Photo: Courtesy of Interscope.Lana Del Rey's much-hyped new album Ultraviolence has arrived, in all its neo-noir glory. Thanks to a helping hand from The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, LDR's sophomore album is dripping in cognac fumes and hazy Hollywood glam. Sure, there's surface-level themes of female submission and selling one's body in order to get ahead (there's literally a song called "Fucked My Way To The Top"), but Del Rey's never called herself a feminist. In fact, she outright said she's "not really that interested" in that kind of feminism, preferring her own, do-what-you-want-when-you-want-it approach.
All in all, from her dazed ode to the "West Coast" to the melancholy "Shades of Cool," Ultraviolence marks another successful notch in Lana Del Rey's gangster-Nancy Sinatra belt. And, what better way to celebrate the second coming of LDR than giving away a boxed set of the album, featuring a slew of never-before-seen pictures, bonus tracks, and vinyls? It's almost too retro-cool for its own good, but then again, that's always been LDR's shtick.