Like a lightning bolt out of the blue, singer Lana Del Rey touched down in the second half of 2011.
After a small salvo of singles and releases, it is surprising that the rising chanteuse has garnered so much attention.
In October, Del Rey (whose off-stage name is Lizzy Grant) shed her anonymous past when she signed with Interscope Records, home to Eminem, U2 and Blink-182. Soon after, Del Rey signed a modeling contract with Next Model Management, one of the largest modeling agencies in the world.
Having dotted Europe’s talk-show scene with musical performances on programs “Later with Jools Holland” and “The Jonathan Ross Show,” she appeared on “Saturday Night Live” on Jan. 14.
There was little positive reception to her performance. Del Rey’s singing was more of a brittle karaoke façade with her vocal inflection taking on a mawkish strain.
NBC anchor Brian Williams voiced his disenchantment with her performance the next day in an email to Nick Denton of the popular blog “Gawker.”
According to New York Daily News, Williams wrote, "Brooklyn hippster (sic) Lana Del Rey had one of the worst outings in SNL history last night — booked on the strength of her TWO SONG web EP, the least-experienced musical guest in the show’s history, for starters.”
The 25-year-old New Yorker’s full-length album, “Born to Die” will be released on Jan. 31, though imminent success appears a potentially fettering prospect to the perhaps overly-groomed artist.
The self-dubbed “gangsta Nancy Sinatra” said in an interview with Pitchfork, “I’m not trying to create an image or a persona. I’m just singing because that’s what I know how to do.”
The tracks on her eponymous EP, which came out only recently on Jan. 10, triggered a maelstrom of remixes, with Odd Future’s Syd the Kid contributing his own take on “Blue Jeans.”
“Video Games” and “Born to Die” also received the hip-hop treatment from low-key producers and electronic acts such as Balam Acab and Jamie Woon.
However, since the songs from her newest album have yet to be officially released, it seems premature to already be reworking them.
Some of the new versions have detracted from the natural flow and hip-hop undertones in the original. In their purest state, her songs have a natural flow and hip-hop undertones — without reworking.
How Lana Del Rey reacts to the mixed response of her “Saturday Night Live” performance and her new album ought to determine her stance in the music world - for better or for worse.
Reach the reporter at rrocklif@asu.edu
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