Lust For Life Review
An Album by Lana Del Rey
The best words to describe this album are lackluster, and inconsistent. I was never a huge fan of Lana but she has made some better music than this. This album tries to do too much, and it mixes new music with old music in a way that really doesn’t fit.
This album seems to be split by the styles of new school and old school. The first half of this album has a new school style to it, and the last half of it has a old school sound to it.
The “new school” part of this album that I actually liked were the songs 13 Beaches, Cherry, Groupie Love featuring A$AP Rocky, and In My Feelings.
13 Beaches has a strange instrumental that only works with Lana’s vocals a little. She made the track good with interesting lyrics and a decent hook.
Cherry has an instrumental that fits with Lana’s singing for the most part, but has some trap infused drums that shouldn’t be there. But Lana sounds pretty solid on this song.
Groupie Love has a great hook that is mesmerizing and sweet, and the song has an overall dreamy feel to it. A$AP Rocky sounds okay on this song, his verse isn’t anything special but it’s interesting to hear him collab with Lana.
Lana sounds good on the song In My Feelings, but the production is pretty wacky and out of place.
The reason why I call the first half of this album new school is due to the production, which consists of trap drums, spacey synths, and she has features from new school artists.
The “old school” part of this album that I liked were the songs Beautiful People Beautiful Problems featuring Stevie Nicks, Tomorrow Never Came featuring Sean Ono Lennon, Heroin, and Get Free.
Beautiful People Beautiful Problems has a piano instrumental with small cymbals and kicks that is complimented by the melody of Lana’s singing. Surprisingly, but in a good way, Stevie Nicks is featured and she brings a powerful performance driven by a catchy melody that Lana had. This sounds like an old school rock ballad you’d want to drive to and sing to.
Tomorrow Never Came has an acoustic guitar that makes this song even better with the son of John Lennon already being featured in it. It sounds like a song John Lennon would make, and Lana and Sean Ono Lennon have a great duet in this song.
Heroin is a personal slow song with just Lana in it, and it’s heartfelt and it touches you differently than other songs do on this album. The instrumental is a little strange but it goes along with the mood of the song.
Get Free has an instrumental similar to Heroin, except it’s a little more open and less spacey. The drums and strings make it sound more upbeat, and Lana has lyrics that are sort of easy to understand but only after a couple listens.
Now I’ll talk about what I didn’t like about this album.
I think Love is such a boring and strange song to use as an intro track for this album. It’s pretty minimal and does not catch my attention at all.
The song Lust For Life has a very, very, very stupid pre-hook and hook that you would expect from the title of the song: “Take off, Take off, Take off all your clothes” and “And a lust for life, and a lust for life, And a lust for life, and a lust for life, Keeps us alive, keeps us alive.” I mean, c’mon, really? I also thought that The Weeknd didn’t add anything to the song, and Lana and him aren’t really a good duet. I don’t like The Weeknd as a feature artist in general and I like his solo work much better.
The song White Mustang is pretty generic, and it also has a pretty generic hook. It’s nothing special, but it’s not that bad either.
Summer Bummer is one of the worst songs on this album. It has the worst instrumental, it has annoying ad-libs that don’t fit in Lana’s music, and it tries to be Hip Hop when it really shouldn’t be. The hook is good but the instrumental and the rest of the song isn’t good, it’s pretty messy, even with a good verse from A$AP Rocky.
Coachella- Woodstock In My Mind isn’t good at all. The lyrics are terrible, shallow, cheesy, and just don’t have any good meaning to them. The instrumental is super messy and doesn’t fit with Lana’s singing.
God Bless America - And All The Beautiful Women In It has a strange instrumental that changes too much, and it tries to be patriotic, but just ends up as cheesy and generic.
When The World Was At War We Kept Dancing is another stupid song that tries to have a powerful meaning to it, but it doesn’t come out as hard hitting or impactful, but instead easy to forget. The instrumental is messy, like most of the album.
Change is the last song on the album I didn’t like. This song is boring and doesn’t have any personality to it. Lana has nice vocals, but the lyrics just aren’t good. The instrumental isn’t bad on this track, but it isn’t anything special.
Lust For Life is an album where people would skip most of the songs in it. There are only so many good songs on this album, and it was also too long of an album. Maybe Lana will know to cut her music short in the future, so there is less room for mistakes.
Album Grade: 5.5/10