Review Summary: It's not a perfect album, but it is one that is deserved to lust for.
( Before I would start my review, I would like to admit that I'm a proud a
Lana Del Rey fan that wished I could meet her in person. However, I know such possibility is very little, since I'm just a young guy in Hong Kong who is about step into his 18th birthday that have not enough money to go to her concert in foreign country. As a result, I decided to write my review in a form of a letter written to her, just in case I will never see her.)
Dear Lana,
How have you been? First of all, I would like to congratulate you for winning your Grammy nomination of Best Pop Vocal Album for your 2017 album, Lust For Life, even though Ed Sherran won the glory in 2018. I am very pleased for you to earn such recognition by the Recording Academy. In fact, if it wasn't for me to discover your artistry, I wouldn't know much about the alternative music genre. Thus, I might continue to dwell in the rather shallow pop music. Since my discovery of your artistry, I patiently waited for the follow-up of your 2015 album Honeymoon, hoping you can deliver some new dark, bewitching songs.(The Honeymoon album is very good, by the way.)
When you debuted the first single of the album, "Love", few months before the release of LFL, I was genuinely surprised for your new tone that is more optimistic, with luminous synths and a vintage-sounded bass, this song is perhaps your brightest song to date, especially the inspiring lyrics "You're the part of the past, but now you're the future.", "Look at you kids, you know you're the coolest" and the chorus "But you get ready, you get all dressed up/To go nowhere in particular/Back to work or the coffee shop/It doesn't matter because it's enough/To be young and in love". It could be a pop song cliché if not handled properly, but the lyrics are simple and the vintage sound, it is still your song, and it's still show yourself as a vintage spirit, a song is worthy to put in your best works.
Your next postcard in the album(I'd prefer to call the tracks as postcard as you delivered the songs like postcards), is "Lust For Life". On the photo, it showed you and The Weeknd dancing on the H on the Hollywood sign, and gave us another inspiring lyrics, evident in the pre-chorus line, "'Cause we're the masters of our own fate/We're the captain of our own souls/So there's no need for us to hesitate/We're all alone, let's take control". The voice of yours and Abel were like a duet of demon and angel, so alluring and so comforting, that even some of the toughest soul will be soften. It is safe to say this is also another worthy mention in your best works as well.
Some other postcards are also worthy to mention too, including "13 Beaches" which you lament about the media and paparazzis which recalls "High By The Beach" in Honeymoon, it sounds a bit like your 2014 album Ultraviolence, yet it's still follows very well with the 60s and 70s like spirit in the two tracks prior (The chorus "It took thirteen beaches to find one empty");you are at your most seductive in "Cherry" in this album (try not to be nasty), with the atmosphere recalls the Born To Die era, yet the noir aesthetic is more enhanced, plus the chorus "Darlin', darlin', darlin'/ I fall to pieces when I'm with you, I fall to pieces/ My cherries and wine, rosemary and thyme/And all my peaches are ruined" and some f-bombs and b-bombs makes it a bit risqué yet not putting people off; You also tackles romance you encountered in the bar in "Groupie Love" (the lyrics "Talkin' our dreams, burnin' them to things/It's like magic, babe, isn't it wonderful"), presented by you and A$AP Rocky (I'm not saying you two are in relationship, it just sounds you two are in the song), which could be another clichéd pop song with the wrong hands, yet you and Rocky still managed to turn it into a hypnotising love song; You also sent a postcard of yourself in Coachella in the song "Coachella Woodstock In My Mind", and it blends in the beautiful folky tone, with the lamenting lyrics about trading your everything to trade a "a stairway to heaven".
Then, there were more surprising postcards too. In "Beautiful People, Beautiful Problems", you showed yourself with
Fleetwood Mac vocalist
Stevie Nicks, moaning about your relationship being in trouble("We get so tired and we complain/'Bout how it's hard to live/It's more than a video game"), which somehow sounds reminiscent with Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album, where the band at the time were so fragile as a result of personal issues. You and Stevie sound so heartbroken, with the blues-like production, that I couldn't sighed about how solid relationships can be fragile, given recently in Hollywood, there are many sweet Hollywood couples signed divorce letters and announce separations, not to mention it also recalls Stevie's previous relationship with Lindsey Buckingham which ended up very messily. Moreover, you took in some Beatle-esque moments in "Tomorrow Never Came", a move that was surprising, given you either go with blues, pop-noir or hip-hop-laced dark pop, not the sweet British-invasion-like pop, but it's very satisfying, as it recalls some Beatle-esque lyrics like "You said to meet me up tomorrow/But tomorrow never came", and some Yoko-Ono like lyrics, "Don't ask me why/ Why, why, why, why, why, why, why". Heck, you even brought John Lennon's and Yoko's son Sean to perform in the song, and he sounds like his father (To me, at least), giving the song a more 60s-spirit.
However, the two final postcards you gave us were the most satisfying, with "Change", you announced proudly that "change is a powerful thing", with the piano-accompanied sound, its raw production makes the sound so empowering yet harrowing, making it one of the best yet understated tracks in your catalog;" While "Get Free", you lament about being limited and labeled, with lyrics "To play someone's game or live my own life/ And now I wanna do / I wanna move / out of the black/ into the blue", along with your Born To Die tone, makes it such a darkly yet powerful song among your discography.
Unfortunately, some other postcards only boggles my mind: "In My Feelings" seems like a typical trashing ex-lover letter, despite having lyrics that are more refined and true to your style; "Summer Bummer" is one of the least favourite song, with the hip-hop torched sound makes it rather cringe-worthy, plus the rapping of A$AP Rocky and the dreaded auto-tuned rapping by Playboy Carti, making it a bummer in the record; "White Mustang" sounds like another song about rejecting a man to love you, which serves as one of the blandest song in the record.
Despite such missteps, it still fully represent your new step forwards 60s and 70s pop music, bringing nostalgia into a new level, while lamenting your lack of safety in the Trump era. It's still serves as one of your more note-worthy record, and one of the best pop albums in 2017.
I wish you luck in your LA To The Moon Tour, and making new and great nostalgic records that keeps us and critics bewitched, as well as proofing yourself that you are no typical pop starlet.
Yours sincerely
Terence
