born to wear a red dress

Lana Del Rey has been the IT girl since last summer. As an unknown a year ago then dropping Video Games which cued blog mentions and heavy spins at hipster parties, the young songstress became the next big thing which got her a gig on TV's biggest prime time stage. SNL. With mixed reviews, the girl born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant told the audience she's here to stay. And we can't do anything about it.

I first heard about Rey in July with Video Games. I thought she had clever lyrics and a contagious voice that reminded me of girls of my past who were too high on coke to really carry a convo. Be it as it may, I was attracted to her. Maybe it was the bad girl thing. Maybe it was the cute innocent thing she had. Maybe because I just thought she had talent. Whatever the reason, I was hooked. As her singles were leaked, the more I heard of the American singer slash songwriter, I got more enthralled. Like a line of coke to a user, one line is never enough. I needed more. Fast forward till recently when I heard Rey's first project, Born to Die.


With popular Hop Hop producers like Jeff Bhasker (Kanye, Jigga) and Emile Haynie (Em, Lil Wayne) along with sampling one of the most popular break beats (Mountain's Long Red) on Born to Die, I wasn't so surprised how Rey mixed her sultry singing with basic rhyming very reminiscent to the old skills of the legendary Blondie. It added to her songs in a good way. Showed cute diversity. Yes. Cute Diversity. It just adds to the similar beat patters that are heard in each song along with the constant Lolita references and lyrics that have to do with a red dress and taking him downtown.

And I'm OK with this. Surprisingly.


The album formula; Girl digs Bad Boy. Wants to have sex. Smoke, Cocaine references. Hook. Repeat. Yes. It's repetitive, but still enjoyable. Because there hasn't been a starlet who was able to pull it off like her in recent memory. And the kids like it. The girls find her cool and the guys find it hot. This is the reasoning why I tend to conveniently forget that she has no real substance on this freshmen album. I get drifted away by her puffy lips and sweltering voice.

If you're one for diverse deep lyric content, don't buy this album unless you want to sell it off to some hipsters for some obscene amount of dough, telling them you got it from Pitchfork's owner.

If you want some good background music with some dope beats and a constant sexy voice bidding you a good day, cop the album. You'll enjoy it. Just don't think too much into it, and it'll be on repeat. After you can put on some Dylan or Neil Young to make up for the overuse of lines.

And lyrics.

(That was a coke joke.)

Lana will be here for a while. She's good and she sells. The kids aren't too down with the deep intelligent music we grew up on, anymore....