Lana Del Rey is simultaneously one of the most underrated and overrated artists working today.
When she first emerged, she was dismissed as a vapid model pretending to be a musician. Her stiff SNL performance was excoriated to an absurd degree.
At the same time, her lush and dreamy songs have been raised to the level of high art by some critics and legions of fans.
Predictably, I fall somewhere in the middle. I liked Baz Luhrmann’s use of her music in The Great Gatsby, but I can only hear so much of it before I get a little sleepy.
‘West Coast,’ the first release from Del Rey’s upcoming album, sounds pretty much like everything else she’s done. I guess that’s a good or bad thing, depending on where you stand.
Down on the West Coast, they got a sayin’
“If you’re not drinkin’, then you’re not playin'”
But you’ve got the music
You’ve got the music in you, don’t you?
Down on the West Coast, I get this feeling like
It all could happen, that’s why I’m leaving
You for the moment
You for the moment, Boy Blue, yeah you
[Pre-Hook 1]
You’re feelin’ hot at the show, I’m feelin’ hot to the touch
You say you’ll miss me the most, I say I’ll miss you so much
Something keeps me real quiet, I’m alive I’m a-lush
Your love, your love, your love
[Hook]
I can see my baby swingin’
His Parliament’s on fire and his hands are up
On the balcony and I’m singing
Ooh baby, Ooh baby, I’m in love
I can see my sweet boy swayin’
He’s crazy y Cubano como yo my love
On the balcony and I’m saying
Move baby, move baby, I’m in love
[Verse 2]
Down on the West Coast, they got their icons
Their silver starlets, their Queens of Saigons
And you’ve got the music
You’ve got the music in you, don’t you?
Down on the West Coast, they love their movies
Their golden gods and, Rock n’ Roll groupies
And you’ve got the music
You’ve got the music in you, don’t you?
[Pre-Hook 2]
You push it hard I pull away, I’m feeling hot and on fire
I guess that no one ever really made me feel that much higher
Te deseo, cariño, boy it’s you I desire
Your love, your love, your love
[Hook](2x)
Meet Me In Montauk 
Though I vaguely remember skipping past the boring SNL performance and I guess I heard her voice on the Gatsby soundtrack, she is otherwise entirely off my radar.
As for today’s song, I agree that it is pleasant enough, but not spectacular. Do you think the musical similarity of the hook’s “move baby, move baby” to Strvie Nick’s hook in “edge of Seventeen” (ooh baby, ooh baby…”) is coincidental or intentional?
Something happened to my video and it seemed to be stuck on repeat. 🙂