Just a year after the release of Ultraviolence, Lana Del Rey was back with her fourth album, Honeymoon. The record split the difference, musically, between Born to Die and Ultraviolence, blending the trip-hop elements of the former with the moody balladry of the latter.
It was her most fully realized work yet, and the one that turned me from a casual listener into a superfan.
Day Seven of the 30 Day Music Challenge is a fun one: ‘A Song To Drive To.’ So many ways to go with this.
My initial thought was a song that you play while driving fast down an open road in broad daylight. A couple of thematically and musically appropriate choices came to me right away: Rihanna’s ‘Shut Up and Drive‘ and Sing Street’s ‘Drive It Like You Stole It.’ Another obvious one is a song I consider the epitome of open road tunes, Tom Petty’s ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream.’
Best Songs of 2015 – #3
‘The Blackest Day’ – Lana Del Rey
I knew a Lana Del Rey song would show up somewhere in my top five. The problem was deciding which one.
Del Rey’s fourth full-length record, Honeymoon, sits atop my list of last year’s best albums because it is so remarkably consistent from start to finish. Every track complements the others. It’s an album in the old-fashioned sense, not just a collection of songs.
I’ve always said that pretty much any Lana Del Rey song could be a James Bond theme. Her music is so lush and seductive, so retro romantic, that it’s made to play against floating silhouettes of guns and naked women.
It’s no surprise, then, that the Bond producers asked Del Rey to write a song for their latest film, Spectre. They wound up passing on her contribution in favor of Sam Smith’s ‘Writing on the Wall’ (big mistake, IMO). Today’s SOTD is assumed to be the track she wrote for the film (Spectre is the 24th Bond movie, and the musical and lyrical content are certainly in the ballpark). It would’ve worked like gangbusters.
Meet Me In Montauk 