Ultraviolence Reviews: 74 Metascore (DISCUSS REVIEWS ONLY)

[naachoboy 7,993]

MetaCritic reviews to look forward to:

 

Consequence of Sound (LDRO said it was very positive)

New York Times (very positive notes in the interview, but will the reviewer agree?)

Pretty Much Amazing (tweeted that the album was "very good")

Rolling Stone (I wouldn't expect anything above a 3/5, but will be interesting to read)

Billboard (they have been in love with her recently...see Coachella review)

Pitchfork (change of heart?)

 

Entertainment Weekly's 100 still hasn't been added. 

And Tiny Mix Tapes... they gave BTD a 0 

[Jared 3,130]

New: Lana Del Rey, “Cruel World”

 

“Cruel World” is the stunner that opens up Lana Del Rey’s new album, Ultraviolence and it just happens to be the best song on the album that wasn’t given the pre-release single treatment. Those single–“West Coast”, “Shades of Cool”, the title track, and “Brooklyn Baby”–are all great, too.

 

Earlier today we shared “Is This Happiness,” an international-release bonus track from the album. It’s a lovely song made even more poignant in light of LDR’s recent, morbid interviews.

 

Ultraviolence is out June 17.

 

 

http://prettymuchamazing.com/music/lana-del-rey-cruel-world

[ilovetati 15,297]

She's at 81 on MetaCritic after the EW review!

 

I hope it doesn't drop too much.

[naachoboy 7,993]

She's at 81 on MetaCritic after the EW review!

 

I hope it doesn't drop too much.

They added the EW, and the Clash one. 

[ofcharsky 163]

Pop Matters - 70

LA Times - 75

 

They need to add both 

[Manueldelrey 72]

I don't feel like we're living in the same world, Lana receiving such a good reviews is so different from 2012 lol

[lafleursauvage 324]

Wow, looks like this era will be different on so many levels  

[Macintosh Manhattan 6,511]

I'm personally wondering what the british music mags like Q and NME will say about the album. Last time they were if i remember correctly quite nice and positive. As least they weren't questioning if she was real or fake and reviewed the album/music.

[HONEYMOON 431]

I'm personally wondering what the british music mags like Q and NME will say about the album. Last time they were if i remember correctly quite nice and positive. As least they weren't questioning if she was real or fake and reviewed the album/music.

 

The European critics have always viewed her in a positive light so I'm sure she'll probably score high.

[Manueldelrey 72]

I'm personally wondering what the british music mags like Q and NME will say about the album. Last time they were if i remember correctly quite nice and positive. As least they weren't questioning if she was real or fake and reviewed the album/music.

NME even has BTD in a list of the 101 albums you need to hear before you die.

[Jared 3,130]

MetaCritic reviews to look forward to:

 

Consequence of Sound (LDRO said it was very positive)

New York Times (very positive notes in the interview, but will the reviewer agree?)

Pretty Much Amazing (tweeted that the album was "very good")

Rolling Stone (I wouldn't expect anything above a 3/5, but will be interesting to read)

Billboard (they have been in love with her recently...see Coachella review)

Pitchfork (change of heart?)

 

Entertainment Weekly's 100 still hasn't been added. 

 

James Reed @GlobeJamesReed · 2h

Haven't said this in a while: Lana Del Rey has left me awestruck. Her new album, "Ultraviolence," is staggeringly good.

https://twitter.com/GlobeJamesReed/status/477536463861452800

 

Staff music critic for the Boston Globe. 

[HausOfMark 85]

all these low scores make me so mad. Dont review the album if you already know how slow her music is and such. let someone who knows how her music is to judge it. 

 

:/

[veniceglitch 379]

     

[HEARTCORE 18,969]

Lana's current score on Metacritic is 81 which, according to here, signifies Universal Acclaim!

 

Let's hope it stays at this level or goes higher!

[ilovetati 15,297]

Lana's current score on Metacritic is 81 which, according to here, signifies Universal Acclaim!

 

Let's hope it stays at this level or goes higher!

 

I don't think it will go higher (Pitchfork, RS, and TMT could be pretty low) but it gives UV a greater chance of remaining in the 70s.

[HEARTCORE 18,969]

I don't think it will go higher (Pitchfork, RS, and TMT could be pretty low) but it gives UV a greater chance of remaining in the 70s.

Well I hope it stays around 80/81! If not, 75 would still be pretty good.

[Sebastian 327]

Universal Acclaim 

[naachoboy 7,993]

all these low scores make me so mad. Dont review the album if you already know how slow her music is and such. let someone who knows how her music is to judge it. 

