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1st February 2022

Born To Die 10 Years On: Did Lana Del Rey make the best pop record of the 2010s?

As Lana Del Rey’s seminal album Born To Die turns 10, Sarah Taylor looks back at its legacy and influence.
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Born To Die 10 Years On: Did Lana Del Rey make the best pop record of the 2010s?
Photo: Lana Del Rey Born To Die Official Album Art

Pop music was irrevocably altered on 27th January 2012 when Lana Del Rey released her seminal album Born To Die, a collection of baroque, trip-hop, and alternative pop songs saturated in sentimentality.

The record polarised music critics: some derided Lana’s penchant for old-time aesthetics, calling it contrived, whilst others applauded its avant-garde approach to pop music. The backlash extended to concerned parents of teenage daughters who decried its glamourised depictions of depressed and drug-dependent women (‘Carmen’). Meanwhile, feminists rebuked it as reductive of women (‘This Is What Makes Us Girls’).

In more recent years, Born To Die has become a muse for retrospective reviewers, with many acknowledging that they had judged it unfairly upon its release. Commercially speaking, the album has sold upwards of 7 million copies, and continues to intrigue, and inspire debate. Why?

Unlike other equally talented female pop stars of the era (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna), Del Rey’s music, though ultimately pop at its core, dripped with nostalgia and oozed melancholia.

Born To Die is Lana Del Rey’s debut album on a major label (though her second overall), and it was the record that built and then cemented the character, the enigma, that is Lana Del Rey. Lana carefully crafts a world that is distinctly hers; there is intention behind each word, phrase, image used. The heart-shaped sunglasses of ‘Diet Mountain Dew’, the white bikini of ‘Off To The Races’, and the iconic red dress of ‘Summertime Sadness’ to name a few.

Photo: Lana Del Rey performing in 2011 by aphrodite-in-nyc @ WikiMedia Commons

I was 11 when Born To Die was released. I vividly recall seeing the music video for its title-track on TV and being in awe of this powerful singer bedecked in a flower crown, proudly seated atop a throne, and with a signature crimson pout. Her vocals were strange to me, unlike any I had heard or was used to hearing. From its instantly recognisable opening line (‘Feet don’t fail me now’) to its perfectly penned chorus, ‘Born To Die’ constitutes the ultimate album opener.

I remember my sister buying the CD and we would listen to it on car journeys – some of the songs were miserable and melancholy, others sultry and sensual.

The stripped-back simplicity of ‘Video Games’, with its fluttering piano notes, flourishing bell chimes, and unmistakeable vocal performance, all hinging on its evocative chorus (‘It’s you, it’s you. It’s all for you.’) It should be no surprise that Q Magazine named ‘Video Games’ the Song of the Decade in 2019.

The overnight success of its viral music video catapulted Del Rey to stardom. It is a carefully constructed montage of visuals; video clips of skaters and swimmers, young couples and yellow taxi cabs are interspersed between shots of Lana singing directly into the camera, hair coifed into a bouffant, lips pouted.

It is, in some ways, a cinematic odyssey. The expertly executed music video for ‘National Anthem’, has Lana and then-boyfriend rapper A$AP Rocky assuming the roles of Jackie and John F. Kennedy. ‘Blue Jeans’ depicts Del Rey embracing a heavily tattooed lover in a pool, through a black and white hued lens.

It all reflects the album’s highly theatrical production. Think the bells on ‘Summertime Sadness’, the striking string arrangements of ‘Lolita’, the woozy Bond-esque ‘Million Dollar Man’, or the static distortion on tracks like ‘Radio’ and ‘This Is What Makes Us Girls.’

Inflections of trip-hop crop up on ‘Diet Mountain Dew’ and ‘Off To The Races’, a realm that will be furthered explored on subsequent albums like Lust For Life. The latter track with its slow-burning opening soon accelerates into a thrilling sung-spoken verse before its infectious sing-along chorus. ‘Off To The Races’ is also the most obviously indebted to Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, with the exception of its namesake song. Its pre-chorus refrain is borrowed from the book’s opening line ‘Light of my life, fire of my loins.’ One of the most notorious and controversial novels of the 20th century, Del Rey’s use of its imagery is of course intentional.

My personal favourite track on Born To Die was and remains ‘Radio’. Its crackly distorted beginning creates the impression that the needle has just been dropped onto a beloved old record. ‘Not even they can stop me now’ – her vocal kicks in, deep, hypnotic, determined – ‘Their heavy words can’t bring me down.’ As a teenage girl, I felt inspired, it imbued me with a sense of resilience. ‘Radio’ is a song about old acquaintances and ex-boyfriends coming back into Lana’s life now she is famous, with its sassy refrain ‘How do you like me now?’ figuratively sticking a middle finger up to those who doubted her.

Born To Die, as with other Del Rey records, offers a romanticised America, an idealised country, exuding Hollywood glamour, but also exposing its darker side. Abusive relationships, imbalances of power, and manipulative (often, older) men have been subjects of her songwriting, prompting controversy. The symbolism of location continues to pervade her work – with Ultraviolence’s ‘Brooklyn Baby’ and ‘West Coast’ tracing America’s expanse.

Today, pop music – that is popular music – is more diverse than ever, with artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Rina Sawayama bringing inflections of rock and nu-metal respectively to the fore, whilst Lizzo incorporates elements of hip-hop, Taylor Swift brings folk-leanings on her recent records, and rap queens Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion rise up the charts.

But there is a clear strain of artists whose music is indebted to Del Rey. The minimalism and melancholia of Billie Eilish, Lorde, and Halsey come to mind. Unsurprisingly these artists have cited her influence in interviews, and consistently draw comparisons from music critics. This Lana Del Rey-esque sound, of course, was established on Born To Die. With this record Lana Del Rey’s mythologised identity is presented to the listener, in the intricacies of her lyrics and instrumentals, reinforced by its accompanying visuals. In the 10 years since its initial release, Born To Die has aged gracefully, provided a blueprint for an alternative type of pop music, and brought together a community of listeners who connected to its provocative lyricism, wistful melodies, and seductive shine.

Now get your red dress on tonight and go and give it another listen!

Sarah Taylor

Sarah Taylor

Head Music Editor @ The Mancunion. Freelance Music and Culture Writer @ DIY, The Line of Best Fit, Gigwise, etc. Alt-rock connoisseur and Britpop aficionado. Twitter: @tayl0rsarah LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-taylor-48a562211/

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