Evoking big, wide landscapes with a slow, melancholic, wistful, nostalgic and semi-fictional narratives, the New York singer-songwriter’s eighth album is of uniform style and slow pace, but rich in powerfully strong melodies and memorable lines. Del Rey opens with White Dress, a recollection of 19-year-old waitressing period, sung in an impossibly high, straining, breathy voice, an eccentric choice for the first track. Fragile emotions, nostalgia, flirting with religion, hedonistic living and soul bearing is a theme throughout, in which Del Rey mixes some biographical details, such as on the title track, mention of her photographer sister and LA’s Brentwood Market, one of her regular haunts, while on the equally haunting Wild At Heart, Sunset Boulevard, another recurring location throughout her work. This is her technique, mixing memory and desire, emotion and particular detail with her voice easing into the album and getting more comfortable with each number. Bathed in gentle guitar, piano and orchestration, other standout tracks include Yosemite, Let Me Love You Like A Woman, Dance Till We Die, and the final, a wonderfully beautiful cover of Joni Mitchell’s For Free, from Ladies of the Canyon, featuring guest vocals by Zella Day and Weyes Blood aka Natalie Mering. Out on Polydor.
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