Lana Del Rey
Paradise


3.5
great

Review

by Iai EMERITUS
January 1st, 2013 | 38 replies


Release Date: 2012 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Impressively, coming only 10 months after her album, this doesn't feel rushed.

So I guess this faux-EP, faux-album follow up to a big pop album is a trend now, huh.

With Paradise, it looks like Lana Del Rey is very deliberately following on from Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster - and why not, when it worked so well for her? Plenty of reasons, that's why - before I even heard a note of it, I was expecting Paradise to be a flop, because it seemed like such a counter-intuitive move for her at this point. The key difference between her and Gaga is that Gaga had already convinced the world (or at least the people that were relevant to her) of her star potential, and Lana, as much as I love her, quite simply hasn't; both the critics and the casual fans of pop have been decidedly lukewarm towards her since Born to Die dropped, and anything that can invite any sort of cynicism will, because at this mainstream level of music, just as it is with the popular discourse of most sports, you're either awful or you're brilliant. There's not really any in-between. Maybe that explains why she's made such a defensive move here.

I mean, really, that's what this whole not-really-an-album deal is, isn't it? If we overlook the cynical commercial aspect of it, the apparent desire to make people pay for the same album twice (while it's technically possible to buy this as a separate EP, you'll notice that all the advertizing for it presents it as 'Lana's new double album' with clips of "Born to Die" and "Video Games" included), it's an in-built way of deflecting criticism. If it's bad, then no worries, it's just an EP. Who judges an artist on their bonus tracks, anyway? That's what it would be very easy to write off everything on Paradise as if it didn't come up to scratch. For an artist that's been built from day one to be a critical darling (and I don't say that as a criticism), that feels significant, as it does for a person like Lizzy Grant, who has always come across as a very sweet, genuine, sensitive person in interviews. That can all be acted, sure, but she also seems a little naive, and that's harder to fake - and seeing that makes it easy to believe that she was stung pretty badly on a personal level by the way some people reacted to her album and - perhaps more pertinently - her performance on Saturday Night Live. Releasing these songs the way she has feels like a way of defending herself from any further attacks to me; yet while it makes a kind of sense on that level, I can't help but think that she would have been better off holding back for a while, allowing all the attacks to fade away and giving her single more time to linger, so that when she returns, people are more receptive.

Given these reservations about the timing of Paradise and the way it's been released, I - somebody who thinks Born to Die is an album of the year contender, remember - actually found myself a little surprised that it's so good. That can't be right, can it? Either way, taken at face value as a standard EP coming after an album as good as Born to Die, it leaves next to nothing to be desired; it's got some clear signs of development for her as an artist and packs a couple of tracks that rank as career highlights, and I don't think anybody could realistically have expected any more than that.

Paradise follows on from Born to Die by front-loading itself with its best tracks. The blissful, effortless "Ride" opens with a structure that bears a similarity in structure to the opening track of that album too, kicking into a chorus before kicking into another chorus afterwards where she intones the song title, but this time it's more drawn out and the structure is better for it. It introduces a new man issue too - the second verse starts with the words 'Dying young and I'm playing hard/That's the way my father made his life an art', which is simple enough in itself, but adds a considerable amount of meat onto the bones of Lana's persona, adding a back story to the constant tales of being attracted to bad men and addicted to bad drugs (there's a line in the chorus - 'I've got a war in my mind' - that does something similar to lesser effect). It's carefully written in the best possible way, as so much of her best work is. The next two songs, meanwhile, add to her sound rather than her personality, with the frankly brilliant "American" carrying a hint of Band of Horses' "No-One's Gonna Love You More" about it, and "Cola" being buoyed by strings that I'm certain are sampled from "Orinoco Flow", even if Enya goes uncredited. "Cola" is an interesting case in general, actually - those who hated the lyrics on "National Anthem" (among others) are sure to be downright apoplectic at the hilariously classless opening line of 'my pussy tastes like Pepsi Cola', but the rest of the song is little short of fantastic. I suspect that the "The Great Gig in the Sky"-esque vocals that appear at one point are the work of a session singer, but if they're by Lana herself, then it's another trick that we didn't know she had in her book.

