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CRITIC REVIEWS
90
I can’t think of an album since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that was this big and sounded this good.
80
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.
80
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.
80
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.
80
No, Lana Del Rey isn’t the indie singer songwriter we all initially believed she was. But what she is is a finely tuned popstar. She is a performer, and 'Born To Die' is a well thought out project that has been hammered into elegant shape over time.
70
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.
70
Whole thing sounds like a poppy Bond soundtrack remixed for the clubs, although even her faster songs sound slow.
70
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.
67
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.
60
There's just enough promise here to show that there is indeed talent beyond all the hype.
60
This record is not godawful. Nor is it great. But it's better than we deserve.
60
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.
60
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.
60
It’s a fantastical and elegiac powerful album, when all said and done; one that depends on the allurement of something special – and the hefty million dollar plus price tag – yet it fails to deliver on the promise of those early minor-opuses.
60
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.
10mo
58
All tabloid tawdriness aside, she unleashes some truly A-level songs. But its baffling failures drop Die to a middling, maddening C+.
55
Born to Die attempts to serve as Del Rey's own beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy, but there's no spark and nothing at stake.
50
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
50
She's unable to consistently sell herself as a heartbreaker, and most of the songs here sound like cobbled retreads of "Video Games."
40
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.
40
She’s a starlet to music bloggers, who’ve been buzzing over her for the past year. But for the rest of us, she’s just another aspiring singer who wasn’t ready to make an album yet.
30
On Lana Del Rey's new album, the American singer-songwriter brings a fresh approach to baroque pop, but doesn't really bring the depth or substance to back it up.
25
Shallow and overwrought, with periodic echoes of Ke$ha’s Valley Girl aloofness, the album lives down to the harshest preconceptions against pop music.
0
Born to Die is the most unintentionally depressing thing I have listened to in a long time.
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
SHUT UP!!!!! SHUT UP!! PLEASE JUST SHUT UP!!!!!!! SUPID DUMB!!!!!! SHUT UP NO ONE [email protected]! SHUT UP!!!!!!!
This is the ultimate thot music judging by the lyrics... reminds me of a real life friend of mine lol. Lovely. I can feel a certain degree of irony in the lyrics, and if anything, it makes this album oh so more melancholy and intentionally bitchy, in a good way. This is the type of whining that I can appreciate.
Honestly, Lana + hip hop influences is a pleasant surprise for me.
FAVOURITE TRACKS:
Born To Die • Off To The Races • Video Games • Diet Mountain Dew • National Anthem • Carmen • Summertime Sadness
LEAST FAVOURITE TRACK:
This Is What Makes Us Girls
7/10
To all the women I tried to date in the mid 2010's (as you all inexplicably had this and only this album on vinyl). I understand it now, I'm deeply sorry. (Video Games is still a terrible song.)
pitchfork.com
Watch Lana Del Rey Perform “Arcadia” on Colbert 
Contributions By
wallver, philthy, Alejandro González, Alex69, truerowance, patton, Leo Aguilar, MarkyC, Faint, FunufBecome a Donor
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Track List
| 1 | Born to Die 4:46 | 90 |
| 2 | Off to the Races 4:59 | 79 |
| 3 | Blue Jeans 3:29 | 84 |
| 4 | Video Games 4:42 | 92 |
| 5 | Diet Mountain Dew 3:42 | 72 |
| 6 | National Anthem 3:50 | 78 |
| 7 | Dark Paradise 4:03 | 77 |
| 8 | Radio 3:34 | 81 |
| 9 | Carmen 4:08 | 74 |
| 10 | Million Dollar Man 3:51 | 73 |
| 11 | Summertime Sadness 4:25 | 86 |
| 12 | This Is What Makes Us Girls 3:58 | 72 |
Total Length: 49 minutes
Year End Lists
| #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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Added on: November 27, 2011