Review Summary: A good, radio-friendly listen, but not spectacular. Save your breath for future records.
Ah, Lana. 'Video Games'. 'Summertime Sadness'. Instant hits these songs, they secured her place in the mainstream music in recent years.
So I took the chance to listen to her 3 albums released so far, and after the somewhat insecure and boring at times I would say, here comes this album. This is a more polished album to begin with. Better production ( if only marred by too much electronic arrangements) but it holds your attention better.
Better melodies, also. The main attraction in most songs is the central hook, with the verses having less well-crafted melodies. But one things still bothers me, one that is intact from her first album. Pretentiousness. And not only in the lyrics (lyrics such as 'Big dreams, gangster,Said you had to leave to start your life over' make me cringe. Every time). But the main letdown is how these lyrics and general style interact with the music, which is overly dramatic and serious, but Lana is simply not a songwriter/artist capable of bringing seriousness and dramatic layers succesfully into her songs. But, as i said, the main attraction is the hooks, so what about them? Well, 90% of them are fascinating. ‘Blue Jeans’, for example benefits both from a memorable verse and a great chorus.
And Lana's voice delivers on the majority, hell, all of them. She's not phenomenal, as most would have you believe, but she manages to find a balance between pompousness and calmness that's truly remarkable.
'Video Games', the biggest hit off the album is pure perfection production-wise, melody-wise, arrangement-wise. Best song of the album, no doubt . Predictable choice, I know but don't blame it on me. And the opener title-track is fascinating as well with -again- a fascinating chorus. And while we're at it, isn't the 'You're not good for me' part of 'Diet Mountain Dew' addictive? Yes it is. And then you are hit with a lyric like ‘Money is the anthem, Of success, So before we go out, What's your address?’ and the cringe starts again. I mean, honestly what was she thinking. She had a good set of songs with catchy melodies and ruined it completely with such lyrics. But, I digress. ‘Dark Paradise’ is a rewrite of ‘Video Games’ melodically and is a definite low point of the album. No new melody (except the chorus, of course), similar vibe and feel to the rest of the album -oh wait- the whole album feels the same now that I think of it. Which is seriously tiresome after a certain time. A little diversity wouldn’t help either, really. ‘Radio’ is fillerish, with the first song to not feature a breathtaking chorus. It’s good, anyway, but there’s not much to the song. ‘Carmen’ is derivative again, because, you know by track 9 you begin to see the formula behind these songs.
‘Million Dollar Man’ though, starts off with a great effect that reminds me of a distorted harmonica. I don’t believe it is a harmonica, but it sounds like it. Very good song, atmospheric, but better in that respect than the previous 2-3 songs. Lana’s voice in that is superb, I say. Expressive and dramatic, but this is one of the few times where the trick pays off. ‘Summertime Sadness’ is the second best song of the album ( Who would have guessed?) and is equal melody-wise to Video Games. ‘ I got that summertime, summertime sadness’. Great. The album closes with ‘This Is What Makes Us Girls’ which is rather boring, actually.
So, we have an album that’s mainly mainstream and radio-friendly, what with all these stunning choruses. But, we also have an album that kills of it’s own pace with the similarity between the songs, as far production, atmosphere, arrangements go. I mean, after a while, you start wondering ‘Why the fuss?’. And indeed, why?. After all, the album is hardly breaking new ground, because the wild experimentation and arrangements start from the mid-60’s. And the album is hardly an emotional experience, at least not a deep one, since there is too much pretentiousness and over-dramatization in the music to keep one ecstatic. It’s mainly hype I guess. But, still this is a good and worthy listen, but don’t expect any kind of real magnificence in this album. It’s manufactured.
