Sleepy Carolina's Review of Lana Del Rey's New Album "Lust For Life"
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Lana Del Rey, or Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, is an American singer- songwriter who is known for her dramatic and Old Hollywood style music. Lana just released her 5th studio album Lust For Life (2017), and it is amazing- not that we didn't anticipate that. The album features artists such as The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky, Stevie Nicks, Sean Ono Lennon and Playboi Carti.
When discussing the beginning stages of the album with NME magazine, Lana stated "I do have early thoughts about what I'd like to do with it. My label, Interscope, is pretty flexible and open to my records coming out at any time, so I don't have that pressure. I'm just happy to be able to keep on making music I can stand behind. That's enough for me." She expressed the desire to take the album in a different direction from her preceding project Honeymoon (2015), while maintaining the same overall aesthetic.
The 16- track album starts off with a song titled "Love", which was a single released in January and the first track the world would hear from Lust For Life. The track is slow, ambient and classic Lana. The backing instrumentation is minimal with a subtle and consistent bass, while Del Rey's vocals take center stage with minimal to no harmonies. The second track "Lust For Life (feat. The Weeknd)" is a nice change of pace and carries underlying tones of indie and dream pop. The Weeknd also shows a brand new side of himself by singing softly over a completely different sound than we are used to hearing from him, and it is a genre that definitely works for his vocal style.
The next few tracks tend to stick along the same vibe until the 6th track titled "Summer Bummer (feat. A$AP Ricky & Playboi Carter)", which displays Lana's voice over a hard- hitting hip hop beat. A$AP comes in about a minute into the song, and the contrast between Del Rey's sweet voice against the rappers more aggressive vocals work really well together. The album continues to carry a hiphop feel until about the 12th tack, "Beautiful people, Beautiful Problems (feat. Stevie Nicks), which drops all the synths and instrumentals and turns indie-folk, bringing the album back to basics. The 13th track "Tomorrow Never Came (feat. Sean Ono Lennon) proves to be one of our personal favorites, and the son of Yoko and John sounds insanely like his father. Both singers have heavy reverb on their vocals, giving the song a live- audience and spaced- out haunting feel, and the harmonies in the chorus are simply breathtaking,
The last two tracks fill out the end of Lust For Life brilliantly until the final song, "Get Free", which was by far the best song to end the project with. The use of minor chords make the listener aware that the album is coming to a close, but also give of a to-be-continued vibe when the chorus takes a 180 and seemingly switches genres completely.
Lust For Life was a very well thought out, precise and beautiful piece of art- and one of Lana's best project to date. The underlying messages behind her tracks are plentiful and open for interpretation, giving each and every listener something different to take out of them. There are so many different styles and genres intertwined throughout all 16 tracks, keeping Lust For Life interesting and perfect for all varieties of listeners.