Final Rating: 8.4/10
Elizabeth Grant, known to all as Lana Del Rey, hasn’t had it easy. Her hello to America, the land she proudly flaunts as her own, was one met with much malice back when her persona as Del Rey began. The indie community was livid with her reach out to the mainstream. Those of us expecting the promised epic Born to Die were left with an album that did kind of just that. It was sad, because Del Rey was clearly someone trying. She had a vision, but not the right means to obtaining said goal. She did have promise, though, and with the odd revelation of this hidden gem (whether it be the odd good song on Born to Die like Video Games or her songs for movies like The Great Gatsby or Maleficent) some of us held on before we shunned her entirely. With her film project Tropico which was said to close the Born to Die era off for good, we got music from that era, huge American icons and flags, and the same content you got from those days as a whole, both easy to and hard to take seriously. What we did get from this film is the final inkling that there was indeed something much more to Lana Del Rey than she was given credit for. Once she got her bearings and was used to this limelight she criticized, surely she would truly shine. That’s what the last of us hoped for.
It appears that Lana Del Rey shines the most under the darkest shade, as that is obviously how lighting works both physically and metaphorically. Instead of creating her own spotlights and walk of fame as she did with Born to Die, and instead of promising America to the world, we get Ultraviolence: The Lana Del Rey album we had all hoped for before and the greatest reward the most patient of us deserved. Del Rey stays in New York for this album with its soaring skyline aesthetic, its summer driving pace, and the mood of a city bar (not to mention the key song Brooklyn Baby). We get songs that are all consistently good, and we aren’t left with just the singles to admire; If anything, lead single West Coast is a song I often forget to mention when I run off the songs that stuck with me the most (there are just too many memorable moments, for me, on this album). For some people, this album is an ultimate success and a huge hurrah for Lana Del Rey.
It is easy to say that this album may not be for everyone, though. A lot of the album is sarcastic in tone, as Del Rey keeps a bit of the mentality she had during Born to Die but in a more negative way. There is still a sense of both self admiration and self loathing on here where, if taken at face value, a listener may get the context wrong entirely. The album is also very similar in tone, as every track on here would take place at Del Rey’s lounge show. She doesn’t burst out into typical pop style as she did here and there on Born to Die with songs like Off to the Races and Diet Mountain Dew. If you don’t fancy an album that is constant in tone, then this may not be your fix. Having said that, with its theatrics (much more contained on this album, mind you) and its set environment, Ultraviolence still does both of these very well, and if this paragraph doesn’t deter you, then this album will offer a lot to you.
Its focus on dream pop lust instead of trying to be grandiose is the best change around Lana Del Rey has made. This is due to a more mature Del Rey approaching her music and also the help of Dan Auerbach, best known for his work with The Black Keys. Auerbach’s production and Del Rey’s progression have made these film noir settings Del Rey always dreamed of a reality. This is no longer a stage production, but rather a fully realized film. We get a femme fatale that longs for acceptance, to be rid of misery and to have her love, either longly embedded or short lived, known while she can still shout. While some people are in a toss up with Del Rey’s lyrics, I for one welcome them on this album. They may come off as a bit cheesy, but they sound like they were lines of dialogue stripped from a movie. When she gloats about her jazz collection being rare, that she can play almost anything because she is a Brooklyn Baby, you can almost see the damsel with netting over her face as she sits partially cloaked in a shadow.
This sultry tone is found on the entire album, even when Del Rey reveals herself like a typical femme fatale would at the end of an old noir film. She stands on the street to tell the world she has “fucked [her] way up to the top”, which was a song title that made many of us afraid when we first saw it but were relieved with a much better song than promised once the album dropped. In the controversial title track, Del Rey depicts being abused but being unable to stop loving the monster much like a noir detective losing it on the tormenting woman Of course no one condones violence, but, again, you can’t take everything Del Rey says at face value: She’s creating a film like experience here. The greatest song on here, and possibly of Del Rey’s career so far, is the penultimate song Old Money, where we can see Del Rey stand on the second level of a mansion and observe her position in relation to the one she loves. This is a song where Del Rey doesn’t just respect retro music and film but she lives it as she looks back on her own set up glamour within the song. It’s her saddest song because she isn’t living this now; it’s too late but yet she still dreams. She has stopped chasing the American Dream she did on Born to Die; It’s zipped past her at this point.
Ultraviolence is the album we needed from Lana Del Rey and it’s the album we finally got. It’s the album that will get Del Rey the respect she deserves (yes, even with the occasional flop, she still had so much to give in comparison to many mainstream pop artists). It’s that impossible-to-keep-spinning album we all expected from her before, and it was thankfully not too late in delivery. Luckily, Del Rey is someone who will quickly forgive those that turned their backs on her, but she will also hold closely those who didn’t. Now, having sanded out all the rough edges, let’s welcome this newly envisioned Lana Del Rey as songs like Brooklyn Baby, Cruel World, Money Power Glory and Old Money will surely be heard in cars zipping past you this summer.
