Lana Del Rey piggybacked on the success of Born to Die by releasing an EP titled Paradise in November of 2012. She included the EP in a special edition of the album as well.
The eight-song Paradise finds Del Rey delivering more of the baroque pop featured on her debut and fewer of the trip-hop beats. On opening track ‘Ride,’ she channels Bruce Springsteen, one of her more surprising influences.
Given that Lana Del Rey’s first album was removed from circulation after only a couple of months, her 2012 sophomore release Born to Die is widely considered her debut. It’s certainly the album that put her on the map.
Released in January of 2012, Born to Die was boosted by the unexpected success of lead single ‘Video Games.’ That song, a dreamy ballad featuring Del Rey’s mournful vocals over a bed of piano and strings, sounded like something from a bygone era.
When I laid out my March posts awhile back I planned to dedicate this week to my first reactions to Lana Del Rey’s new album, which was due to drop on March 10. That release has since been pushed back two weeks, so I’ll have to do the same with my posts.
The adjustment is actually quite simple. I had planned to follow up the new album content with a two-week retrospective of Del Rey’s career to date, so instead I’ll just flip the order and do the discography deep dive first. I actually wanted to do it in this order but the Oscars airdate prevented it. Perhaps Del Rey heard about my predicament and pushed the album release for my sake.
Today’s track is the third Random Weekend selection from Sarah McLachlan’s 2003 album Afterglow, and the first in more than nine years.
This album holds a special place in Random Weekend history because it contains the very first song featured as part of the series, way back on January 21, 2012.
That’s right, we’ve had more than 11 years of Random Weekends.
Today’s track is the fifth and final single from Katy Perry’s 2013 album Prism. It made it to #24 on the Billboard Hot 100, lower than the previous four (which included two #1 hits) but respectable nonetheless.
Prism was a bona fide smash, and the third straight Perry album to go multi-platinum. It was also, at least for now, the last major success of her career. She hasn’t had a song reach #1 since this album’s ‘Roar’ and ‘Dark Horse.’
Meet Me In Montauk 