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Lust for Life

[Photo provided to China Daily]

Ever since Lana Del Rey's 2011 breakout single Video Games, there's been a strain of sinister melancholy in her music. While nodding to classic rock, her latest album, Lust for Life, still maintains a melancholy mood. It features duets with Stevie Nicks (Beautiful People, Beautiful Problems) and with Sean Lennon (Tomorrow Never Came).

Some of Del Rey's self-consciously "woke" songs are labored. Titles like Coachella - Woodstock in My Mind don't exactly trip off the tongue. But they do signal a welcome shake-up in Del Rey's perspective on the world, and give her music a jolt of energy that's all to the good.