Lana Del Rey: too much, too soon?

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      It’s probably just a coincidence that Lana Del Rey’s album Born to Die, which comes out today (January 27), shares its title with a Grand Funk Railroad LP from 1976. If Del Rey intended to name her major-label debut after a Me Decade rock record, a more apt choice would have been the New York Dolls’ Too Much Too Soon. Usually an artist has to achieve some degree of popular success before the backlash begins. For Del Rey, the backlash started months before Born to Die's release, when all she had to her name was a first album no one actually heard (it was withdrawn shortly after its release but is reportedly due for a reissue), a haunting little single called “Video Games”, and a bit of blog buzz.

      It wasn’t long before Del Rey started polarizing music fans, or at least the type of heard-it-all doucheballs who post anonymous comments on BrooklynVegan and Hipster Runoff. The main charge levelled against the 25-year-old singer is that she’s about as real as Hannah Montana. For starters, her actual name is the less glamorous-sounding Lizzy Grant, and her back story sounds too good to be true. The official version is that Grant was a badass kid who got shipped off to a boarding school at 15 after she started messing around with booze and drugs. Later on, she dropped out of college to pursue a career in music in New York City—which, of course, she now has, but only after spending a few years living in a New Jersey trailer park.

      That’s all bullshit, according to the haters, who paint Del Rey as her rich daddy’s pet project. Even her famously full lips, they say, aren’t so much bee-stung as they are surgically shaped. These are supposedly valid talking points because, as we all know, pop singers never, ever do things like adopting stage names or enhancing their looks with the help of a well-trained scalpel.

      She might be perceived as such, but Del Rey is no singing puppet, and she isn’t immune to the slings and arrows of popular opinion. Last October, she admitted to Complex that she finds it impossible to just shrug off the haters. “I don’t feel that way,” she said. “I’m not that cool. I feel like I want to fucking kill myself. It’s miserable.”

      This was the already tumultuous backdrop against which Del Rey made her U.S. network television premiere on January 14, performing “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” on Saturday Night Live. That she was one of the least experienced artists to ever play on the venerable program gave her critics more fuel, and they piled on early. One of the first out of the gate was Juliette Lewis, who took to her Twitter account to opine that seeing Del Rey was “like watching a 12-year-old in their bedroom when they’re pretending to sing and perform”. One of the singer’s most high-profile, and most vehement, detractors was NBC Nightly News talking head Brian Williams, who, in a private email that the bitchy, celebrity-obsessed blog Gawker made public, declared Del Rey’s appearance to be “one of the worst outings in SNL history”.

      While that hardly seems fair—especially when you consider the precedents set by a tone-deaf Ke$ha and a jigging Ashlee Simpson—it’s true that Del Rey didn’t exactly set 30 Rockefeller Plaza on fire with her charisma. If her stage presence was awkward and stiff and her pitch less than perfect, however, chalk it up to nerves. It doesn’t take much hunting to find YouTube clips of her singing much more convincing and confident versions of both songs.

      It didn’t quite make her a star, but all the chatter about her SNL appearance, both the good and the bad, certainly marked Lana Del Rey as someone to watch—just in case she crashed and burned in spectacular fashion. Now, with Born to Die finally out, she can be judged on the basis of more than a great single and a shaky TV debut.

      The album isn’t an artistic triumph that’s going to put the doubters in their place, nor is it a total failure. Instead, it sounds like the work of someone who (to borrow an SNL-ism) isn’t quite ready for prime time. Born to Die is a big, glossy production with a signature sound—melodramatic strings paired with epic programmed beats—that sometimes obscures weak songwriting. Del Rey’s lyrics often seem like lists of strategically chosen cultural signifiers—Pabst Blue Ribbon, Lolita, James Dean, punk rock—that add up to exactly nothing. And her liberal borrowing of rap slang feels disingenuous, even if, as she claims in “Blue Jeans”, she “grew up on hip-hop”. It’s even worse when she actually adopts a rap-inflected vocal style, as she does on the frankly embarrassing “Off to the Races”.

      Still, there’s something fascinating about the character she creates, this “Lana Del Rey”; equal parts trailer-trash princess, self-conscious hipster, and superannuated teenage temptress with unfortunate taste in boyfriends. Whoever she is, her bold-faced declarations of love and despair seem as guileless as the rest of her is calculated.

