A film?! I don't know if my body would ever be able to handle the excitement of a film.
Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
- Thread starter speedyboi
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£2.50 more and you can have the physical 2CD with the artwork etc. Amazon dropped their price for it today, presumably to match HMV who have it in the 2 for 15 immediately.
I think it's beautiful, and I say that as someone who already has a soft spot for the song in earlier incarnations. I think the real bone of contention is that it really disrupts the flow of the album where it is and sticks out like a sore thumb. Even I felt like that. Someone suggested the other day putting it after Yayo and it really makes a world of difference, it *fits* there really perfectly..
Bel Air has been the biggest grower on the album for me. I liked it and thought it was pretty but it was only this morning when I woke up with it in my head that I realized how deceptively simple and hypnotic it was. It's just exquisite..
Critics, when reviewing Lana, don't really focus on the music - they like to focus on the lyrical content and then destroy it for the old Americana imagery. One wonders why other 'indie' songstresses don't get the amount of derision Lana gets; calling her contrived is an ironic statement for anybody from that part of the blogosphere.
Lana is the only modern popstar worth bothering with, and I couldn't care less what so-called critics think or say. It made a change to be actively waiting for a *new* release (and in this case, a new version of an old release!) with an almost old-fashioned excitement.
"Blue Velvet" fits on Paradise well because the film seems to be a touchstone for the Lana Del Rey character. Born to Die was the beginning of the story, and Paradise has this very strange, Lynchian all-not-well-in-the-seemingly-perfect Americana end of the story.
Lyrically it's very tragic. The woman on Die has been caught in the underbelly, drugged, and dragged into sexual perversion.
It's very very "Blue Velvet."
Lyrically it's very tragic. The woman on Die has been caught in the underbelly, drugged, and dragged into sexual perversion.
It's very very "Blue Velvet."
Where I feel Born To Die plodded along for much too long, the EP is a nice little shot that goes down smooth. I really like everything, except Body Electric has a boring chorus and Yayo does nothing (I've swapped it with the original version, like the production a bit more). I also added Kill Kill as a bonus track over Burning Desire (Frankly because I really like that song and if she's going to be reusing songs from her old work it should be Kill Kill).
Ride-American-Cola is an amazing string of songs, and then Blue Velvet, Gods & Monsters and Bel Air are really good. Wish Cola was longer; who decided to fade the song out as a guitar solo comes in?
Now I'm tempted to make a 8-track version of Born To Die... It'd be so simple.
Ride-American-Cola is an amazing string of songs, and then Blue Velvet, Gods & Monsters and Bel Air are really good. Wish Cola was longer; who decided to fade the song out as a guitar solo comes in?
Now I'm tempted to make a 8-track version of Born To Die... It'd be so simple.
Video Games
Blue Jeans
Born To Die
Off To The Races
Without You
Radio
Summertime Sadness
...
No! It's impossible. The only track I would possibly drop would be Lolita. Everything else is 8/10 or more.
Blue Jeans
Born To Die
Off To The Races
Without You
Radio
Summertime Sadness
...
No! It's impossible. The only track I would possibly drop would be Lolita. Everything else is 8/10 or more.
Slant gave her a great review for Born to Die, so I don't see why people are whinging.
Yeah, the repetition in the lyrics distracts from many of the songs, which are incredibly produced and have terrific melodies. It's such a shame. It's a great EP, but she really needs to introduce some new ideas. Ride, while familiar, somehow works, because lyrically it is actually fairly direct and simple, and it successfully captures an emotion, or a human experience. I can recognize something in it when I listen to it. I know what it's about. On the other hand, Body Electric to me is a song about nothing with a bunch of empty phrases on a string. The middle eight offers a little bit of a story worth exploring (a girl putting on a brave face by having fun to hide the pain, etc) but it's sadly falls flat. In general, I prefer more direct song writing, with minimal references, and I hope that that's a direction she goes in for the next album.
Off To The Races is a rare example where it all somehow works.
Off To The Races is a rare example where it all somehow works.
Because they spend over half of the review deriding everything but the music. Were they to actually complain about the music or the overuse of tropes or whatever - it'd be fine. Pulling out the old "inauthentic" card is lazy and baffling at this point.
And I'd like to think 'Body Electric' is about her being generally miserable and lonesome, but she's turning to the "electrical body", and becoming depraved and sexual to get over it. I took the Elvis/Marilyn/Jesus/Whitman/Monaco allusions to mean that's who she models herself after. I just thought 'Heaven is my baby/Suicide's her father/Opulence is the end' was her being melodramatic at first, but I see some meaning in it: Heaven, or death is her end goal, suicide is the means to get there, which she resorts to because she just can't seem to attain the opulence she so desires.
Or whatever.
Or whatever.
he/him
'Body Electric' is my least favorite track on the EP, but it sounds like something out of the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack so I dig it.
Also, I love how she sounds like a barefoot hick when she sings "WE GET DOWN EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT!"
Also, I love how she sounds like a barefoot hick when she sings "WE GET DOWN EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT!"
Born to die - 10/10
Off to the races - 9/10
Blue Jeans - 9/10
Video Games -10/10
Diet Mnt Dew - 7/10
National Anthem - 9/10
Dark Paradise - 7/10
Radio - 6/10
Carmen - 5/10
Million Dollar Man - 8/10
Summertime sadness - 9/10
This is what makes us girls - 8/10
Without you - 8/10
Lolita - 7/10
Lucky ones - 8/10
Ride - 10/10
American - 9/10
Cola - 8/10
Body Electric - 7/10
Blue Velvet - 7/10
Gods & Monsters - 10/10
Yayo - 6/10
Bel Air - 8/10
Burning Desire - 8/10
In general 8/10
Improved album!
01. Born to die
02. American
03. Blue Jeans
04. Off to the races
05. National anthem
06. Cola
07. Video Games
08. Bel Air
09. Million Dollar Man
10. Gods & Monsters
11. Without you
12. This is what makes us girls
13. Summertime sadness
14. Ride
-------Bonus--------
15. Burning Desire
16. Lucky ones
Album of the year 9/10
Off to the races - 9/10
Blue Jeans - 9/10
Video Games -10/10
Diet Mnt Dew - 7/10
National Anthem - 9/10
Dark Paradise - 7/10
Radio - 6/10
Carmen - 5/10
Million Dollar Man - 8/10
Summertime sadness - 9/10
This is what makes us girls - 8/10
Without you - 8/10
Lolita - 7/10
Lucky ones - 8/10
Ride - 10/10
American - 9/10
Cola - 8/10
Body Electric - 7/10
Blue Velvet - 7/10
Gods & Monsters - 10/10
Yayo - 6/10
Bel Air - 8/10
Burning Desire - 8/10
In general 8/10
Improved album!
01. Born to die
02. American
03. Blue Jeans
04. Off to the races
05. National anthem
06. Cola
07. Video Games
08. Bel Air
09. Million Dollar Man
10. Gods & Monsters
11. Without you
12. This is what makes us girls
13. Summertime sadness
14. Ride
-------Bonus--------
15. Burning Desire
16. Lucky ones
Album of the year 9/10
The album as a whole gets a 10/10 from me. EVerything else would be wrong. It's my album of the year and the Paradise Edition just made it even better.
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