Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Ray A.K.A. Lizzy Grant

If you're wondering whether Lana Del Rey was an artist capable before being turned into a soft porno inflatable barbie, the answer is yes. Her name was Lizzy Grant, and she was capable. But don't be fooled by that American bimbo name, she didn't do country, or any other American-style crap like barbecue and guitar, she was, damn it, always Lana. And it's amazing. At first glance, the girl seems like the classic product artfully packaged by record labels to sell and undersell, then you put on "Born To Die" and realize she has nothing in common with Shakira, Beyoncé, and the other divas. Then you say, alright, they must have done some mind-blowing production work to make those four crazy ideas work like those of many singer-songwriters out there today; I want to see the crap that comes out without all this electronic stuff.  Ah, oh, eh, ih, you focus more on form than substance. Alright, then play the first album of this bimbo and then... actually no, hold on! First, go to Wikipedia, and discover that in 2010 the album was withdrawn from the market because nobody noticed it. It only came back after the worldwide success of "Born To Die," too easy that way, huh? You almost don't even want to hear it anymore, actually, you might even remove "Born To Die" from your iPod, if you ever dared to put it on there, because that's not how it's done. Yet it's Saturday night and you're so incredibly bored, so incredibly bored, that you decide to listen to it anyway. At least then you'll know enough about her to embarrass even the most die-hard fan, one of those slightly matured fanboys who walk around with the "A Hard Day's Night" bag but don't even know who the Beatles were. You put it on, and lo and behold! "Kill Kill", "Yayo", "Pawn Shop Blues", and at least three or four more are little pop gems.

It's an album similar to the other, dark, elegant, with that immediacy that melts you like a popsicle in the countryside of Roccacannuccia these days, but it also manages to be much less pretentious. Maybe this Lana isn't a fraud if she nailed two out of two, maybe I'll get attached to her. And maybe when she comes around here, I'll even go see her, even if all those slightly matured fanboys are there, and even if I've been told that live, she doesn't get anything right. They say it's because she's shy. Seems like nonsense to me, but I want to believe it; I've always liked the shy ones.

My very personal rating is a solid pass.