Page 50 Daily Mail, Friday, September 6, 2019SHE’S HARDLY A DEL
REY OF SUNSHINE
it’s friday! music
by Adrian Thrills
LANA DEL REY: Norman F*****g
Rockwell! (Polydor)
Verdict: Flawed brilliance ★★★★✩L
ana Del Rey’s deliciously
dark persona is so persuasive
that even the British weather
once seemed to fall under her
spell. Playing Glastonbury fiveyears ago, she opened in glorious
sunshine before clouds began to
billow ominously behind her.
By the time that she had finished singing,
the skies above the Pyramid stage couldn’t
have been gloomier. The queen of sad pop was
wearing a brightly coloured psychedelic dress,
but the imminent storm was fully in keeping
with the air of doomed romance.
It’s essentially the same old song on her
fifth major album. The mood is downbeat
and nostalgic, with piano, guitar and retro-
sounding strings providing the backdrop tosmoky tales of messed-up girls, bad-boy
lovers and Old Hollywood glamour.
‘I dream in jeans and leather,’ she sighs
early on, before embarking on a series of
ill-starred adventures. By the time the
album ends, more than an hour later, she
looks to have hit rock bottom: ‘spilling
my guts with the Bowery bums is the
only love I’ve ever known.’
Quite how authentic all of this is has
always been a matter of debate.
Born elizabeth Grant, lana was raised
in a middle-class household in upstate
new york. But the good-girl-gone-astray
character is one that she
has played with increasing
conviction as her focus has
shifted to California, where
her new album is set.
There’s also enough here
to suggest that the woman
who once styled herself
as ‘the gangster nancy
sinatra’ is coming of age.
The album is named after the
american artist whose illustrations
once graced The saturday evening
Post magazine.
Despite the unnecessarily crude
title, it’s her most nuanced yet.
love song is beautifully sung. How
To Disappear is a swooning doo-wop
lament. On Mariners apartment
Complex, she claims her sadness is
taken ‘out of context’.
like Taylor swift’s lover, released
two weeks ago, this was produced
by Jack antonoff. and, like lover,
it’s too long. But, while Taylor
crammed in too many tracks, lana
tends to meander within individual
songs that outstay their welcome.
as with a new Quentin Tarantino
film, part of the fun with a lana Del
Rey album lies in trying to spot all
the knowing references. Homages
to classic rock abound, with theeagles, Beach Boys, neil young,
The Mamas and The Papas and
led Zeppelin all getting a look-in.
The album ends on a surprisingly
witty high. Hope Is a Dangerous
Thing For a Woman like Me To
Have — But I Have It sees lana
sending herself up on a droll piano
ballad: ‘Don’t ask if I’m happy,
you know that I’m not, but at best
I can say I’m not sad.’
norman F*****g Rockwell! is
flawed, but its maker is on a roll.
she’s back for a tour that should
be one of 2020’s big tickets. The gigs
are indoors this time — but perhaps
take a brolly for the trip home.
n Lana DeL Rey starts a UK
tour at The O2 arena, London,
on February 25, 2020
(ticketmaster.co.uk).Picture: DAVE J HOGAN / GETTYFollow us on:Shop.co.uk
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Queen of sad pop:
Lana Del Rey