• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login/ Register
  • Editorial Team
  • Get Involved

Exeposé Online

Making the headlines since 1987

Exeposé Online
  • Home
  • News
      • Local
      • COVID-19
      • University News
  • Comment
  • Features
      • National
      • Worldwide
      • Politics
      • Interviews
  • Science
      • News
      • Lite Science
      • Common Misconceptions
      • Environment
      • Health
      • Technology
  • Sport
  • Lifestyle
      • Fashion and Beauty
      • Features
      • Food
      • Wellbeing
      • Sustainability
  • Music
      • Interviews
      • Features
      • Live Reviews
      • Album Reviews
      • Single Reviews
  • Screen
      • Reviews
      • Features
      • Interviews
      • Festivals and Awards
  • Arts + Lit
      • Interviews
      • Features
      • Reviews
      • Creative Writing
  • Amplify
  • International
  • Multilingual
  • News
  • Comment
  • Features
  • Science
  • Sport
  • Lifestyle
  • Music
  • Screen
  • Arts + Lit
  • Amplify
  • International
  • Multilingual
Home / Music

Artists In Retrospect: Lana Del Rey

Dec 12, 2019 – by Isabella Marcantonio

Issy Marcantonio reflects upon Lana Del Rey’s music career

Lana Del Rey was introduced to the pop landscape in 2011 with ‘Video Games’, a song that would be named Song of the Decade at the Q Awards in 2019. 2011 was the year of Jessie J’s ‘Price Tag’. Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’, and Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’, in other words, a pop-scape defined by high production and in your face kitschy hooks. Lana brought some new, or rather something old. Swooping string arrangements, old Hollywood style glamour and sadness, cinematic in scope, relying on the ability to tell a story rather than explode a singular line over the blare of synths galore.

‘Video Games’ was followed the release of her first album Born to Die in 2012, an album that added hip-hop into Del Rey’s universe of lo-fi melodrama. The album didn’t feature the same vulnerability that Del Rey had unearthed with ‘Video Games’, with lyrics such as “Baby, love me cause I’m playing on the radio/ How do you like me now?” and “Money is the reason we exist/ Everybody knows that it’s a fact/ kiss kiss”. The lyrics may have pointed to Del Rey being sucked into the big-budget pop-machine, but there was still the static of her deeply personal and dark perspective behind tracks such as ‘Blue Jeans’ and ‘Summertime Sadness’: both of which still have starring roles in Del Rey’s discography.

Lana brought some new, or rather something old. Swooping string arrangements, old Hollywood style glamour… cinematic in scope

The blatant artificial and coquettish Del Rey that fronted Born to Die was slated across many a think-piece which possessed overt sexist overtures. But two years, and one admittedly bad SNL performance later, she transformed herself into a force to be reckoned with on her second offering, Ultraviolence. The palette for Ultraviolence was extremely bleak, telling stories of drunken recklessness with a siren-like allure. Singles such as ‘West Coast’ and ‘Shades of Cool’ showcased Lana’s soprano range against a stripped-down, but still grand in scale accompaniment of slow synths and violins. This was the album that gave Lana her cult-like following, she took her vulnerabilities and made them glamourous and mainstream.

But Ultraviolence didn’t make for a very compelling festival setlist. As seen in her 2014 Glastonbury set, Del Rey was decked out in a psychedelic tie-dye dress, adding the only pop of excitement to an otherwise downplayed and nonchalant performance. This led to another transformation, perhaps an even darker one, on her third album Honeymoon. It’s an album that is appropriately concerned with love, but this love is an addictive one. It’s embracing rock-bottom. The baroque-pop style, isolated guitars, and distant piano chords coalesce to create a sultry frame for a sedated Del Rey. ‘High by the Beach’ and ‘God Knows I Tried’ lives in the space between dreaming and reality, filled with melancholy. This album synthesised what the zeitgeist thinks Lana Del Rey is. She knew exactly what she was doing.

Image: Harmony Gerber

Lust For Life marked another turning point in the Del Rey discography with tracks such as ‘Love’ and ‘Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind’, displaying a more utopian side of her. It was also the first album to feature collaborations, with the likes of pop and rock royalty, Stevie Nicks, and Sean Ono Lennon. This album was said to be for the fans, a gift for the disenfranchised youth who largely make up Del Rey’s audience. It provided some hope in a 2017 which had been seared with the rise of the far-right and political chaos. New-age folk with heavy pop influences that let a bit of light into Del Rey’s otherwise moody blues. The American Dream to which Del Rey has so lyrically clung to saturated this work at a time when the American Dream was becoming less and less achievable to the average citizen. Del Rey was yet to fall out of love with the flag.

