Two years after the discharge of her massively profitable major-label debut album, Born To Die, Lana Del Rey got here again with its equally spectacular follow-up, Ultraviolence, on June 13, 2014. With Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys) producing the vast majority of the album, Lana left behind the baroque pop she’d develop into recognized for to be able to create one thing darker and extra rock-focused.
Hearken to Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence now.
“Perfect for a James Bond film”
Shot in stark black-and-white, the album cowl was a Polaroid picture taken by Neil Krug, displaying Lana blank-faced, standing in her driveway and wearing an off-the-cuff white T-shirt. As Krug advised Advanced, “The cover needed to feel like the last frame of a 60s Polanski film, where the audience has been properly traumatized, and this is the last thing they see before the credits roll.” It was an ideal match for the music: each track on Ultraviolence is sluggish to midtempo, flowing seamlessly into the subsequent with a tragic, melancholic really feel.
A smooth rock monitor centered round an electrical guitar and wobbly synth, “West Coast” was the primary signal of Lana’s new route. Launched two months forward of Ultraviolence, in April 2014, it was, Lana advised Radio.com, “inspired by Eagles and The Beach Boys”, whereas her “mind and roots were in jazz” – reference factors which may all be felt within the track. With an uncommon construction that relied on two totally different tempos (slowing down drastically for the refrain, which gave the monitor a laidback, ethereal really feel), “West Coast” discovered Lana ignoring the standard guidelines of songwriting, transferring away from the type of preparations and lengths that might assure radio play.
Distinctive among the many songs on Ultraviolence, “Shades Of Cool,” co-written together with her common writing companion, Rick Nowels, discovered Lana singing in the next register than standard. Hailed by Rolling Stone’s Caryn Ganz as being “perfect for a James Bond film directed by Quentin Tarantino,” the track acquired a suitably cinematic video remedy courtesy of director Jake Nava. When Lana steps out of a brightly lit swimming pool because the guitar solo peaks, the turquoise of the pool and the purple of her lips are so saturated as to create an exquisite symbiosis of music and artwork.
“Two minutes later, he died”
Taken from a slang time period in Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange, Lana picked the album’s title as a result of, as she advised BBC Information, “I like that luxe sound of the word ‘ultra’ and the mean sound of the word ‘violence’ together.” Additional exploring such juxtapositions on the album’s title monitor, Lana included a reference to The Crystals’ Phil Spector-produced track “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)” within the authentic lyrics, although she later stopped singing that line dwell, telling the BBC, “I don’t feel comfortable with that lyric anymore.”
The fourth single from the album, “Brooklyn Baby,” was meant to be a collaboration with Lou Reed, however the former Velvet Underground frontman died earlier than it may come to fruition – although Lana had traveled to New York to fulfill the singer. “I took the red eye, touched down at 7am… and two minutes later, he died,” she advised The Guardian. The completed monitor nonetheless referenced him, nevertheless, within the lyric, “Well my boyfriend’s in a band/He plays guitar while I sing Lou Reed.”
“Whatever people think of you becomes a facet of your psyche”
“Hands down” Lana’s favourite track from the album, as she advised radio station 96.5 TIC, was “Cruel World,” a six-minute slow-burner constructed on wah-wah guitars and reverbed vocals, and which was recorded in a single take together with her guitarist Blake Stranathan. Elsewhere, nevertheless, “F__ked My Way Up To The Top” finest summarises her standard method. Although by no means launched as a single, the track stays necessary for understanding Lana’s lyrical content material.
Her songs usually converse of passionate however dysfunctional relationships with older males, and of being the opposite girl. With “F__ked My Way Up To The Top” she admitted to an autobiographical theme the likes of which function on lots of her information, telling The Fader: “I had a seven-year relationship with the head of this label, and he was a huge inspiration to me. I’ll tell you later when more people know. He never signed me, but he was like my muse, the love of my life.”
“F__cked My Way Up To The Top,” nevertheless, is ironic: it’s Lana taking energy out of the general public’s palms by claiming to be every thing they might have stated she is. Chatting with Advanced, she stated, “I know what you think of me, and I’m alluding to that. You know, I have slept with a lot of guys in the industry, but none of them helped me get my record deals. Which is annoying.” Different songs on the album, similar to “Money, Power, Glory,” comply with this identical theme, with Lana embodying a public persona, enacting the Carl Jung idea that, as she advised The New York Instances, “what other people think of you becomes a small facet of your psyche, whether you want it to or not.”
In changing the hip-hop drums and vocal samples that dominated Born To Die with laidback basslines and dreamy guitar riffs, Ultraviolence emerged as a extra stripped-back, easier album than its predecessor. Exceptionally produced dream-pop at its best, there isn’t one particular person standout track on its 11 tracks – moderately, Ultraviolence is an atmospheric work designed to be listened to in its entirety, engulfing you in its superbly darkish, cinematic temper.
Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence will be purchased right here.
