On album at least, Lana Del Ray manages her public image very well. Of late, every new release has added to her mystique, finely blurring the lines between the person and the persona, to a point where one is indistinguishable from the other. There is a tension in her songs that arises from not knowing how much of what are hearing is the real Lana Del Ray standing in partial view – papered over by a collage of archaic 1970s pop culture references – and what is half-truth and outright embellishment. Lyrically she continues to fuse her own mythology with the mythology of California. ...Ocean Blvd rises above the sum of its parts and successfully presents an altered reality, blending fact and fiction, memory and desire, physical geography and the shifting geography of the soul. It is for these reasons that, after the dust settles on this golden creative streak, I think this record is going to be a lot of people's favourite Lana Del Ray album.
The direct contrast to Lana would be a pop amazon like Beyonce, whose career is a nesting doll of personas, seemingly refined by focus groups of images consultants and heavily tailored to an album release/tour cycle. There is nothing wrong with that approach. David Bowie and Madonna laid down the template. It works really well and allows for sudden reinvention.
I prefer something more fluid and contiguous, rather than a jarring transition where I can see the joins. I like artists who at least give the appearance of growing organically. For that to happen they need to follow their creative instincts and commit to a regular release schedule. Lana scratches that itch.
On album at least, Lana Del Ray manages her public image very well. Of late, every new release has added to her mystique, finely blurring the lines between the person and the persona, to a point where one is indistinguishable from the other. There is a tension in her songs that arises from not knowing how much of what are hearing is the real Lana Del Ray standing in partial view – papered over by a collage of archaic 1970s pop culture references – and what is half-truth and outright embellishment. Lyrically she continues to fuse her own mythology with the mythology of California. ...Ocean Blvd rises above the sum of its parts and successfully presents an altered reality, blending fact and fiction, memory and desire, physical geography and the shifting geography of the soul. It is for these reasons that, after the dust settles on this golden creative streak, I think this record is going to be a lot of people's favourite Lana Del Ray album. The direct contrast to Lana would be a pop amazon like Beyonce, whose career is a nesting doll of personas, seemingly refined by focus groups of images consultants and heavily tailored to an album release/tour cycle. There is nothing wrong with that approach. David Bowie and Madonna laid down the template. It works really well and allows for sudden reinvention. I prefer something more fluid and contiguous, rather than a jarring transition where I can see the joins. I like artists who at least give the appearance of growing organically. For that to happen they need to follow their creative instincts and commit to a regular release schedule. Lana scratches that itch.