'Tuned In' review: Overkill isn't fatal for Lana Del Rey's 'Born to Die'

"Born to Die" by Lana Del Rey

“Born to Die,” Lana Del Rey (Interscope)

Good news for those absorbed by the months-long, pre-release hype for Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die”: The singer is totally committed to the vibe and persona she puts forth on the advance singles “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans.” Her dedication to the role of fatalistic femme fatale is unwavering (unlike her vocals on her disastrous “Saturday Night Live” appearance), her smoky voice a firestarter in the futuristic, torchy arrangements that compress strings, noir electro nuance and near-hip-hop rhythms into oxygen-deprived grandiosity.

The self-possessed New York-native singer (aka Elizabeth “Lizzy” Grant) saunters and sways with all the histrionics of Florence + the Machine and all the bluster of Adele, but with throaty gusto, her layered-bad-girl cloaked in surrealistic sound.

Meanwhile, the lyrics — an odd combination of sordid edge and cliches — have tight continuity. Thus the linked themes of “Blue Jeans” (about her sultry reminiscence of her chemical-reaction first encounter with a lover) and “Video Games” (about sensual obsession) are essentially expounded upon and repeated as the release wears on. Worthy follow-ups to those songs include the stately title track (“Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain”), the bellowing “National Anthem” (“You can’t keep your hands off me or your pants on”) and the dreamy “Radio” (“My body’s sweet, like sugar venom”).

Yet as she endlessly flirts with unhealthy romance, she projects vulnerability and low self-esteem, as when she figures she deserves no better than a man who, “loves me with every beat of his cocaine heart” (on “Off to the Races”), when she admires a guy who’s “screwed up and brilliant” (“Million Dollar Man”) and when she tritely proclaims, “You’re no good for me, but baby I want you” (“Diet Mountain Dew”). And it becomes harder and harder to empathize with her exhausting, tunnel-vision drama and self-destructive proclivities.

So though it’s true that “Born to Die” is more of the same from Lana Del Rey, that “more” feels like “less,” thanks to diminishing returns.

Still, Lana Del Rey’s preternatural voice and the inventive sonic distinction of “Born to Die” make it a remarkable breakthrough.

Rating (five possible): 4

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