I can hear other odd little links on the remaining tracks too - the unexpectedly heavy "Gods & Monsters" has a drum track that's pretty much identical to the one that appears halfway through "Pioneer to the Falls" by Interpol, for example, though I seriously doubt that's intentional. This is good, though; this is generally what happens with me when I hear an artist making a real effort to change and progress their sound, and though nothing about Paradise is a dramatic volte-face from Born to Die, I still get a very strong impression that that's what's going on here. She seems to have become much better at sequencing a record, if nothing else - even accounting for the fact that it's only eight tracks long and therefore a lot easier to get right, Paradise flows a lot more naturally. Considering that "Yayo" dates back to 2008, and doesn't feel out of place amongst the younger material surrounding it at all, that's impressive - she didn't manage the same trick when updating "This is What Makes Us Girls" earlier in the year.

Considering that it's been less than a year since Born to Die came out, and she's been an ever-present talking point for even longer than that thanks to "Video Games" going viral, you'd be forgiven for being pretty much Lana-ed out at this point, but if you've liked anything about her up to this point, there's no reason why Paradise isn't worth a shout. It doesn't pack quite as much of a punch - Born to Die's highlights are both slightly more numerous and slightly more effective - but it's still a very strong, successful record, whether taken as an addition or a follow-up.



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Comments:Add a Comment 
DaveyBoy
Emeritus
January 1st 2013


22503 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Nick, I swear we are the same person when it comes to Lana. Your first 3 paragraphs are exactly the way I felt about this release. I thought in theory that it was a total mistake for all the marketing & Gaga comparison reasons you stated... To the point that I have still yet to hear this. BUT now you have filled me with confidence to do so... Or will it be over-expectation? I'll check back with the answer in a couple of days.

controlled
January 1st 2013


660 Comments


is your summary unfinished Nick?

controlled
January 1st 2013


660 Comments


i suppose it's the "her album" (the lack of specificity) portion that's throwing me off.

i also want to pick your brain on TFM. are you saying gaga got it right? unfortunately, to me, this
does feel rushed, simply because pop is a genre of "what have you done for me lately" and who argues
that Gaga didn't do something with TFM.



taylormemer
January 1st 2013


4964 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Seems ok to me.

Tyrael
January 1st 2013


21108 Comments


Well done

The Fame Monster was way better than the fame yeah

theacademy
Emeritus
January 1st 2013


31865 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

well this sounds awesome. gonna grab now. and 5.



happy blessed new year

Brostep
Emeritus
January 1st 2013


4491 Comments


Would you recommend this to someone (myself) who enjoys bubblegummy stuff and has 1D as a guilty pleasure but doesn't particularly like most pop, especially Gaga's most recent album?

Winesburgohio
Staff Reviewer
January 1st 2013


4180 Comments


Her self-titled EP is just the besttt

Anthracks
January 1st 2013


8214 Comments


her music is so boring

GiantSpeck
January 2nd 2013


325 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Gods & Monsters is probably my favorite here.

oltnabrick
January 2nd 2013


40768 Comments


this got old quick

TooLateToGoBack
January 2nd 2013


2108 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Bel Air and Body Electric are the ones with the most staying power.

someguest
January 2nd 2013


30205 Comments


she looks like a transvestite

oltnabrick
January 2nd 2013


40768 Comments


nope

someguest
January 2nd 2013


30205 Comments


oltnabrick likes chicks that look like dudes

oltnabrick
January 2nd 2013


40768 Comments


shh dont tell

someguest
January 2nd 2013


30205 Comments


oh, i'm telling everyone!

oltnabrick
January 2nd 2013


40768 Comments


now everyone makes fun of me.

Curse.
January 2nd 2013


8079 Comments


sorry Lana you had one chance and National Anthem didn't do it I have you forever until you let me fuck your mouth then all will be forgiven

oltnabrick
January 2nd 2013


40768 Comments


good choice



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