Lana Del Rey appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, towards the end of 2011 with her single ‘Video Games.’ I wasn’t too taken with the song at first (which is why the song didn’t appear on my end of year Festive Fifty list), but gradually it grew on me. As did the follow-up single ‘Born To Die.’
What was quite unbelievable, though, was the way that people turned on her quite quickly. Her debut album Born To Die was good, if not spectacular, and yet when that combined with a slightly out of tune performance on Saturday Night Live, you would have thought she was stealing people’s husbands, taking sweets from children and drowning cute fluffy kittens for kicks all at the same time.
However, The album sold well both in the US and UK, and June 16 will see the release of her sophomore album, Ultraviolence.
Two tracks have been released from the album so far, this is the forthcoming ‘Shades Of Cool’ a rather lovely ballad in what seems to be becoming her trademark style:
‘West Coast’ is a different beast entirely, with just a hint of reggae, if you listen very carefully…
The album tracklisting is as follows:
‘Cruel World’
‘Ultraviolence’
‘Shades Of Cool’
‘Brooklyn Baby’
‘West Coast’
‘Sad Girl’
‘Pretty When You Cry’
‘Money Power Glory’
‘Fucked My Way Up To The Top’
‘Old Money’
‘The Other Woman’
‘Black Beauty’ (Bonus track)
‘Guns And Roses’ (Bonus track)
‘Florida Kilos’ (Bonus track)