The American singer-songwriter has been described as some sort of nouvelle Nancy Sinatra - and there's something both physically similar in her heavy-lidded eyes and vocally, in her drawly voice. So her album, comes laced with expectations. Sadly, her glamorous looks belie her talent on Born to Die.
The opening, title song begins promisingly enough, with luxuriant soaring strings, then Del Ray's languid voice begs: "Feet don't fail me now".
In places, her lyrical abilities rival many a respected rapper - in Diet Mountain Dew, she rhymes "sunglasses" with "the past says" - as does her scansion, the way she makes words fit to a line.
The juxtaposition of a mode of modern entertainment with a 1960s sound on lead single Video Games is nigh on genius.
The problem is, even with little changes of pace in the rockier Off To The Races, or the jazzy Million Dollar Man, the tracks sound all the same; so are the themes (bad love affairs; a need for attention). Del Ray sounds as if she's just woken up, and singing is the last thing she feels like doing.
Sadly, this is one artist who doesn't deserve the hype.
YP Rating: 3/5