Listening to Lana Del Rey is like stepping into crystal clear pool of the singers melancholia. Take a cool dip into her sadness and lamentations on her latest album, Ultraviolence. Her lyrics are a vortex of sadness, pulling the listener in to drown in her melancholy.
From the sad tracks on the album it is hard to tell if Del Rey has gone through the worst break up of her life or if she is still experiencing it, the songs tend to leave you wondering. Title track, ‘Ultraviolence’ is laden with strings and a soft backing chorus, the highlight of the album it is a song that could be used in numerous movie sound tracks time and time again.
Similar to her debut album, Born to Die, her sound is almost etherial and her voice floats along the melodies during each track. Not changing much from this Del Rey is still one sad lady. Almost like you could picture her floating on water whilst she is singing. ‘Shades of Cool’ clearly has this feel and Del Rey seems to float through the entire song.
Her ethereal voice continues to waft slowly and purposefully throughout the entire album the sound hardly changing from one song to the next lamenting about drugs, desires and love. When she released Born to Die, Del Rey was introducing the world to a new sound. With this album she continues down the same well trodden path of bleak sadness.
Vocally Lana Del Ray is on point at times sounding like a young Stevie Nicks. ‘West Coast’ is very reminiscent of Nicks and is one of the more up beat tracks of the album. It sways through the song with slightly less dark lyrics than the rest of the album and is produced beautifully.
Closing the album with ‘Florida Kilos’, Lana Del Rey once again takes her listener into her bleak sad world of the songstress to emerge feeling a little more heavy of heart. It is the perfect break up album and one that leaves listeners with a reverberating ache. Perhaps with her next album, Lana Del Rey will have found the happiness that eludes her and shed her cloak of sadness. Only time will tell.
7/10
Reviewer: Amanda Starkey