Lana Del Rey: Ultraviolence (2LP, deluxe edition) [POLYDOR]

Why you'll love it

Ultraviolence went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and in the U.K. This deluxe 2LP set adds "Black Beauty," "Guns and Roses" and "Florida Kilos" to the standard album, with "West Coast," "Brooklyn Baby" and "Shades of Cool" in the middle of it all.

This edition

• Deluxe edition
• 2LP set, 14 tracks including three bonus tracks

About the album

Lana Del Rey's fondness for melodrama has been evident from the get-go, so it came as little surprise when her declarations that she had "already said everything I wanted to say" with Born To Die and might not bother making another record soon proved ... melodramatic ... and Ultraviolence appeared just two years later.

Recorded in large part with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, Del Rey's third album (while still firmly ensconced in Lana Dreamland) is noticeably more heavily laden with guitars than its predecessors and definitely more hard-bitten on the lyrical front. "Money Power Glory" is an acerbic self-send-up of her rise to fame, while "Sad Girl" unapologetically takes the viewpoint of the "other" woman in a love triangle, and "Fucked My Way Up To The Top" is a fairly vicious takedown of an unnamed pop contemporary. It's a tougher record than it first appears, which probably explains the A Clockwork Orange reference in the title, and a strong argument that Lana Del Rey's vision was a three-dimensional one from the beginning.

Also at Kops: more Lana Del Rey on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Polydor / Interscope, first out in 2014.