I can’t think of an album since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that was this big and sounded this good.
Although it’s not quite the perfect pop record ‘Video Games’ might have led us to wish for, ‘Born To Die’ still marks the arrival of a fresh – and refreshingly self-aware – sensibility in pop.
Confirms her as the most compelling new pop star around: half doomed romantic, half mordant cynic, with a distinctively conflicted vision of how love, fame and America work.
What Born to Die isn't is the thing Lana Del Rey seems to think it is, which is a coruscating journey into the dark heart of a troubled soul. If you concentrate too hard on her attempts to conjure that up, it just sounds a bit daft. What it is, is beautifully turned pop music, which is more than enough.
The heights it reaches at its best still leave you wanting more. Born to Die is a brilliant album, but it's one that leaves room for a few improvements, and inspires confidence that they'll happen.
Del Rey may be the pop-star equivalent of a teenage girl naïvely playing dress up in her grandmother’s vintage clothing and singing into a hairbrush that conveniently looks like an old-fashioned microphone, but that doesn’t make Born to Die any less close to pop perfection.
Lana Del Rey's Born to Die doesn’t walk on water but its misty-eyed retro-pop makes for compelling listening.
As brilliant as the character of Lana Del Rey may be it can, at times, feel to be repeating the motif more than adding anything new.
Forget what you used to think about Lana Del Rey, Born To Die provides more than anything you could ever expect from an internet sensation.
Whole thing sounds like a poppy Bond soundtrack remixed for the clubs, although even her faster songs sound slow.
There is a lot of room for Del Rey to grow if she wants to, as she already has a developed style for delivering her ideas and just needs a bit more to say.
Crafted, but not consistent, the unsure-of-itself Born to Die doesn’t sustain or build on the impact of “Video Games”.
There's just enough promise here to show that there is indeed talent beyond all the hype.
Born to Die is no disaster but it's no work of genius. Much as Lana Del Rey aspires to be Lady Gaga's successor, she may well be Clare Maguire's. Who? Exactly.
This record is not godawful. Nor is it great. But it's better than we deserve.
Through it all, she credibly makes us see through her own lens, one that reflects an artist who’s so sure of herself she’ll bypass any critique brought upon her.
On the one hand, Del Rey's aesthetic of purring sex kitten, luring you in with deliberate devilish angel vocals, hip-hop beats, and the occasional lush orchestration, is alluringly original ... On the other hand, however, Del Rey’s faux rap posturing and often ridiculous lyrics border on the offensive.
All tabloid tawdriness aside, she unleashes some truly A-level songs. But its baffling failures drop Die to a middling, maddening C+.
Born to Die attempts to serve as Del Rey's own beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy, but there's no spark and nothing at stake.
Listening to Born To Die is like watching a movie billed as a comedy and discovering that the only funny scenes are in the previews
She's unable to consistently sell herself as a heartbreaker, and most of the songs here sound like cobbled retreads of "Video Games."
It’s telling that Born To Die’s notion of success relies on such unimaginative signifiers.
Born to Die is neither a fiasco nor a triumph, but a sometimes competent, mostly mediocre album, unworthy of the tidal wave of infernal nattering it rides in on.
A deeply, deeply flawed meditation on love, image, and fame in the 21st century, and a collection of ideas thrown at the wall to see what sticks.
Shallow and overwrought, with periodic echoes of Ke$ha’s Valley Girl aloofness, the album lives down to the harshest preconceptions against pop music.
Born to Die is the most unintentionally depressing thing I have listened to in a long time.
SHUT UP!!!!! SHUT UP!! PLEASE JUST SHUT UP!!!!!!! SUPID DUMB!!!!!! SHUT UP NO ONE CARES!!!!!@! SHUT UP!!!!!!!
𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨⁉️ (GF'S PICK #2)
"Tell me i'm your National Anthem"
The perfect thot pop music.I can only imagine this being some people's life soundtrack.
Lana 's debut studio album is actually better then her first project, and that's simply because it's definetly mixed better and she also shows somewhat of a vocal improvement and more variety. As far as i can tell, this album was mega hyped ... read more
I was questioning writing reviews for lana albums because im going to get attacked by Lana Stans, but who the fuck cares, its my opinion.
I went in this expecting to not like it. I have a friend who is a diehard Lana stan, so I finally gave in and decided to listen to this. Its basically a thot anthem, which is also my biggest critic, the lyrics corny. I dont need to know youre having sex Lana, Keep that to yourself. While the lyrics are weird, those damn strings on tracks like Born To Die, ... read more
Looking back on this album after everything Lana has released since, its boring and uninspired. Lana is an incredible lyricist and this album is mostly just boring pop music to me. I appreciate its influence on alt pop music, but it aged terribly. If you wanna get into Lana, I'd honestly suggest just skipping this one.
1 | Born to Die 4:46 | 90 |
2 | Off to the Races 4:59 | 83 |
3 | Blue Jeans 3:29 | 86 |
4 | Video Games 4:42 | 92 |
5 | Diet Mountain Dew 3:42 | 78 |
6 | National Anthem 3:50 | 81 |
7 | Dark Paradise 4:03 | 81 |
8 | Radio 3:34 | 83 |
9 | Carmen 4:08 | 76 |
10 | Million Dollar Man 3:51 | 77 |
11 | Summertime Sadness 4:25 | 89 |
12 | This Is What Makes Us Girls 3:58 | 75 |
#4 | / | Complex |
#9 | / | Slant |
#11 | / | The Fly |
#17 | / | The Guardian |
#19 | / | FACT Magazine |
#42 | / | Gigwise |
#45 | / | NME |
#45 | / | Spinner |
#50 | / | Earmilk |
#51 | / | Uncut |
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