In a post- Ultraviolence world, could P!nk make an album with Rick Rubin that reveled in its complete lack of catchy melodies? It’s much more likely now than it was back then. It’s a move that recalls Yeezus, which was less accessible than Kanye West‘s previous output but was honest in its commitment to rock bombast, and thus, admired.
#New lana del rey ultraviolence full#
In contrast, the hooks on Ultraviolence go Full Rock: they lack immediacy, yet Del Rey’s aesthetic is now defined enough that she doesn’t need to craft earworms in order to beguile fans.
Other pop artists have taken this approach - a decade ago, P!nk made an undercooked album with Rancid’s Tim Armstrong right after her “Get the Party Started” phase - but have shakily toed the line between pop and rock without having the guts to sacrifice the juicy choruses. Ultraviolence could have taken its cues from that fluke hit, but instead, Del Rey tapped the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach to produce her next album, flew down to Nashville and pivoted even further away from dance music. earlier this year, Del Rey scored a Top 10 smash with Cedric Gervais‘ remix of “Summertime Sadness,” which propped up her alluring coos with a propulsive beat. Following the success of her debut album Born to Die, which crossed 1 million copies sold in the U.S. Her songs are languid and eccentric, doused in a heap of dust and marked by choruses that wander into cobwebbed corners instead of stride toward center stage.
Of course, Del Rey does not write anthems at all. It will be interesting to hear the mopey anthems that inevitably result from this album’s No. With Ultraviolence, Del Rey has proven that anti-commercial subject matter can be commercially adored. Remember when Katy Perry’s Prism album was supposed to be a lot darker, but was then reshaped into a synth-pop escapade? Or how about Kesha‘s announced collaboration with the Flaming Lips being called off, reportedly due to the concerns of her label? Famously, Kelly Clarkson accused Clive Davis, then the head of Sony-BMG, of not promoting her 2007 album My December because “it didn’t have ‘pop hits'”… the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, female pop artists have too often had their bleaker impulses stifled for fear of alienating their fans. Not every catchy song needs to empower, and not every pop idol needs to smile - these are the lessons that Ultraviolence and its tales of drugs, apathy and poisoned romance teach.
Del Rey has cultivated a fan base with unrelenting gloominess in her writing and a beautifully despondent image her downbeat style can be directly traced to artists ranging from Nancy Sinatra to PJ Harvey to Portishead, but compared to perky pop contemporaries like Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, her unapologetic sadness feels unique, an antidote to the perceived euphoria plastered on pop stations ( Lorde has also helped bring disconsolate alternative music to the masses, although Del Rey was tired of being told to throw her hands up in the air a few years before the New Zealand teen arrived). Even if Ultraviolence does not launch a thousand black-and-white copycats, one can reasonably anticipate darker shades being mixed in to the mainstream bubblegum. So can we expect more pop artists to sullenly sway next to the Pacific Ocean in music videos while an older man menacingly chomps on cigars from afar? Maybe. Lest we forget, for every “Bad Romance” video, there is an equal and opposite “Not Myself Tonight” clip. Her success has been noticed, and attempts to duplicate it will come. 1 debut of Ultraviolence, that aesthetic has proven to be unequivocally bankable. Since she debuted with “Video Games” in 2011, her singular style has been scrutinized endlessly, but with the impending No. Del Rey’s transition from Internet joke to bona fide music star has not been seamless, but Ultraviolence has secured her status as a household name with the ability to outsell artists like Jennifer Lopez, Linkin Park and deadmau5 in spite of little self-promotion. Whether you enjoy Lana Del Rey’s fragile torch songs, their ability to provoke discussion has often felt refreshing instead of overwhelming, especially to those of us who are enthralled to overextend themselves in pop culture debates.
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