Who is Lana Del Rey?
Posted by Jim on Nov 6, 2011 in Featured, Music | 0 comments
I want to like Lana Del Rey. Hell, I want to love this girl. I think that “Video Games” is one of the most exciting pop singles to come out in ages. It’s a sexy, dark, restrained homage to 60′s pop that sounds at once like a sweeping and retro torch song while at the same time sounding exquisitely fresh. It’s also unmarred by any knowledge of Lana or her celebrity. In a refreshing way it’s a song not attached to any celebrity/recording artist’s private-public life. Think about this: when was the last time you heard a great new song that was more about the song than the artist? The accompanying video, part pastiche, part time capsule, is so perfectly vague that it really only serves one purpose: to let the world know that Lana Del Rey is hot and to leave it wanting more.
Leaked demos and a smidgen of live performances have proven that Lana’s voice is capable if somewhat generic. However it’s her beauty and authenticity that seem to be continuously scrutinized. Her songs run the gamut from pop to rnb to torch to americana, which begs the question: Lana, who are you? Are you a product that’s been manufactured by a dying industry that thinks that a woman unaware of her sexuality will sell more records than an artist who is more self-aware? Are you the girl who makes me feel uncomfortable every time you utter “daddy”? Are you the girl who sings of smoking, drinking and murdering your father? Are you the Lolita who sings of making movies with a fake baby doll voice? Regardless, the whole image is hard to digest in that it alienates women and makes men feel dirty. Granted most of these songs won’t make it onto her debut, which is smart. Perhaps the criticism stems from the listener not being sure at this point if Lana is striving for authenticity, or if she’s an unknowing it girl who is so naive and unaware of her sensuality that she can’t see the wall of boners attached to the men she sings of. I really hope this is not the case and that she can turn her point of view to more intelligent, savvy angles. I don’t want to listen to a song about a woman killing her father and then wanting him back.
Yet, still, there’s great potential here. As Lana’s confidence grows as an artist I have no doubt that she will one day trump “Video Games”. All the ingredients are there to be a formidable popstar. But if she doesn’t realize that playing a woman empowered by both her looks and intelligence will resonate further with her audience rather than her faux coquette act, that day may be later rather than sooner.