      And she can sing, too, despite what Brian Williams probably thinks. Again, though, her voice sounds underdeveloped, and she often seems like she’s trying too hard to prove something. She’s better off keeping things simple, as she does on “Million Dollar Man”, a straightforward torch song that comes closest to Del Rey’s own description of herself as a “gangsta Nancy Sinatra”.

      Where Born to Die succeeds is in its abundant evidence that Del Rey is ambitious enough to create a persona and develop a sound, even if the end result doesn’t quite hit the mark. Will this album make my year-end Top 10 list? Probably not. But do I want to hear how Del Rey follows it up? Yes, and you should, too. Maybe then the former Lizzy Grant will realize her potential and get her due—and hopefully it won't be too little, too late.

      Comments

      12 Comments

      Not a Hipster

      Jan 27, 2012 at 4:24pm

      "Still, there’s something fascinating about the character she creates, this “Lana Del Rey”; equal parts trailer-trash princess, self-conscious hipster, and superannuated teenage temptress with unfortunate taste in boyfriends."

      Oh good lord. I didn't really care that much one way or the other before this article, but what a sloppy ode to yet another manufactured teen singer. A hipster princess temptress, huh? How original.

      Give me female artists like Gaga who change their name and appearance and brand with great deliberation and consideration and personal care. Lana Del Rey is another girl created by men in suits. She barely even seems awake, much less in control of her career. It's a shame you're buying it.

      Error:840

      Jan 27, 2012 at 5:02pm

      I's very telling that there's fewer and fewer comments on the near endless stream of articles about LDR. People are definitely losing interest.

      City Observer

      Jan 27, 2012 at 5:08pm

      Really, all the foofaraw around Lana Del Rey / Lizzy Grant, at the end of the day doesn't matter. Is she talented, or isn't she?

      For this writer, I believe she is. Sure she was as nervous as heck in her not-ready-for-prime-time debut on SNL in early January. But have a look and listen to Lana Del Rey's performance of Video Games on Jools Holland's eponymous British show, and any rationale person would have to agree that she's got more than enough talent ... http://youtu.be/83kfch8JacI

      Music 911

      Jan 27, 2012 at 7:47pm

      The album over all was a good album that will sell. There are very catchy beats as well as lyrics. I feel as though she lacks stage presence as well as energy. Will I buy a ticket to go see her live? Maybe not. If she improves and is able to sing like she has on other TV shows (NOT SNL) then definitely. I'm just waiting to see how the American public will react to her and how she market's herself. She seems like a genuine girl and maybe it's time for artists to start singing again and not using all of that Electronic/Techno beats to music. Adele's album did amazingly well and not all of the songs on the album were good. We'll see what happens with this newcomer, but for now I think she still needs work. Hopefully months from now her stage presence improves as well as her live performances.

      RF

      Jan 27, 2012 at 8:23pm

      So, we should wait patiently until she gets good and/or professional? Cool. I'm still waiting for the similarly bad-ass Avril Lavigne to emit any stage presence whatsoever. This is all fake crap and everybody knows it - no matter how many excuses one can manufacture.

      Knock us dead with raw talent or forget it.

      yesdothis

      Jan 27, 2012 at 8:49pm

      I have to admit, I find the LDR character to be fascinating. I want her image to be real, but I get the sense that she's been constructed. Too bad.

      Manufacturing a False Dialectic

      Jan 28, 2012 at 12:49am

      Nobody cares. Somebody cares. Who cares? Who doesn't? Blah blah blah... Remember her name. You are getting sleepy... buy song from itunes. Consume.

      Zako

      Jan 28, 2012 at 9:53am

      "Knock us dead with raw talent or forget it."

      Bingo. If this was some local girl performing at bars and local clubs, this would all be fine. But she's vying for the international spotlight and the status of musical celebrity. What has she done to deserve this? Why should we be okay with this "Sure she kinda sucks but she's sort of earnest even if she's completely manufactured" attitude? There are thousands of girls out there with way more songwriting and singing talent, who are going completely unknown, probably because they don't have millionaire fathers sponsoring their careers. "Rich daddy girl's pet project" sounds about right. The fact that her name was chosen by a team of managers says it all. They are finally starting to do "manufactured pop idols" for the hipster crowd.

      Stephen Rogers

      Jan 28, 2012 at 11:16am

      Great article - this is why I read the Straight.

      bowser

      Jan 28, 2012 at 2:42pm

      Who? What?