Born To Die Album Review

Born To Die Album Review

After months of anticipation, internet sensation Lana Del Rey's album has finally dropped. The Indie Pop princess' album is composed of songs whose themes focus on love, death, money and fame.

The album's genre varies widely, from Indie pop, Alternative pop and some songs contains influence from hip hop. With the unique sounding songs of the album, Lana sets herself apart from today's most popular pop girls (i.e. Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Britney Spears). Fueled with a dark pop type of musical composition and arrangement with a sadness and depressing tone to it, the album stands out even more in a musical era where dance pop and electro-pop music dominates the chart.

Album Packaging Review

To begin the album review, let me start by commenting on the album's packaging. The album's packaging is moulded after an old LP Vinyl. It comes in a double gate fold type of packaging. The album's booklet is inserted on one side and the other side contains a small card sleeve to store the CD. So thank you Lana for putting effort in the album's packaging. My only disappointment is that the album's booklet lacks pictures of Lana. 

The album's front cover

The only picture inside of the album

The album with the booklet and the cd

The back cover of the album with the track list

Track List:

1. Born To Die
2. Off to the Races
3. Blue Jeans
4. Video Games
5. Diet Mountain Dew
6. National Anthem
7. Dark Paradise
8. Radio
9. Carmen
10. Million Dollar Man
11. Summertime Sadness
12. This is What Makes Us Girls
13. Without You (Deluxe Edition Bonus Track)
14. Lolita (Deluxe Edition Bonus Track)
15. Lucky Ones (Deluxe Edition Bonus Track)

Track by Track Look Through/Review

The Singles:

Born To Die

The title track, the song gives the listeners vibes from classic movies like "Gone with the Wind". The lyrical content of the song speaks about finding love but knowing that the love won't last. Hence, the title "Born To Die"

Released as the album's second single, the song was a moderate hit across Europe but failed to chart in the US. 

Blue Jeans
This song serves as the third and current single from the album. Lyrically, the song is about Lana's break up with a former lover and that Lana is still not over him. The song's title is derived from Lana's description of her former lover's clothes.

The song has that sort of Quentin Tarantino vibe and upon hearing it, I felt like it was a long lost record from the Kill Bill movie.

Video Games
Lana's debut single, this charming indie pop song has influences from baroque pop. In the song, you'll hear a sort of sadness in Lana's voice. Though not the strongest song for a single in the entire album, it was a top ten hit in France, Netherlands and Poland while the song also went number one in Germany.

The other songs:

In Off to the Races you can hear the versatility in Lana's voice, she can go from a low tempo type of voice in the opening verse of the song to a high pitched and up tempo type of voice once the song hits the chorus. Diet Mountain Dew has traces of Hip Hop and Alternative influence in the song and speaks of eloping with a lover. National Anthem and Radio are perhaps the most radio friendly type of songs you can find in the whole album, with catchy choruses and hooks along with a 1920's type of feel in the music both songs could be candidates for a 4th and 5th single. Dark Paradise has the dark pop sound to the song and speaks to clutching on to someone you lost. It is perhaps one of the album's most emotional songs. Carmen is about girls and fame, and how young girls would do almost anything to become famous and be like "Carmen". In an interview, Lana says she is fascinated by how much influence celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton can have over young girls. Though I commend Lana for trying to create an eye opener song, the song comes out as flat and boring. Million Dollar Man has influences from the classic song "Unchained Melody" and more or less is just an album filler with not much to offer. Summertime Sadness is a song that speaks of finding love in the summer but could only last for so long. The song has potential to be a single but given its acapella type of intro, it can easily make the song boring and can turn radio listeners off. This is what makes us girls is the final track on the album, I would deem this as one of the weakest tracks on the whole album. You can barely make out what Lana is singing in the entire song and it lacks the catchy and attention grabbing choruses and hooks.

Overall, I would rate the album a 3.5 out of 5. One thing that I would commend Lana on is for her courage to try and put out an album that has a new sound and avoids the dance music that is rampant on today's charts.