Lana Del Ray
Vicar Street, Dublin
Three stars
As intriguing as 26-year-old American pop star Lana Del Ray is, you’d have to wonder at the end of this brief but seductive gig whether she’s as good an actor as she is a songwriter.
From the art deco stage setting (as much Hollywood House of Horror tribute as Sunset Boulevard homage) to the intro synth riffs of Giorgio Moroder’s music from Scarface, from Del Ray’s “Baby Doll” dress to her handing out autographed copies of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, this show was a fine display of bruised, true songs that were often enveloped by blatant artifice.
Del Ray (formerly Lizzie Grant, before the music industry swooped down upon her in 2010 and clasped her to its bosom) appears indifferent to the incongruities – it’s even possible she welcomes them.
Only someone as disconnected as a pop star on the cusp of mainstream attention, and as fawned over by a partisan pantie-throwing audience, could sing (from Body Electric) the words “Elvis is my daddy, Marilyn’s my mother, Jesus is my bestest friend” without a shred of irony.
The music, however, is superb, with most taken from her 2012 debut Born to Die. There are add-ons from the subsequent “Paradise” edition – Cola (a song with one of the most eyebrow-arching opening lines of recent times), Body Electric, Blue Velvet; and her most recent tune, Young and Beautiful (from the soundtrack to The Great Gatsby movie).
Wonderfully sculpted by an intuitive band and a string quartet, the songs – including terrific versions of Born to Die, Blue Jeans, Video Games, Summertime Sadness and National Anthem – take form via Del Ray’s rendering of usually hidden subtexts about early sexualisation of young women by older men.
Her modus operandi on stage seems more coquettish (most of the time) than carnal, which offsets the underlying sense of unease. Yet ego-driven enigma continues to envelop her; no promotional interviews, no unnecessary personnel backstage, talking in Spanish, and a grainy backdrop of videos featuring cover-shoot images of – wouldn’t you know it – Lana Del Ray.