Title: Honeymoon
Artiste: Lana del Rey
Genre: Pop
Familiarity: Zero; but who hasn't heard of her?
Recommended by: Goofle
Expectations: Let's see what all the fuss is about then, shall we?
1. Honeymoon: Well I love the orchestral intro, not what I was expecting at all I must say. Voice is very sultry and almost forties cabaret singer style. Impressed with this certainly.
2. Music to watch boys to: Whoa! Another soft, sultry song. This is quite surprising
3. Terrence loves you: And a third. Love the piano and the strings, and her voice is so strong and yet so gentle.
4. God knows I tried: Jesus freaking Christ! What a sublime and gorgeous mixture of the blues and gospel, and an angelic voice crying in real pain. Unbelievable.
5. High by the beach: Even a song I assumed would be an uptempo, pop ditty is a restrained, stately rendition driven by a grave organ line.
6. Freak: This is just a beautiful song, with a really bitter and yet encouraging message.
7. Art deco: Is there anything here that isn't perfect??
8. Burnt Norton (interlude): Even when she just speaks poetry she sounds amazing, and the soft backing behind her (harp? Strings? Synth?) is perfect.
9. Religion: I'm not sure if there's any point in trying to say how great this album is any more; I'm running out of superlatives. Suffice to say another incredible song.
10. Salvatore: Well there you are: just gets better with every track. I'm falling in love with this album. Is all her stuff like this?
11. The blackest day: Another beautiful but bitter song. The backing vocals work very well here and the dark synth backing is excellent.
12. 24: Meaning no disrespect (because my respect for her has skyrocketed since hearing this album) this would be a great album to fall asleep to. Every track is smouldering and laidback but powerful and sultry.
13. Swan song: Just another beautiful song. Sorry, I just can't praise this enough overall.
14. Don't let me be misunderstood: And a passionate soulful cover of The Animals' classic. Excellent closer.
End result: Where in the hell has this woman been all my life? My own fault. I formed my own opinion of her, based on pretty much nothing, and refused to listen to her music. Now I see my error. I need to hear her other albums, and this is so freaking perfect that I'm going out to buy it. Consider me converted. Thanks, Goof!
So, Love or Hate? It would be ridiculous and a crime were I to give this anything less than a
True Love. So I won't.