She has created waves, succumbed to currents, and formed a riptide that pulls younger artists and listeners to her

However, she would fall. Her latest offering Norman F**king Rockwell demonstrates that and gives us one of the best opening lines of the decade – “Goddamn man child/ you fucked me so good I almost said ‘I love you’”.  This is the record that witnesses Del Rey take on climate change, gun violence, and death and do so with remarkable wit and coolness. ‘Hope is a Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have’ and ‘Mariners Apartment Complex’ are dives into the same murky pools that Del Rey has always explored, but there’s no longer any artifice there. This is personal, sombre, and existential in framing. It’s her own entirely.

Across the five records, Lana Del Rey has released this decade, she has consistently displayed her prowess as an artist. But being good at what you do by itself doesn’t necessarily equate to the artist of the decade status, that is derived from influence. The handprints of David Bowie, Lou Reed, Nina Simone and Nancy Sinatra are all over Del Rey’s discography. But hers are also printed on a whole range of younger artists. Without Lana Del Rey, there wouldn’t have been space for Billie Eilish or Lorde, artists who dwell in storytelling, genre-bending, and emotion. Lana Del Rey may not have been named as Artist of the Decade, but she certainly is one of them. She has created waves, succumbed to currents, and formed a riptide that pulls younger artists and listeners to her, and that is how you become a music titan.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Dec 12, 2019 By Isabella Marcantonio Filed Under: Music, Music Features, Editors' Picks Tagged With: singer songwriter, lana del rey, American singer, Artists in Retrospect

Primary Sidebar

exeposemusic

Keeping you up to date with Exeter's music.
Print Editors: @bry.kg & Richard Ainslie
Online Editors: @megfrost_ & @stephenenwei
music@exepose.com

Last week, on a crisp September morning in Idaho F Last week, on a crisp September morning in Idaho Falls, Idaho, TikTok user 420doggface208 put Fleetwood Mac back on the charts with nothing more than a phone, a longboard and a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice. That’s a baffling sentence let alone idea. But once you watch a viral video of a man cruising down a slip road, sipping on juice and lip syncing to Stevie Nicks, it makes perfect sense.

Check out the rest of Max Ingleby’s article on TikTok music online now!
Check out the review of hip-hop duo Run the Jewels Check out the review of hip-hop duo Run the Jewels’ latest record, by @_will.thornton_
@aaronloose reviews indie icon Phoebe Bridgers’ @aaronloose reviews indie icon Phoebe Bridgers’ sophomore album online now! Check it out!
Online Lifestyle Editor Elinor Jones reviews one o Online Lifestyle Editor Elinor Jones reviews one of Frank Turner’s Facebook live gigs and discusses the importance of musicians supporting small venues during the pandemic in a new article online now! 🎸
Print Music Editor @bridiehazelaa reviews Lady Gag Print Music Editor @bridiehazelaa reviews Lady Gaga’s latest album - check it out online now!
Have a read of the review of the BBC’s attempt a Have a read of the review of the BBC’s attempt at a zoom-radio festival by @xharry_ online now!
Check out the interview with @frankiejonesmusic no Check out the interview with @frankiejonesmusic now up online, by print music editor @bridiehazelaa 🤩🖤
@bry.kg has reviewed Fiona Apple’s new album, ta @bry.kg has reviewed Fiona Apple’s new album, take a look on our website and have a read🤩
Print Music Editor @bridiehazelaa interviews @_ech Print Music Editor @bridiehazelaa interviews @_echohotel_ in the next of the Up and Comers series, on our website now!
Load More… Follow on Instagram
Tweets by Exeposé Music

Contact Us: editors@exepose.com

Since 1987, Exeposé has given a voice to Exeter students. Over the years, the determination and political fervour exhibited by students through Exeposé have helped shape the University we study at today. We have received national recognition for our award-winning campaigns, investigations and surveys, and always strive to provide students with high-quality news, comment and features.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in articles and comments do not reflect the views of Exeposé Online or the University of Exeter Student's Guild.

        


© 2021
Website design: Harry Caton and Ellie Cook
Webdesign & development: Harry Caton