Ultraviolence [VINYL]

Product Information

Lana Del Rey cites a wide range of musical artists as influences, including numerous pop, jazz, and blues performers from Andrew Lloyd Webber to Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Bobby Vinton, and Miles Davis. Some cracks and pops here and there (not too much to complain about it) this is for sure a great sounding pressing! My copy had lots of surface noise like other people mentioned, and the quality of the packaging isn’t all that great either.

As for the album itself, it's a touch underwhelming considering the material she delivered on the Paradise Edition of Born To Die. If I was being harsh, I would say she was kind of stealing stuff from Cocteau Twins, but I really like the fact she would even go there with her voice. Some have criticised her vocal performance on the cover version, The Other Woman, and admittedly when I first heard it, I thought it was over the top and a bit ridiculous, but my view has changed since then, so much so that I can't help thinking that she should do an album of cover versions next. West Coast is spoiled to a degree by the tempo of the drums being too slow on the chorus; I keep wishing I had a device that could speed the damn thing up. Unlike some of the reviewers on this page, I was hooked on this album from the moment I got it; in fact it quickly supplanted "Born To Die/Paradise" on my personal playlist.But the very fact that she was materially blessed but is clearly maladjusted is what makes her such a vital and original artist. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. In keeping with the previous albums, Del Rey takes on different personas for each track; I find her songs very visual - and yes, I've seen her videos, but I find myself conjuring up the lurid, paperback cover illustrations for each character she adopts; a list of pulp-fiction, soap-opera types - the battered girlfriend, the up-market escort, the gangster's mistress, the pretentious, would-be hipster of the afore mentioned "Brooklyn Baby" - a wicked self-parody, perhaps- which contains the most obvious example of the ironic, jet-black humour at play on a few of the tracks. Upon receiving the repress and comparing it to this one, the repress colors are much darker and the discs are thicker (as expected cause these were very thin). We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

I used to have it in my collection but eventually got rid of it early in this year because this press sounds absolutely terrible. Slow and low is the name of the game and no one’s sad shtick is more seductive than Madame Melancholia herself, Lana Del Rey. Laden in her trademark husky tones, Ultraviolence features the singles 'West Coast', 'Shades Of Cool', 'Brooklyn Baby' and the title track.Surprised people haven't reacted to the lyric of the title track, and it's somewhat reprehensible promotion of domestic violence as something glamorous and desirable.

On the plus side there's the exquisite Shades of Blue, where Lana again channels her inner Liz Fraser (see also, Bel Air from Paradise). The album really reaches its pinnacle with Old Money, which is an incredibly personal and intimate ballad, one of her very best songs, even if the melody is not exactly original. The album was frequently ranked by various publications as among the best albums of the year as well as the decade. Products labelled '*item fulfilled by Exertis on behalf of hmv' will be supplied to you directly by Exertis via their approved couriers. Certain items can take longer to source than the estimated week, particularly during busy trading periods and may take longer to arrive at our warehouse.

If you have the standard album, the last track "The Other Woman" serves as a neat, ironic foil to the cynical voraciousness of preceding tracks like "Sad Girl", "Money, Power, Glory"and the outrageously provocative "F****d My Way Up to the Top". Personally, I find her the singer most in-touch with the whole idea of Post-Modernism in the way she fearlessly appropriates ideas, idioms, songs and characterisations; she creates artistic and relevant reflections of modern Americana that are both critical and celebratory, nostalgic and fearfully negative in equal measure, yet they are all elaborate constructs - rather like Lana Del Rey herself - though I don't mean that in a pejorative or disparaging way - the singer has herself stated that she isn't at all like her alter ego. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. as much as I love the cover art, I have to admit this is probably one of the most overhyped Lana releases ever.

Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. The deluxe album has three extra songs that are certainly worth getting - "Florida Kilos" is a stonker of a track which suggests even greater possibilities for future exploration.Please don't be put off by some of the negative stuff levelled at this because it wasn't "more of the same" as some fans were expecting; "Ultraviolence" stands well on it`s own merits and is a truly rewarding, intelligent and thoughtfully inventive album - just listen, it`ll hook you.