Star rating - 8/10
Everything
about Lana Del Rey screams star. Her stage set is a large scale sumptuous art
deco palace complete with two big lion statues and palm trees. Her thousands of
young fans were screaming for her long before she slinked onto the stage, and they
carried on screaming wildly throughout her polished, and unexpectedly endearing
performance. The giddy atmosphere resembled what I imagine it was like at a Beatles gig in
the 1960's.
Her opening
song, Cola ,was just about audible
over the crowd over exuberance, and in truth it could have stood being a bit
louder to really appreciate her beautiful smooth voice and intelligent,
poignant lyrics over the din. She continued with sweeping songs from her two
albums including majestic sweeping strings on her Blue Velvet cover; Born to Die
which showcased her undeniably fabulous voice with this sad tales of lost
innocence and wild love; and the new song for The Great Gatsby movie Young
and Beautiful. It was lovely, and although I haven't seen it yet my guess
is that the song is far better than the film itself.
She oozed movie
star charisma, with the fragility to match, as she wandered amongst her adoring
fans signing autographs from the off. It might be churlish of me but I feel
that she really should have been doing a bit more singing and a bit less
mingling - although to be honest I am probably in a tiny minority with that
opinion.
There was a slightly
self indulgent video about her 'journey' so far mid set, and to be fair the video
backdrop throughout the set was very watchable. Video Games was the inevitable brilliant highlight of the evening.
It was followed by the last song National
Anthem, which in truth was part number, and part more mingling and taking
photos of the audience on her phone, and having hers taken back in return. It was a bit of a love-in all round.
Lana Del Rey
is clearly a phenomenon who means a lot to young women of a certain age, and
there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I couldn't help but warm to her
charm and undoubted talent, although the screaming I could really have managed
without.
I went to see Lana on the Friday night at the Apollo and she sang like an angel. Her whole performance was breath taking. I would like to say that i am a huge fan of Lana and would say no wrong by her although i do know what you mean that she should have perhaps sang a little more. There seemed to be a few awkward moments of just music playing but other than this i feel that the whole performance was spectacular and i enjoyed reading your post!
ReplyDelete