds like the last 19 minutes of "The End" by The Doors. But then she starts singing about how she feels better now that her man is gone and she's gonna go out and live it up. You could honestly skip this song and live a fulfilling life. This is a weak opener compared to "Born To Die". Song is okay once, but more than that and you just have too much time on your hands.
2. Ultraviolence
F-L-A-M-E-S. Love this song more than I love my family, easily. I mean, I have no clue whatsoever what the song is about, something about a group she was in, but I don't care because this is honestly just a pure joy to listen to. I've listened to this like 932898434 times, but that's just an estimate. I have no clue who "Jim" is, but they say art is open to interpretation so I'm just going to pretend it's Jim Morrison. This is definitely getting repeated plays in the future.
3. Shades of Cool
This sounds like the beginning of every James Bond movie ever made. But after an almost unbearable slow start it picks up and becomes a beautiful songbird of a song. That's the problem with a lot of Lana Del Rey songs, you have to endure a heap of slow boringness to get to the hidden gems. Which I actually like because the payoff justifies the trip it took to get there. But yeah this song is cool, not gonna ever go out of my way to listen to it again unless it comes on shuffle and I'm physically unable to change the song.
4. Brooklyn Baby
God I honestly hate everything about this song. I tried like 4 times to make myself like this but it's just not happening. It's like tomatoes. A lot of people like it so you're like, "damn, maybe this is an acquired taste" and so you keep eating the tomatoes but it still sucks but you can't understand why because you love ketchup and you always check the bottles at restaurants to make sure the ketchup is full but if it isn't then you have to awkwardly go to another table and steal their ketchup. But yeah, fuck this song.
5. West Coast
Okay after listening to that dog fart of a song, Lana drops some blue flames on us. I absolutely love this song and I wish more songs on this album would sound like this because this is heavenly. It's a fusion of rap, pop, and vintage pop. It meshes up perfectly and I will continue listening to this song until my dying day. I'm a huge fan of the last minute that sounds like West Coast 90s rap. This may actually the best song on Ultraviolence.
6. Sad Girl
This song starts off sounding like Bruce Lee about to fight Kareem Abdul Jabbar in Game of Death. I guess this is supposed to about Lana's conflicting feelings of being a mistress. This isn't that great of a song. It's just kind of middle of the road to me. The chorus is good stuff but everything else about the song is mostly forgettable. But I feel like this track will end up being a grower the more I listen to it. It's going on my iPhone, but it may end up getting deleted one day to make room for better music.
7. Pretty When You Cry
MELANCHOLY!!!! Man what has happened in Lana's life that she has no happiness in her soul? Like I thought Born To Die was a sad album but this shit is not even enjoyable to listen to at the moment. I feel like this is targeting a certain sad girl demographic.
8. Money Power Glory
Wooo! We're finally back in enjoyable territory. I'm really big on this song because it doesn't make me want to kill myself in front of my ex. The chorus is really well done even if the verses in between don't exactly add anything of significance to the song. To be 100, this song might not even be good, but I've gone through some bullshit to get here and by god I'm kicking my feet up and relaxing to this smooth song that kinda becomes trash in the last minute and a half. But yeah, I fux with this track heavy, maybe. I don't know. No, I do. I do. I love it.
9. Fucked My Way To The Top
I'm gonna let the feminists duke this one out with each other. But this song is a shot at a singer (IDK who, but I'm gonna guess it's someone mega famous). Actually this song is kinda hard. She also addresses people like me who don't think she's authentic (I don't at all) and sarcastically says she fucked her way to get here (might be true though). Her first album, aka Lizzy Grant was a wildly different sound from the Lana Del Rey you hear today, so this song does have a bit of irony when it comes to her authenticity. I guess Lana reads Youtube comments after all. But yeah, I'm really digging this song. Even if she kinda bites Adele's style sometimes. IRONY!!!
10. Old Money
Gonna pretend this is a Great Gatsby reference. But I'm not exactly wanting to ever listen to this song again. It's okay but you really gotta be in a "sit hunched over in the bathtub" kind of mood to really enjoy this track. It's a personal song to her, but it's ass, to me. But I can tell this will end up being a grower.
11. The Other Woman
This is a cover of a Nina Simone song and a really personal song to Lana, so I'm not going to say much about this because I understand wanting to pay tribute to something you care so deeply about. I mean, I won't ever listen to it again in my lifetime, but Lana's voice is nice at the end though.
12. Black Beauty
DAWG. Lana Del Rey really needs to find some independence in her life because she is too got damn reliable on guys to make her happy in her songs. I mean, the song itself is gorgeous, but she kinda acts like a clingy girlfriend and there is nothing worse to a guy than a clingy girlfriend. BET. Other than that, this is a smooth song to throw on, but you might have to be in the right mood. The beat kinda fools you into thinking this is an empowering song but it's more of a desperation song, which is what Lana Del Rey has become known for, although she's never made it as obvious as she does on this track. It's kind of an annoyance, to be honest.
13. Guns and Roses
This song is a tad lazy, actually it's obviously lazy. The beat and verses are shockingly the things that make this song worth the listen. It's like Lana can't find a happy medium with her music. You're either getting trash verses and a fantastic chorus, and vice versa. Or you just get a hot dumpster fire of a song. To me, this is what keeps Lana from reaching greatness. This is an extremely simple song that doesn't get saved from the almighty SKIP button.
14. Florida Kilos
Woo this song isn't all that great but it's different from the rest of this album and I welcome that with arrrrrms wiiiide oooopen. And it was co-written with Harmony Korine, the director of that trash ass movie Spring Breakers. So it's not surprising that this song sucks too. It's catchy as all hell though so that'll keep you low IQ having ass radio listeners happy. Song sounds like the theme song to a Pepsi commercial filmed at the beach with colorful animations coming out of the bottle whenever someone opens it.
Bonus Tracks:
Didn't come with my illegally downloaded copy.
Welp. If you can't read between the lines or you don't possess much critical thinking skills, I think this album is kinda ass. Which is frustrating because I felt like Lana released all her best material right out of the gate and the rest of the album had trouble living up to the hype. The songs that are good are honestly great, but the songs that aren't in that tier are really tough to listen to and not really worth your time. This album may end up being a grower, but as of right now, this isn't very good. A lot of people co-sign new music because it's new, but this album was too moody and repetitive (which has been a big problem for Lana throughout her career thus far) to get an official co-sign from me. Still gonna buy it though cause I love Lana more than pizza, but I might wait 'till it goes on sale, ya dig?
One thing I was really big on about this album was the production. I love that Lana is doing something completely different from pop stars today, and that gets a lot of points with me, as a consumer. She mostly used a seven piece band on this album, which is really great because these radio hits today all sound the same and it was nice not to have to hear any trace of dubstep on this. Lana has a great voice and she expertly puts you in a west coast 60s mood when you listen to her. She also sounds a lot more mature on this album, which is a welcome change from the Lolita-esque style she used on most of Born.
The high points on this album come when she isn't making a moody song, and the low points are everything else, which is disappointing. She has a lot of potential still, and it shows on this album with some truly great songs that are even better than some of the cuts on Born. But this shit gets dragged down by too many sad songs that don't make this an enjoyable listen. I know she has made a career out of being a depressed 60s artist looking for love, but I can't see myself listening to something this heavy front to back. This might be something for someone else, but for me, personally, NAH.
But, yo, go buy this album, support your artists. I did.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ultraviolence-deluxe/id880747579
Final Score:
2.5/5
