Lana Del Rey – Ultraviolence (Deluxe)
The spine-tingling magic of Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence lies in the album’s striking, sudden contrasts—moments, as on “West Coast”, when Del Rey’s cool detachment wells up into a wail of emotional anguish. Recorded at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound in Nashville and produced by Auerbach himself, Ultraviolence is an assertive follow-up to Del Rey’s 2012 breakthrough, Born to Die. Musing on dark themes—the corruption of power, money and, of course, violence—Del Rey offers a hypnotic set of darkly tempered songs. The achingly beautiful title track is a poignant example of her stylistic prowess, as are the doleful “Brooklyn Baby” and the disarming and cinematic “Shades of Cool”.