Polydor
Pop, 2017
Oh, why can’t I quit Lana Del Rey? Her fifth album Lust for Life is the same blah-blah-blah slurred-di-dar “Hello, cool kids! I sound like I’m singing half asleep, half high, so I’m a cool kid too!” vibes as her last few efforts, and I could have sworn some of the songs here are the same ones from those past albums with the names and blah-blah-blah slurring changed. You know what’s the worst thing? I can’t even recall the titles of the songs that Heroin et cetera remind me of, just that I feel like I’ve listened to them before.
Well, there is a difference of sorts here. Ms Del Rey has roped in a bunch of people from cool kids of the moment like The Weeknd to nostalgia cash-in mascots like Stevie Nicks on some tracks. If this had been my first introduction to this darling’s music, I would be charmed, like I was when I heard Born to Die. Now, however, I just feel sleepy after a while. I mean, I do like Change, Beautiful People, and then some, but I’m not wowed over because they just remind me of her past songs a little too much.
But, call me a contrarian, but I do am bowled over by one song here: Love. Sure, this one too feels like a Frankenstein’s monster made from various bits and parts of Born to Die, but this track comes together like magic in motion. The whole thing is beautiful, soothing, and even mesmerizing at places – such as when she croons, “Don’t worry, baby…” – that I genuinely feel like I am happily swimming with dolphins in a deep, pure blue sea or flying to the moon with a half-naked hunk at my side just like in that music video of this song. If the song and the music video both seem like something a movie adaptation of a young adult fantasy romance novel would use, there are enough words to give an old round the block coot like me some feels too.
It doesn’t matter if I’m not enough
For the future or the things to come
’Cause I’m young and in love
That part really hurts in the gut and a bit in the heart, I tell you, because it encapsulates perfectly the experience of falling in love. It likely won’t last, but for that moment, it’s all… bliss.
So, Lust for Life. It’s another Lana Del Rey album, that’s all. Well, aside from Love, which gives me the chills even upon repeat listening. It may even supplant the lush, nihilistic Gods and Monsters as my favorite track ever by her, hmm.
