Over the past few years, Lana Del Rey has been engulfed in acclaim: Variety’s Artist Of The Decade, the first recipient of Billboard’s Visionary Award and Rolling Stone UK’s endorsement as ‘the greatest American songwriter of the 21st century’. Bruce Springsteen has named her ‘one of the best’ and Courtney Love called her a ‘true musical genius’. And now, with her long-awaited ninth studio album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd released last weekend, the critics have not held back. From the Guardian to the Financial Times, Del Rey’s new album has collected a string of 4- and 5-star ratings.
But to call Del Rey’s journey a bumpy one would be an understatement. Just over a decade ago, the release of her major-label debut album Born to Die, defined by its dark lyricism against lofty orchestral-pop soundscapes, was panned. ‘Awkward and out of date’, Pitchfork branded the album, before likening Del Rey’s melancholy to ‘a fake orgasm’. Critics doubted the authenticity of Del Rey’s sixties Hollywood-inspired femme fatale theatrics.
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