Ultraviolence
| Lana Del Rey
Ultraviolence
Ultraviolence is the third studio album and second major-label record by American singer and songwriter Lana Del Rey, released on June 13, 2014 by UMG Recordings. Despite originally dismissing the possibility of releasing another record after her major-label debut Born to Die (2012), Del Rey began planning its follow-up in 2013. Production continued into 2014, at which time she heavily collaborated with Dan Auerbach to revamp what she initially considered to be the completed record. The project saw additional contributions from producers including Paul Epworth, Greg Kurstin, Daniel Heath, and Rick Nowels, and features a more guitar-based sound than Del Rey's previous releases.[Ultraviolence received positive reviews from contemporary music critics, who commended its cohesion as a concept album. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 182,000 copies, becoming Del Rey's first number-one album on the chart and the best-selling debut week of her career. Ultraviolence was preceded by the digital release of five singles, the top 20 hit "West Coast", "Shades of Cool", "Ultraviolence", "Brooklyn Baby" and "Black Beauty". In May 2015, she embarked on The Endless Summer Tour featuring live shows with Courtney Love and Grimes, to support the album. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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The Globe and Mail
Her persona – the pretty, coreless woman, blowing in the wind – felt too much like a throwback. Groped by masculine hands, singing love songs to powerful men with the sluggish, murmuring glamour associated with tragic women.
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Complex
Ultraviolence is a blues affair, with moody innuendo spilling bloody and bold as the opening sequence to a vintage Bond saga.
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Clash Music
For all its lows-inspired highs, ‘Ultraviolence’ is not quite the complete picture. But should a true director’s cut of this beguiling artist come at the next time of asking, she’ll realise a timelessness that so many of her influences had to die for.
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The Irish Times
Ultraviolence (perhaps too typical and unironic a title for such a self-aware artist) sees Del Rey employ, with just a few extra frills, the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach.
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Spin
Ultraviolence is where Lizzy Grant stops giving a shit that the internet robbed her of her mystery — she’ll take all the humanizing she can get. Hopefully she’ll want to be herself eventually, too.
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Rolling Stone
The album wraps desire, violence and sadness into a tight bundle that Del Rey doesn’t always seem sure how to unpack.
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Pitchfork
The follow-up to Born to Die finds Lana Del Rey in ballad mode, finding new synergy between the character she presents to the world and the content of the songs. Producer Dan Auerbach of Black Keys turns out to be the perfect creative partner.
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NME
The New Yorker treads a thin line between between self-aware irony and tragically conforming to type on album number two.
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Los Angeles Times
Lana Del Rey's 'Ultraviolence': Defiant seduction from pop instigator.
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The Guardian
The songwriting on her new album is as good as or better than on Born to Die, but Lana Del Rey needs new things to sing about.
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Entertainment Weekly
Ultraviolence is the masked bacchanalia that finally unleashes the full potential lurking beneath the hype.
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The Daily Telegraph
Lana Del Rey's follow-up to Born to Die is haunting and absorbing, but could do with a sprinkling of brashness and levity, says James Hall
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Billboard
After the critical drubbing she withstood from late 2011 through early 2012, Lana Del Rey would have been well justified in packing up her party dresses and heart-shaped sunglasses and secluding herself in some Hollywood mansion, "Sunset Boulevard"-style.
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AllMusic
The maelstrom of hype surrounding self-modeled Hollywood pop star Lana Del Rey's 2012 breakthrough album, Born to Die, found critics, listeners, and pop culture aficionados divided about her detached, hyper-stylized approach to every aspect of her music and public persona.
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Metacritic
The third full-length release for the pop singer-songwriter was produced by Dan Auerbach and recorded live with a seven-piece band.
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AnyDescentMusic?
Third LP from the sultry New York singer songwriter, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach
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