Lana Del Rey — Ultraviolence

Lana Del Rey

Ultraviolence

Released
2014
Format
Vinyl, LP, Album, Deluxe Edition, Stereo
Label
Polydor · 3787448
rock
ElectronicRockPop BalladDream PopDowntempo
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Ultraviolence (2014) is the pivot. Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) produced it, and what he built was the opposite of Born to Die’s gloss: loose, unhurried, Wurlitzer-and-baritone-guitar, closer to Lee Hazlewood or Mazzy Star than to anything on pop radio. Auerbach talked her out of the trap-pop formula and into the territory she has stayed in ever since.

The contrast between Born to Die and Ultraviolence, compressed into three LPs, is the whole arc of her artistic argument. The over-produced beginning, the pivot, the territory after the pivot: as a set they function as a statement about what it takes to find the sound you were actually looking for.