Lana Del Rey's album "Born to Die" released
(CBS) Lana Del Rey's first album (under her stage name), "Born To Die", has finally been released. The singer, whose hype turned intobacklash after her live performance on "Saturday Night Live," tells Rolling Stone that she "felt good" about her performance on the comedy sketch show.
Del Rey was praised on the blogosphere for her single, "Video Games," but after her "SNL" performance critics called her live show off-key and just plain awkward. But, Del Rey tells Rolling Stone that she didn't feel so badly about her performance.
"I felt OK. The cast and crew said they loved it," says the 25-year-old singer to Rolling Stone. "I know some people didn't' like it, but that's just the way I perform, and my fans know that."
Her singing isn't all that critics have attacked. Many have said that her image seems contrived, citing her name change (she was born Elizabeth Grant), her millionaire father, and her first album that was initially removed from iTunes so she could start fresh with her new album, "Born to Die."
"There's backlash about everything I do. It's nothing new," says Del Rey, according to Rolling Stone. "When I walk outside, people have something to say about it."
Reviews of "Born to Die" praise her lyrics, but slam her vocals.
Rolling Stone reviewer Rob Sheffield wrote, "Her strength is the lyrics, which have the pop-trash perversity that the music lacks. But her voice is pinched and prim, and her song doctors need to go the f--k back to med school."
Other critics cite the lack of believability of her persona.
"But the central failure of 'Born to Die' isn't Del Rey's lack of vocal agility - it's that her music doesn't communicate actual feeling...her moody, melancholic music carries only the aura of emotion," according to the Washington Post film critic.
"This lack of belief in her protragonist is what ultimately dooms 'Born to Die.' Lana Del Rey isn't nearly as convincing a fiction as David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, Madonna Ciccone's name-shortened boy-toy personal or even Taylor Swift's character, 'Taylor Swift,'" writes the Los Angeles Times critic.