Ultraviolence
by Lana Del Rey

Lana's strongest record. Although Born to Die and Lust For Life are solid albums, her distinct 'noir-Americana' persona that others have mentioned gets muddled by the heavyhanded poppy electronic rhythm sections on those two. This one (despite the heavy use of reverb) sounds far more organic than the others.

Here, I think we get the pure melancholic extract of her sound. It's an album with an old soul, but also veers on the edge of being straight-up dream pop. While the tracklisting loses a bit of steam in the second half, it pulls itself together at the end with a strong finish. The end result is a strong album that almost sounds timeless.

Perhaps it is simply my addiction to this sound, but I love this record. Something about the way her voice effortlessly shifts timbres from line-to-line and shimmers alongside those guitars...Like the chorus to 'Shades of Cool'...Damn. Perhaps it is not the most -adventurous-, but man do I find this album irresistible.

Highlights: Shades of Cool, Brooklyn Baby, Black Beauty, Cruel World

Least Favorite: Money Power Glory

From rogue 06/14/2019 18:07 | #237525 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This is still one of my favorite records to listen to in the summertime. Slow, sexy, beautiful. (Edited)

From Boltzmann TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/30/2019 19:52 | #246160 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I get a bit sad listening to her music, because - well, in the first place because of her music of course, but also because I notice I will never feel the full extent of her music, because her music is mostly made for and from the perspective of women. I'll never experience putting up her music in my teens and just vibe hard to it. And at the same time I'm glad something like this can exist in our time: music that is women's own. (Edited)

Never thought Lana could be so emotional this way. "Cruel World", "Shades of Cool" and "West Coast" are really powerful tracks. Best album of her for sure. (Edited)

The first 5 songs of this album are absolutely mesmerizing! The backing instruments are more pronounced and the entire structure for these songs are a vast improvement from her Born To Die debut. Unfortunately, the back half of this album is very bland in comparison. Sad Girl is a good song if not a bit repetitive, but as you get to Pretty When You Cry, it all starts to sound the same. That is, until you get to The Other Woman but even then the song is in no way as good as any of the first 5 songs. West Coast and Shades of Cool are probably the highlights while the back half left me a bit disappointed.