<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"We don&amp;#039;t care whether the rise of Lana Del Rey was a calculated marketing exercise or a happy accident. We don&amp;#039;t care if her image is contrived, whether she bends the truth about her backstory or if she&amp;#039;s had plastic surgery. What we do care about is whether her debut album, after all this fuss, is any good.  The answer, we&amp;#039;re pleased to report, is a definitive yes. It was always going to be difficult to live up to the enormous expectations created by the eerily beautiful &amp;#039;Video Games&amp;#039;, but while she never quite reaches such a high again here, she comes exceptionally close on several occasions.  The follow-up and title track is one of those that falls short only by a kitten&amp;#039;s whisker; a rich and elegant doom-ballad packed with old glamour that certified her stance as the antidote to today&amp;#039;s pack of party-loving, boob-popping and booze-swilling pop princesses.  Every song is its own mini-movie, each with Rey as the lead acting a different female Hollywood archetype. From clueless lover on &amp;#039;Off To The Races&amp;#039;, to femme fatale in &amp;#039;Carmen&amp;#039; and her best Jessica Rabbit impression on &amp;#039;National Anthem&amp;#039;, her ability to vocally shift from deep and sumptuous to breathless and girly means she carries it all off with relative ease.  The problem with Lana is that she - and her music - belong in a different age. One where the paps only saw what you wanted them to see, where listeners only heard what you wanted them to hear, and the general public weren&amp;#039;t so damn cynical. The irony, of course, is that Born To Die is probably the most stunningly refreshing album you&amp;#039;ll hear all year. We don&amp;#039;t care how she got here; but we for one are glad she did.    Tracks to download: &amp;#039;Video Games&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Born To Die&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;National Anthem&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Radio&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Carmen&amp;#039; If you like this, you&amp;#039;ll like: Florence + the Machine, Marina &amp;amp; The Diamonds Watch the &amp;#039;Born To Die&amp;#039; music video below:       "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/album-reviews/review/a362465/lana-del-rey-born-to-die-album-review/>