They are the main themes I picked up whilst listening properly to Lana Del Rey’s album, Born To Die. I listened to it a while ago at work, but due to the subtleness of the overall sound, it was more like background music. I couldn’t pick out individual lines, just the basic melodies – which is in no way the ideal environment to listen to this album. I listened to the album in it’s entirety twice earlier today while I was drawing a picture of Jane. Little wonder Jane looks kind of melancholic in the picture.
I’m sure I wouldn’t be the first person to describe her voice as haunting. I sure hope I’m not. It haunted me for hours after that first listen. Born To Die lingered in my memory for a long time, although Videogames is my stand-out track. There seems to be a lot of hoo-ha and fuss on the internet about Lana Del Rey not actually being her real name (I don’t remember such fuss about a certain Ms. Gaga), but the way I see it, whatever her name, it’s all about the music, and I feel the real emotion in the music comes from personal experience. As I noted in the title, the album is all about getting that boy to be hers forever, doing what the boy wants and what she thinks the boy expects. It’s about drinking and having fun with boys, wearing summer dresses, little red dresses and bikini tops. Real emotional music always tends to be based on real-life experiences.
All in all, it’s a wonderful album. Listened to from afar, the overall sound of the album is a little samey. However, a focused listen reveals many subtleties, not just in Lana’s incredible voice, but in the tone of her lyrics. I didn’t find it depressing as such, more an insight into something very personal, a tale of someone’s adolescence, told through music.
