theheadlesscrow

Ahhh...I remember the first time I listened to Ultraviolence upon release back in 2014. That murky tone, led by guitar rather than Born to Die's grandiose strings, put me on high alert instantly. Things felt very, very different, and by the time Lana slinks across the words "got your Bible, got your gun" on opener "Cruel World," I thought the foreshadowing was obvious. "Omfg, she's gonna take that loser she was drooling over a few years ago and kill him!" ... read more

Arriving mere months after Born to Die's release, Lana Del Rey hints at her prolificacy and delivers the Paradise EP. Whereas Born to Die flirted with the retro vibes she is so clearly influenced by, Paradise fully embodies it, fine-tuning its vintage-tinged promise with a set of eight Americana-drenched tracks. "Elvis is my daddy, Marilyn's my mother, Jesus is my bestest friend" she name drops, moments after making perhaps the most unexpected Pepsi reference recorded in ... read more

Splicing strings with hip hop beats, Lana Del Rey weaves an affinity for mid-20th century American pop culture with a modern taste for cinematic pop song execution. There are a lot of ideas stuffed into Born to Die: shouted samples, trip hop-inflected accents, Ennio Morricone-inspired flourishes ... all culminating in endless baroque pop extravagance. She slips in and out of accents as often as she does red dresses, hiccupping with a baby voice one minute, crooning like a smoke-enveloped ... read more

Aided by nothing more than guitar and piano, Joni Mitchell makes the crossover from songwriter to recording artist with Song to a Seagull, her elegant entry into the folk music family. Held together by a loose concept, the first half of Seagull is titled I Came to the City, while the second takes us Out of the City and Down to the Seaside. A self-described "frustrated filmmaker," there's a reason Mitchell's lyricism is revered for its ability to paint pictures with words. ... read more