Mrs. Del Rey gets a remix amuse bouche from doting R&B/disco-flavored producer Grades on spotless mix for “West Coast”. Tinkling electric pianos, buffed-down breaks, washes of sexy harp sounds; if Michael McDonald 2014’s life had a sound, Grades could reach it. “Down on the West Coast, they love their tank tops.”
Lana Del Rey (Official) (Facebook)
Rating 8.0
The talented Ms. Grant makes her return to the blogosphere today with the stylistic change-up “West Coast”. While a bit of a departure from the expressed hip hop affect of the Born To Die record’s tracks, “West Coast”‘s guts are still of the rap breed; with Lana sing-speaking the track’s vocal lines – all while gliding wistfully off the top of each subdivided one. Ultraviolence is the new LP upcoming from Lana.
Lana Del Rey (Official) (Facebook)
Rating 8.0
London-based producer Mokadem turns out a very good moody, hypnotic, weirded-down of LDR’s “Gods & Monsters”. Mokadem describes the remix, “There’s a sense of elusiveness and glitz in all [Lana’s] stuff, I wanted to take it and make it even more remote and aged, like sitting at the bar of a sunken luxury ocean liner and everyone she’s singing about died 100 years ago.” Well done.
Mokadem (Facebook)
Rating 8.4
Lana’s Great Gatsby headliner “Young & Beautiful” fits the great Jesse Boykins’ dulcet & smooth tenor very very well. In arranging the cover, Boykins selects for buzzing synths, dancier drums and where LDR’s version was wistful/nostalgic, Jesse’s is pleading & immediate. Each change to the track is quite impactful making for a very strong reinvention. Listen.
Jesse Boykins III (Official) (Myspace) (Twitter)
Rating: 8.3
A couple days ago, Ryan Hemsworth posted a preview of this track. The 30 seconds didn’t cut it.
Lana Del Rey has quickly gone from idol per se, to sort of a joke. Hemsworth, however makes everything he touches turn to gold, and that’s no different here. Clicks, and deep effects render the track from boring, really, to what feels like a weird daydream. Hemsworth has mastered the art of covering every detail. By Phoebe Anne Severin
Ryan Hemsworth (Facebook)
Rating 8.4
Check out the latest entry in the Lana Del Rey remix genre with London production team Toyboy & Robin’s excellent electrohouse refashion of “Summertime Sadness”.
Lana Del Rey – Summertime Sadness (Toyboy & Robin Remix)Toyboy & Robin Remix (Facebook)
Rating 8.4
Producer S O H N is on a bit of a run at the moment, racking up blogoverse hits & adoration on the reg, (“The Wheel” “Oscillate”, etc). Here the “mysterious producer” (music blog writing keywords) turns the keys on Lana Del Rey’s “Ride”. The result being a rushing wall of emotion and beauty, etc of the highest order. Take a listen over at Prefix.
S O H N (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.4
We (still) love “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans”. We’ll stand behind LDR on those tracks through for better and for worse; but the original “Diet Mtn Dew” track sucks. Despite that, Lana’s rhythmic ghostly hooky vocal line on the song is seemingly too much for remixers from all corners of the planet to resist messing with. The tract of “DMD” remixes is lengthy. Urban Noize’s mix, which interpolates rhymes from Jay-Z, just might be the best (that we’ve heard at least). Taking the unlistenable shitbrick that is the original and turning it into the fresh hip hop-influenced urban pop song the track’s creators probably first envisioned it being. Don’t miss this one.
Urban Noize (Facebook)
Rating 8.4
Even Monkey Man is surprised by this one. And from all places The Ting Tings (remember them?)! The “That’s Not My Name” hitmakers rolled through Radio 1’s Live Lounge today and turned in an acoustic mash of LDR’s “Born to Die” and Ian Brown’s iconic track “F.E.A.R.” from 2001. The (awesome) results may surprise you. Play the track.
The Ting Tings (Facebook)
Rating 8.5
By Jon Herriot
Here is a version of Lana Del Rey’s hit single “Video Games”, by Arkells out of Hamilton, Ontario. They keep it quiet, acoustic and simple, which is change-up from their typical rock sound. I have had the good fortune of seeing them play on two occasions, and their lead man has stage presence unlike anything I have seen. It makes for quite the live performance. Arkells are one of Canada’s hottest indie rock acts, and their latest album Michigan Left is one of my favorite from 2011, I highly recommend it. They are joining The Maine on their North American tour this spring.
The Arkells – Video Games (Lana Del Rey)The Arkells (Facebook)
Rating 8.0