Since she appeared in 2012, all eyes are on Lana Del Rey. Is she authentic or a scam? Happy or sad? A genius or a caricature of the past? She is an artist who inspires scrutiny and poring over her lyrics, the myth she is constantly building encrypted within. Of course, if you asked her, she would say that there is no myth and it is all just her, but part of what makes her so brilliant is how difficult it is to separate her from the music she gives us.
Like any other artist in this game for a decade, though, she had her hits and misses. While she celebrates the release of her latest album ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’, and with newcomer ‘Rock Candy Sweet’ apparently on the way, let’s take a look at her previous catalog so far and see how it is (and, yes, we’re counting ‘Born To Die’ as your debut).
In his fourth album, Del Rey bent into the cinematic veins of his work, producing a disc full of strings and sophistication. The results were beautiful, but, consumed in a 65-minute piece, a little monotonous. Only the choppy, vibrant electronic beats of ‘High By The Beach’ really broke the album’s dramatic arcs, easily marking its outstanding music, while providing some necessary variety on an album often overwhelmed by its own beauty.
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‘Born To Die’ (2012)
When Del Rey first appeared in the world, she did so with explosions of ornate baroque pop, sustained by hip-hop beats and, as in ‘National Anthem’, deliveries whose cadence threatened to turn into rap. ‘Born To Die’, her debut on a major label, introduced her as the dispirited Hollywood star besieged by toxic men, in whom she would try to find redemption.
At this time, she described herself as a “Nancy Sinatra gangster”, best embodying that role in the 60s pop of Spaghetti and the elegant 60s fashion of ‘Blue Jeans’. Although it seems a little dated in parts now, ‘Born To Die’ implied that Del Rey was too special to live in the shadows of other artists, no matter how good – she just had to find her way up to that point.
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‘Lust For Life’ (2017)
For his fifth album, Del Rey joined the old and the new. He was present at his collaborators – modern stars The Weeknd, A $ AP Rocky and Playboi Carti, alongside Fleetwood hero Mac Stevie Nicks and Sean Ono Lennon, a musician today with old-school sensibilities similar to Lana’s. It was also there on the subject – family tales of love and live mixed with new political themes, as in ‘Coachella – Woodstock In My Mind’, where she danced in a festival utopia with the black cloud of nuclear war looming on the horizon. She added reach to her previous efforts while promising to build on the world she had created in 2012.
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‘Ultraviolence’ (2014)
There was a time when it felt like we would never get another Lana album after ‘Born To Die’. When asked where she would go on the next discovery, she would tell people that she had already spilled everything she had to say. Fortunately, that changed and ‘Ultraviolence’ emerged. Produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, he moved away from the more modern aspects of his previous album and focused on the vintage pop side of his sound.
The results were impressive – in another world, ‘Shades Of Cool’ would be a Bond theme, while ‘Brooklyn Baby’ unfolded a tale of a bohemian romance full of beat poetry, jazz collections and singing Lou Reed with her boyfriend. Del Rey also faced his growing fame, declaring sarcastically: “I want money, power and glory‘in the beautiful’ Money Power Glory ‘and targeting people’s misconceptions about it in’ Fucked My Way Up To The Top ‘, showing how sharp your pen could be on both topics.
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‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’ (2021)
If you follow ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’ it was difficult, you can’t say ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’. Lana’s latest album is a masterpiece almost on a par with her predecessor and finds her not only further developing the sounds of ‘NFR!’, But also tying her entire career in returns to the atmosphere of trip-hop and elements of hip-hop leaving a crumb of connection to old songs along the way.
It’s an album that beckons deeply on him, enveloping him in his nostalgia (‘White Dress’, the title track) and sharing stories of fame and novels that get you stuck in a loop of Groundhog Day (‘Dark But Just A Game’ , ‘Wild at heart’). A decade in his career, he highlights an artist still teeming with invention – whether in the way she uses her voice or the sounds she employs.
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‘Norman Fucked Rockwell!’ (2019)
Lana’s magnum opus – until now – has seen her lean towards her folkier influences and create a record inspired by Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Carole King, Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin, but shone as something that has remained safe on account own. Del Rey’s best album to date is also a modern classic; a record that takes you to Hollywood Hills and Laurel Canyon and puts you at the center of a Hollywood romance that remains with you long after your last notes have touched.
It has a killer opening line (the title track “Damn son, you fucked me so well I almost said I love you”), Some of Lana’s best compositions to date (‘Love Song’, ‘Mariners Apartment Complex’, ‘How To Disappear’), an unexpectedly witch cover of Sublime (‘Doin’ Time ‘) and the absolutely superlative’ The Greatest ‘. It will be difficult for her – and for many others – to overcome.