“Born To Die” the new song from Lana Del Rey doesn’t stray too far away from her breakthrough song “Video Games”. The gorgeous string arrangements continue to play a primary role; they sound terrific and enhance the melancholy mood that is quickly becoming Del Rey’s signature sound. The “here there” and “louder” vocal samples that introduce the song are nicely juxtaposed against the baroque instruments. If I am not mistaken those exact samples were used in early 90s hip-hop songs such as Nas “It Aint Hard to Tell” and they were extensively used by the late J Dilla. The lyrics of “Born To Die” yearn for lost love and are delivered in a melodramatic style. There are lines about “walking through city streets” and “kissing in the pouring rain”, standard cliché’s intended to play with the listener’s sentiment.
Overall I like the song, even though it makes me wonder if Lana Del Rey herself is merely a product of a genius marketing and production team. Something tells me that she is a carefully constructed pop singer aimed at the current indie audience as well as the general popular music consumers, both whom tend to romanticize the past. I hope that I am wrong because it will be pretty damn impressive if she was the main creative driving force behind her image and her sound.
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