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Celeb News: Critics review Lana Del Rey's 'Born to Die'
Member Since: 2/17/2010
Posts: 21,811
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Originally posted by caerbayn
Can someone please explain to me what people have against this woman? Is it because she doesn't fit anyone's preconceived idea of what a "real artist" is supposed to be? Is it because of the damn lips? Is it because she comes from money?
Y'all oughta just enjoy the music and be done with it.
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First of all, people like to complain about everything. Secondly, Lana is getting a lot of hype for a new artist, and not every new artist gets the love and support she does, so she is kinda getting shoved down the throats of everyone, and not every person is very receptive of things being shoved down their throats, if you know what I mean 
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Member Since: 8/2/2010
Posts: 8,726
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Quote:
Originally posted by Яeo.
First of all, people like to complain about everything. Secondly, Lana is getting a lot of hype for a new artist, and not every new artist gets the love and support she does, so she is kinda getting shoved down the throats of everyone, and not every person is very receptive of things being shoved down their throats, if you know what I mean |
Yeah some people just have stronger gag reflexes 
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Member Since: 9/7/2010
Posts: 28,471
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Originally posted by Monster
They kinda went in. Where is the review in the OP Sammi?  |
I've actually made a thread(this one) about it but then edited since I(and the others) realized its not 'album' review. 
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Member Since: 12/3/2011
Posts: 11,947
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Is the Slate review the only one thus far that will count for Metacritic?
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Member Since: 9/7/2010
Posts: 28,471
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Originally posted by Evun
Is the Slate review the only one thus far that will count for Metacritic?
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Yes.
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Member Since: 11/21/2010
Posts: 15,739
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Can't wait for more reviews! 
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Member Since: 9/7/2010
Posts: 28,471
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Nymag
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Lana Del Rey: Lurching Toward Vegas
She’s really quite earnest about what she’s trying, and alarmingly scattershot in her ability to get there — good news for those of us with the critical distance to chuckle happily over Born to Die, and also, perhaps, for anyone who wants to swallow it whole and digest a lot of strange, messy ideas about being a “girl.”
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Full here: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment...ard-vegas.html
We'll have to wait for Metacritic to update its score but I'm sure it will be very low.
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Member Since: 9/7/2010
Posts: 28,471
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You know what 
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 9,504
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From the NY Mag review:
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It already shares a number of qualities with a drunk person. It repeats itself often, the same stock phrases popping up in song after song.
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Totally agree. There's just too much repetition.
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[...] And it stumbles, often. One critic compared it to “a drunk chick at the bar trying to convince someone to come home with her,” and maybe that’s true — maybe she tries to whisper a come-on and hiccups in someone’s ear instead, or attempts a seductive pose and winds up falling over.
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 but to me, this is part of the album's charm.
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Member Since: 5/13/2010
Posts: 6,489
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Where is the score of the NY Mag review?
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Member Since: 9/7/2010
Posts: 28,471
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BBC Review
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Intelligent, ambitious and brilliantly realised, Born to Die defies any backlash.
What makes Born to Die so richly fascinating – and what marks Del Rey out from the standard issue "I’m hot, you’re hot" pop starlet – is her preoccupation with Hollywood archetypes of American femininity, and her ability to shape-shift between them.
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Full here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qrnv
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Member Since: 9/7/2010
Posts: 28,471
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Quote:
Originally posted by PopFan
Where is the score of the NY Mag review?
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Some critics don't add it so we have to wait for Metacritic to update it.
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Member Since: 11/6/2010
Posts: 6,945
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Quote:
Originally posted by Sammi
You know what |
It's the album opener on my version. 
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Member Since: 5/13/2010
Posts: 6,489
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Wow, the BBC review is great!
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Member Since: 11/17/2010
Posts: 12,926
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If that sounds knowing that’s because it is, not to mention intelligent, ambitious, and more interesting than anything Adele is likely to write even by the time her inevitable 72 collection hits the shelves of the future.
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Draag
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Member Since: 10/18/2009
Posts: 18,756
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alot of AMERICAN'S critics gawn judge the album base on that SNL performances and their hatreds toward her. I already know the outcomee of this 
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Member Since: 4/6/2011
Posts: 10,635
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Perhaps this isn’t the most professional thing to admit, but for me, the most notable thing about the release of Born To Die is that the world will soon stop talking about Lana Del Rey. The parade of think-pieces regarding her authenticity, questionable feminism, questionable patriotism, hype, counter-hype, embarrassingly terrible live performances and “I Like Turtles”-esque interview persona will cease. The bizarre six-month saga over the legitimacy and supposed value of a girl with a nice song and big lips who makes kissy-faces and trembles in public appearances will end. We finally have her music, in all its quasi-controversial, really-not-all-that-special glory, which means she is no longer insulated from criticism by her supposed enigma. We can all, at long last, move on.
