In the world of Obscura, Lana Del Rey’s somber melancholy and impish curiosity for the man’s world is what draws the blueprint for the music of this film. where someone like David Cook is the voice of Easton Caldwell as powerful voice draws the manipulating storyteller that is Caldwell, Lana sings the story through the eyes of the elusive chanteuse that is Gemma Valentine. How boring the world would be without Lana Del Rey, really. She has been called a million things: insatiable bitch, damned diva, innocent Lolita, dark angel, desolate princess, American trash, revolutionary, provocateur. Ultimately, she became the most controversial mainstream music artist of this decade. Her official debut, “Born to die”, heralded a pop renaissance, receiving a plethora of accolades: haunting, euphoric, mesmerizing, uninhibited, cathartic, timeless, bona-fide masterpiece, magnum opus. Undoubtedly, and very much deservedly so, it now ranks among the top defining records of this decade, being the most profound pop revelation since Lady GaGa’s storming “The fame” back in 2009. Her music is the pure reflection of the women of Obscura: Gemma Valentine and Paloma Diamond.
One works spells as the Tinker Bell of the film. Gemma is the personality that needs applause to live. Gemma finds out later through her harrowing breakdown how the fight to be one with herself outside of the men that control her, that she is a lot stronger than she thinks she is. Paloma, on the other hand, is the wounded beauty who has no sense of direction and follows anybody that can love her back. She wants to be nurtured and taken cared for. She has no sense of reality and feels the world constantly spinning around. She is the girl living in a dream or in Neverland like Wendy but without Peter Pan.
Lana Del Rey amps up the gloom, theatrical and noir bent of her sound. Cooing over a lush orchestra, the minimalist title track opens the album and wouldn’t sound out of place on a fifties movie soundtrack. “We both know that it’s not fashionable to love me” she serenades, and with that, any hopes of her sounding like other current chart acts are pleasantly dashed. Del Rey simply follows her own path.
Top videos that display the tapestry of Lana Del Rey:
RIDE- DIRECTED BY ANTHONY MANDLER
BORN TO DIE- DIRECTED BY YOANN LEMOINE
For more on Lana Del Rey and her possible influence in the cinematic soundscapes of Obscura, listen to her triumphant groundbreaking breakthrough Born to Die and her expertly crafted change of pace follow-up Ultraviolence.
BORN TO DIE
ULTRAVIOLENCE
Obscura 