NEWS
EVENTS
Lana Del Rey | Bel Air
Other | Tuesday 20th November 2012 |
Article by Lauren Bernard
Whether you label yourself a “Lanette” or not (here’s to hoping not) - there’s absolutely no denying the brightness of Miss Del Rey’s light.
Even if her dark, languorous style isn’t to your taste, she will have arrested your attention at some point since her blazing entrance onto the music scene last year.
However it’s not just the enchantingly mysterious darkness of her lyrics and vocals which have drawn the singer/songwriter her many fans.
The unwavering style also extends to her music videos - epic, cinematic affairs all of them. In fact it could be argued that it was this mastering of the relationship between music and film which first launched Lana’s career - her first release off the album Born to Die, ‘Video Games’ originally surfaced as a self-edited, viral, internet video.
Since then the quality and budget of the music visuals has surely rocketed, however the staple Lana atmosphere has remained much the same.
Notable offerings include ‘Born to Die’, ‘Blue Jeans’, ‘National Anthem’, ‘Summertime Sadness’ and ‘Ride’ - so basically, all of her releases.
However her new release ‘Bel Air’ seems to break the pattern - sure it’s still atmospheric and slightly epic, due to the haunting audio it accompanies but there’s a distinct lack of story, Americanised props and bad men romancing the heroin.
In fact most of its charm lies in the simplicity of a woman standing in front of a camera and singing some quite beautiful lyrics very emotively.
Of course it’s not entirely without flare, you can still expect to see plenty of slo-mo, close up shots of Lana pouting like a pro’ as her hair billows beautifully in the fan assisted breeze.
It doesn’t seem entirely plausible that this streamlined production was anything to do with budget constraints so it does make me wonder what the thinking behind the decision was.
Perhaps they didn’t want to distract from the song itself with extravagant visuals? Perhaps they’re storing up creative energy for the next big release? Or perhaps this is Lana’s first step in a new stylistic direction?
Whatever the answer, I happily admit to finding Lana as intriguing as the next music and style fan and being keen to see what treasures are still to emerge from the Del Rey chest.
Check out the ‘Bel Air’ video below then watch the previous video release ‘Ride’ beneath that.
