Lana Del Rey — Florida Kilos

I needed a couple weeks to chew on Lana Del Rey’s latest album, Ultraviolence. Back in April, I posted about how I was a little underwhelmed by “West Coast”, and expressed my concerns and optimism for the new direction she seemed to be headed. After hearing the album, I guess I can say it was both exactly what I hoped for and exactly what I was afraid of.

The album ran amok in all the ways I expected. The chorus on “Sad Girl” features Lana literally repeating “I’m a sad girl” over and over again. “Pretty When You Cry” is exactly what that title sounds like. There’s an incredible amount of melodramatic sappiness on the album.

Additionally, the intro track is over six and half minutes of stuck-in-the-mud wailing. In fact, overkill is a downfall of this album. I feel like most of my least favorite songs suffered from being entirely too long. The lows on Ultraviolence are drenched in overindulgence.

All is not lost. The album hit a few high points, and I felt they were fantastic. “Money Power Glory” felt very familiar to fans of 2012’s Born To Die. The radio mix of “West Coast” is fantastic, and fixes a lot of issues I had with the original. Bonus track “Black Beauty” seemed to succeed in much of what the album was aiming for, finding a perfect balance of melancholy while maintaining engaging production and lyrics.

My favorite is another bonus track, “Florida Kilos”. When I wrote about my expectations for this album in April, I said that I felt the surf rock aesthetic could work. This song is what I was hoping for.

Featuring perfect guitars and a flawlessly nostalgic beach vibe, “Florida Kilos” is everything this album could’ve been. It’s perfectly summer, and perfectly Florida. If Miami Vice were set in the 60’s, this would be the theme song. Given the content, it doesn’t come as a total shock that Spring Breakers director Harmony Korine is a co-writer. This one falls in his wheelhouse.

And give Dan Auerbach his props for the production side. I questioned his ability to produce for Lana, but he hit this one out of the park.

Lana Del Rey — West Coast

I was a huge fan of Lana Del Rey’s last album. 2012’s Born To Die represented a fresh and unbridled take on female pop music that really caught a lot of people off guard. The lyrics felt timeless, the production was massive, and the videos were a perfect accompaniment to it all. Seriously, the “Born To Die” video, the “Video Games” video, and the “National Anthem” video were all incredible. Music videos are starting to seem like a lost art, but Lana Del Rey is always on point. As a videographer and music nerd, I have infinite appreciation for that.

The album featured heavy production from a couple of my favorite producers, longtime Cudi collaborators Jeff Bhasker and Emile Haynie. In an era where popular music, especially from female artists, has featured bubblegum production, those guys brought in gigantic baroque pop instrumentals that felt like they belonged in a cathedral or something. As good as Lana was on that album, I could’ve genuinely enjoyed an instrumental version of the whole thing.

That was in January 2012. Since then, we’ve gotten a couple underwhelming EP’s from Lana, and the massive internet buzz surrounding her has seemingly cooled off.

Yesterday Lana came back with the first single from her next album, Ultraviolence. The song is called “West Coast”, which falls in line with its surf rock theme. Sounds great, right? Everything we’ve come to expect from her, but now transplanted to a beach in Malibu. Fantastic!

Not quite. Don’t get me wrong, the song isn’t bad at all. I enjoy it. It’s just that something’s… missing. It didn’t quite hit me like Video Games or Born To Die did. It’s produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. The production is really cool, especially for a Lana Del Rey track, but something just isn’t working.

I’m still hopeful, because I think the whole surf rock aesthetic could work. I’d love to listen to this all summer. But I’d be lying if I said the first single didn’t have me a bit worried. Auerbach is apparently executive producer this time around. I hope we get some kind of contribution from Bhasker or Haynie, because otherwise this next album might not make it.