Review - Lana Del Rey - Born To Die (Paradise Edition)

Maybe I’m missing out on something, but I don’t understand why all these stars re-release their albums with what are essentially entire new albums attached. For example, Lana Del Rey re-released her big debut ‘Born To Die’ with the ‘Paradise’ EP attached. Only thing is, the ‘Paradise’ EP is actually nine songs long. Why release a nine song EP? That’s…an album, minus one song. If it were me, I’d just wait a month, record two or three more songs and call it an album.

Now, you can buy the ‘Paradise’ EP separately, so maybe they are trying to trick people into thinking they aren’t buying a whole new album (which they essentially are). But it seems silly to me. Gaga did it with ‘The Fame Monster’ (which had three singles anyways), and Ke$ha did it with ‘Cannibal’. That sounds like an album cycle to me, doesn’t it?

Anyways, back to ‘Paradise’ – the ‘EP’ is exactly what we expect from her. If you heard anything from ‘Born To Die’, which you must have if you were musically literate at all in the past year, than you know what to expect. More of the same moroseness and faded glamour she likes to play. The whole thing is very “Dear God, whatever will become of me”.

The act that Del Rey puts on is different, I’ll give her that, but I’m getting tired of it. Seeing her perform live, have everyone cheer, and she emits no smile, no emotion. Blech. And the songs – I’m all about a toned-down performance that favors delicate beauty over bombastic beats, but enough is enough. How many songs can you do in sadcore (a genre that I think was invented to describe what she’s doing) before the people want something more?

What I will say is that Yawna Del Rey (Michael Feloni came up with that. I HAD to use it) has learned how to use her voice a bit better than a year ago. Her vocals don’t sound quite as strained. So, she’s got that going for her. Also, I really like some of the lyrics. I may not love her as a singer, but some of the songwriting really is up there. “Ride” has some lovely, messed up lyrics (“I’ve got a war in my mind” as she points a gun to her head).

I like the look (very old Hollywood glamour – someone get this girl a mink stole and some diamonds), and the videos have been rather good as of late (“Ride” in particular), but I want to hear something more. She’s got a year or so on my clock to come out with a new sound before I throw my hands in the air and completely give up.

Listen to: “Cola”