Lana Del Rey's fondness for melodrama has been evident from the get-go, so it came as little surprise when her declarations that she had "already said everything I wanted to say" with her 2012 major-label debut Born To Die and might not bother making another record soon proved ... melodramatic ... and Ultraviolence appeared just two years later. 

Recorded in large part with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, Del Rey's third album -- while still firmly ensconced in Lana Dreamland -- is noticeably more heavily laden with guitars than its predecessors and definitely more hardbitten on the lyrical front. "Money Power Glory" is an acerbic self-send-up of her rise to fame, while "Sad Girl" unapologetically takes the viewpoint of the "other" woman in a love triangle and "Fucked My Way Up To The Top" is a fairly vicious takedown of an unnamed pop contemporary who once accused Del Rey of being inauthentic and then rode her stylistic coattails to fame. It's a tougher record than it first appears, which probably explains the A Clockwork Orange reference in the title, and a strong argument that Lana Del Rey's vision was a three-dimensional one from the beginning. 

TRACKLISTING:

1. Cruel World
2. Ultraviolence
3. Shades Of Cool
4. Brooklyn Baby
5. West Coast
6. Sad Girl
7. Pretty When You Cry
8. Money Power Glory
9. Fucked My Way Up To The Top
10. Old Money
11. The Other Woman
12. Black Beauty
13. Guns And Roses
14. Florida Kilos