Oh, the record? It’s practically an afterthought. Odds are good that those already with opinions on Del Rey will find no reason in Born to Die to change them. It’s pretty cool, I guess--a bit artificial, but if you’re already part of the “pro” camp in the Lana Del Rey war of attrition, that probably won’t matter. It doesn’t take more than a minute of watching her try to figure out what to do with her hands on her SNL performance to understand that intense behind-the-scenes machinations have gone into making this girl famous. Born to Die is the fruit of the machinations’ labor, meaning it’s essentially her essence distilled and repeated over the course of twelve tracks. She’s still alarmingly submissive, still appropriating American celebrity iconography into thick, romantic kitsch; basically, she’s doing with more gusto that which makes the internet go ****ing insane.
So Born To Die can be considered a success in the sense it keeps Lana Del Rey relevant via controversy. As troubling gender politics and catchy songs made fellow internet lightning rods Odd Future a big ****ing deal, so too have they Lana Del Rey. And like OF benchmark album Goblin, Born To Die’s shtick is processed to cartoonish levels, leaving little substance underneath what is essentially an intricate gimmick. This in itself isn’t all that surprising; Lana’s never given the impression that she’s more than a well-made construction. The issue is that whereas Odd Future can fly by on irony to smooth over their rougher edges, Lana is irony-free, and her guise of sincerity renders her cutesy trailer-park girl persona unintentionally creepy with every story of an abusive relationship she punctuates with a giggle. The majority of the record is focused on her ridiculously unhealthy sex life, which consists mostly of brutish dudes feeding her material goods and impersonal dickings, both of which she revels in with phony naivety and gratitude. The catchiest example, “Off to the Races,” features a cocaine-hearted protagonist taking advantage of doe-eyed Lana, who gleefully proclaims herself a harlot and sings: “light in my life, fire in my loins, gimme them gold coins… I’m not afraid to say I’d die without him.”
A lyric like that is a political landmine that sets feminism back sixty years, but the song itself isn’t bad, per se. This happens a lot with Born to Die; even more so than Goblin, this record is a product to be reconciled with rather than straight-up enjoyed. It’s well-made and structured like a pop album too big to fail, but it makes curious choices that indicate the producers’ disconnect between Lana’s perceived appeal and her actual one. Whereas “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” suggest a person beneath the post-modern window dressing of American poverty via tangible, relatable narratives, the rest of Born to Die is as transparent as the window itself, a collection of impersonal clichés loaded one after the other in the Lana Del Rey “image.” Distilling Lana’s personality to nothing but Americana and Sex leads her and her handlers to ridiculous ends, such as letting the totally misguided, totally silly empowerment song “The National Anthem” onto the record, turning “Diet Mtn. Dew” into shrill, dissonant ****, and frenetically dropping American buzzwords as if Lana needed to fill a patriotism quota lest anyone forget her angle. The result of making this angle so conspicuous is that Born to Die comes off not like the record of an artist using ideas to mold an image, but that of a mass of images fused together to mold a celebrity.
But then again, Lana Del Rey has never aspired to be anything else. Maybe Lizzie Grant did, but I don’t particularly care. Born To Die is the culmination of a questionably-talented unknown’s rise to cultural consciousness, and is nothing more than that. What made Lana Del Rey important was that she was a nobody whose popularity grew via word of mouth and genuine anonymity. She could’ve been anyone. She is anyone, but here we are, talking about her as if she isn’t. But all that’s almost done, because Born to Die is vapid, innocuous pop with politically touchy sexual politics, almost indistinguishable from and less interesting than scores of terrible-albeit-infectious female pop music. I wish I could say I’m relieved or proud that the hype machine churned out another just-another, but I’m not. Just disappointed as another new thing that looked like it was worth getting excited about turned out to be contrived, empty ********. Here’s hoping, King Krule.
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2.5 out of 10
SPUTNIKMUSIC
ahhhhh they went in 
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Member Since: 9/7/2010
Posts: 28,471
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Eww that review.Whatever.
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Member Since: 11/17/2010
Posts: 12,926
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Member Since: 5/13/2010
Posts: 6,489
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This album will have a 60-65 Metacritic score. It deserves better tbh.
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