 

:/

what low scores lmfao just one 40 

[LiamViljoen 908]

all these low scores make me so mad. Dont review the album if you already know how slow her music is and such. let someone who knows how her music is to judge it.

 

:/

 

 

 

 

My baby lives in 2012...

[lafleursauvage 324]

New review from Digital Spy UK: Original source here

 

 

 

Yesterday, it was revealed that not only did Lana Del Rey not much like the popstar life, she didn't really much like life, full stop, at the moment. She'd considered not making a new album. On the second point, at least, you can hardly blame her. From the moment 'Video Games' exploded, poor Del Rey mystifyingly became an empty vessel for the verbal vomitus of cultural analysts, all for the sin of being a good singer-songwriter with a Mad Men: The Musical! aesthetic. 

Commenting on her career so far in her excellent recent Fader interview, she asserted: "My career is a reflection of journalism, current-day journalism. My public persona and career has nothing to do with my internal process or my personal life. It is actually just a reflection on writers' creative processes and where they're at in 2014." The writer goes on to hope that by now, all the theories have canceled each other out, leaving her listeners able to relate to Lana and her music more directly. The fact that the internet then exploded over the "feminism is just not an interesting concept to me" soundbite quote from the same article, suggests that, sadly, the media isn't quite ready to do so. 

Del Rey, though, seems more than ready for just being Lana. She's never sounded so comfortable in her own skin. Part of this is a growth in confidence and skill natural on a second album - her lyrics are stronger, with no "take me to the Hamptons"-style howlers, and the songs are stronger, more assured in their delivery. Part of it is also Black Key Dan Auerbach's production, a much closer, if safer, fit than the hip-hop shell of Born To Die , which draws out the smouldering, baleful Mazzy Star psych-pop fatale tendencies always present in songs such as 'Video Games'.

The opening track, 'Cruel World', sets the cinematic scene with lush, dark twangs and lovely reverb. It's heavy with the goodbye vibes hinted at in the title: "Shared my body and my life with you... that's way over now... there's no more I can do." The funereal drums and oscillations build for an unnerving chorus of psychic dissolution at a suburban party: "You're young, you're wild, you're free, you're dancing circles around me, you're f**king crazy."

Like much of the album, while emotionally intense, it's complex enough to suggest simple autobiographical readings are to be avoided. The excellent, creepy 'Brooklyn Baby', intended for a Lou Reed guest slot, has been judged by some to be Lana sniping at modern-day hipsters. However, the references to jazz and beat poetry suggest it's more a barbed tribute to the idea of the free-spirited beatnik chick, New York's long heritage as a home for the adorably feckless counterculture. And there's no harsh judgement there: most of this album is relaxed to the point of stoned, with a constant unsettling sense of psychic darkness lurking somewhere under Del Rey's "narco swing".

The excellently titled 'F**ked My Way Up To The Top' finds Lana's voice Humphrey Bogart-smoky, trip-hoppish effects pairing with soft piano as she asserts "this is my show" and fantasises "Lay me down tonight in my diamonds and pearls". It's luxuriant, as are the swelling strings of 'Old Money' and its reminiscences of a decorous American summer: "Red racing cars/Sunset and vine/The kids were young and pretty…" As far as olde-worlde Americana goes, there's even a cover of a song written by Jessie Mae Robinson, but made famous by Nina Simone, 'The Other Woman', which finds Lana positively wallowing in her retro femme fatale shtick: "She's never seen with pin curls in her hair…"

So far so Lana, but there are surprises to come - albeit not in the slinky, jazz-toned langour of 'Sad Girl' and 'Pretty When You Cry' (on which Lana seems to adopt a very unnerving Neil Young impression) with their unashamed exploration of 'bad or damaged relationships are seductive (possibly in a bad way, but it feels so good)'. The surprises start with lead single 'West Coast', a brooding, shifting beast of altering speeds and pulsing darkness with a malevolent, stoned-sounding Lana possibly dropping the slightest hint to Stevie Nicks' 'Edge Of Seventeen' with her "ooh baby, ooh baby"s. 

Then there's the fabulous, sultry 'Money Power Glory', with its heavily-reverbed drums and softly smouldering piano, which could be read as a rejection of the spiritual hereafter ("You say that you wanna go to a land/That's far away/How are we supposed to get there with the way that we're living today?") Del Rey has said it references her determination that if she couldn't get critical respect as a serious artist, she would revel in simple success. Its chorus is amazingly triumphal, vengeful and satisfying - so much for Del Rey the submissive female: "Allelulia, I wanna take you/I'm gonna take them for all that they got." Sounds a lot better than giving up, doesn't it?

4/5

 

The comments underneath the article made me smile - along the lines of "This is REAL music..." "Lana is a truly underrated artist..."