Lana Del Rey - Lust For Life

Lust For Life
Lana Del Rey
Tiger Rating: 7.0 / 10
Gothic Noir Pop

"Awash in a glittering sea of breathy vocals, nostalgia for an era she never lived through, melancholic musings and ultimately a surprisingly hopeful conclusion, Lana will likely not win any new fans with this offering, but she is sure to satiate her old ones."

On the 11th of April 2017 Miss Grant aka Miss Del Rey revealed the album artwork for her fourth studio album, a release she stated this time round "was purely for the fans".
The cover shot shows Lana in one of her usual vintage dresses beaming an uncharacteristically sunshiney smile, complete with daisies in her hair. It was a remarkably different look for the oft pouting megastar and hinted at a more upbeat sound.
The singles have been released fast and furiously, as is the norm these days, with 5 of the 16 tracks already in heavy rotation for many a LDR fan. They range from the dreamy and hopeful 'Love', to the dreamy, nostalgic and absurdly titled 'Coachella-Woodstock On My Mind', to the dreamy, sweeping romantic title track with Lana's long term crush The Weeknd. It turns out most of 'Lust For Life' is in the same vein.
Awash in a glittering sea of breathy vocals, nostalgia for an era she never lived through, melancholic musings and ultimately a surprisingly hopeful conclusion, Lana will likely not win any new fans with this offering, but she is sure to satiate her old ones. Which was what she set out to do in the first place.



The Marmite appeal of Lana Del Rey (you either love her or hate her) is due mostly to her unique brand of moody, mumbly, seductive pop. However, true fans will know that she seldomly fits her own genre, effortlessly dropping trip hop snares when least expected and switching coastal vibes - Californian beach babe to street wise native New Yorker (Lizzy Grant is in fact an East Coast transplant). She's as innocent as she is carnal and worldly, fresh as she is wise, organic and unique as she is a studio fembot - a product of her management and label. She's fire & ice and revels in the fact that you either get it and love her for it, or move on uncaring. She fully embodies her persona and is unafraid to be self referential and cast a spotlight on her anomalies. After showing us a glimpse of her flower-power cover art back in April, she showed us a surprise "album trailer" on YouTube in which she essentially plays a witch in Hollywood casting a spell to create the album. This seemingly contradictory mix of elements has always been the single defining thing about her.
'Lust For Life' is Lana in all her melancholic glory. It feels very much like her doing what she always wanted to do with minimal interference.

" 'Lust For Life' is Lana in all her melancholic glory."

 

Every collaboration slots in sleekly and effortlessly, which remarkable seeing as this is the first time Lana has had collaborations on an album. It feels like Lana's birthday party with just a few select invitees here join in the fun. 'Fun' might actually be a stretch, but the mutual respect at least is palpable. Even on the disastrously self aware 'Tomorrow Never Came', where she sings about singing with Sean Lennon (on a track where she does in fact sing with Sean Lennon), you can forgive her because the collaboration just works. Even Stevie Nicks doesn't detract or steal any limelight on 'Beautiful People Beautiful Problems', her deep, powerful timbre perfectly surrounding Del Rey's girlish whisper.
If this is Lana's party, then she's doing exactly what she wants at the pace she wants it, and that sense of unhurried revelling is apparent throughout the overstuffed 72 minute playtime.

The lyrical world she casts is a post-apocalyptic America, where, instead of virus or starvation taking over, past, present and future have merged into one and everyone loves each other and heartbreak and beauty exist in melodic harmony together. It's whistful, sentimental escapism at it's most poetic.
Personally I think a few songs could be ditched in favour of a shorter, less forgettable experience. 'God Bless America - and All The Beautiful Women In It' is not only a contrived title, it's just bland as hell. 'When The World Was At War We Kept Dancing' is simply just sentiment, and the album wouldn't suffer if 'In My Feelings' wasn't on it.
The two closing tracks 'Change' and 'Get Free' do a superb job of ending the album on a tenuously positive note, something that is achieved in subtle chord changes and choruses that are held very loosely.

'Lust For Life' is ultimately a delicate, dreamy watercolour landscape of multiple genres. Romance meets sci-fi and celebrates history and nostalgia whilst looking ahead. Only in Lana Del Rey's world can you manage to be so contrived and self aware whilst sounding so disaffected and effortless. In her idealised version of existence vintage cadillacs help young lover's escape the atomic bomb and other disasters, transporting them to planets of daisy fields, free love and permanent moonlight. I can't say that I don't want to be part of that world.

WVS.