{ baby put on heart-shaped sunglasses / cos we gonna take a ride. }

[delga]

I've spent the better part of the past three days listening to Lana Del Rey's album, and a good portion of today trying to talk about it in a meaningful way. Before hearing any of her music, the only thing I knew was some people on tumblr enjoyed her, and that she tanked on SNL. And then I heard - and fell for Born to Die.

The album is a bit odd to listen to after that. It's clearly of a similar mood and tone. But what's quite a wistful voice in the title track (as well as a couple of others on the album, including Video Games, which says something about how this album is being marketed), is more playful. I can't think of Del Rey without thinking of Florence and the Machine, but if the latter is setting fire to fairies in the British woodland, I would have first imagined Del Rey to be her American, rural counterpart. But I have found the rest of the album to be quite urban; the rhythms have a rap quality to them. It's quite different to other music that is popular right now, and I am enjoying the album so much. (The last one I loved so much was [fittingly, I feel] Ceremonials which is in the same musical range but so, so different.) I haven't stopped listening to it since I bought it, and I'm not skipping any of the tracks.

What I love most are the few recurring phrases that occur throughout the album, that are played off one another by the lyrics. There's a lot of rhyme, but more delightfully, there is a lot of syncopated metre. Sometimes I want to scan the lines.

--

Aaaaaand rambling over.