Off to the races (Lana Del Rey) (LP 2366 - 2370)

Lana Del Rey  Born To Die (CD, Polydor Records, 2012) *****  

Lana Del Rey  Ultraviolence (CD, Polydor Records, 2014) ****  

Lana Del Rey  NFR (CD, Polydor Records, 2019) *****  

Lana Del Rey  Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass (CD, Polydor Records, 2020)  

Lana Del Rey  Chemtrails Over The Country Club (CD, Polydor Records, 2021) ****  

Genre: Alt-pop, trip-hop

Places I remember: Fopp, HMV, JB Hi-Fi.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Off To The Races (Born To Die)

Gear costume: Summertime Sadness (Born To Die); Venice Bitch (NFR); California (NFR);

Active compensatory factors: Basically, Born To Die was Lana Del Rey's debut (Lana Del Rey being her stage name - her real name is Elizabeth Grant). The tortured story of her first album, called Lana Del Rey, can be read here.

Born To Die is a 5 star classic - no duff tracks - every single one holds my attention. It's rare, these days, that I put an album on and immediately need to read the lyric sheet, having been transfixed by the delivery. Lana inspires this diligence!

Yes, it's melodramatic, and yes - the repetition can be a tad annoying at times - Diet Mountain Dew is a case in point, but I'll forgive her this minor transgression. She's a real star, a real individual talent and she deserves the space to do whatever the heck she wants.

Ultraviolent came two years later and was a collaboration between her and The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. He produces most of the songs and plays a variety of instruments.

That's probably why this is quite a rocky album - a much more organic sound than Born To Die, featuring much more electric guitar. 

For some reason I didn't buy her next two albums (Honeymoon and Lust For Life). Maybe I considered them extensions of Ultraviolet which I hadn't enjoyed quite as much as I had Born To Die. Instead, Norman ******* Rockwell was next for me.

It's another 5 star effort. Her consistency is quite breathtaking. The sound is different again, a kind of amalgam of Born To Die and Ultraviolent. Her vocals are mixed higher and she sounds fully in command.

Her lyrics aren't included in the album packaging of Ultraviolent or NFR, which is a real shame. She clearly enunciates her lyrics on NFR but I'd still like to follow along on a lyric sheet.

Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass is a spoken word album to accompany her book of poetry of the same title, also published in 2020. This is great! Her poetry is inspired by Whitman and Ginsberg - two of my favourite poets, so it's a bit of a no-brainer that an English teacher type like me would enjoy this collection. I haven't rated it because it's not music.

Chemtrails Over The Country Club is her seventh album. It's again produced by Jack Antonoff (who actually features on the cover of NFR). It's a great team!

Chemtrails doesn't have the intensity that NFR had (that one can be a bit dark at times), instead it's a sunnier, more playful record. Maybe it's that cover image of a group of smiling women that sets the tone.

Although it's in very small print, a lyric sheet makes a welcome return for Chemtrails, plus it ends with her simple and pure version of For Free - the Joni Mitchell song that David Crosby loves so much. She sings it well.

Where do they all belong? A few holes in the catalogue that I need to plug.