Lana Del Rey's still got summer blues, but lusts for life

Lana Del Rey emerged on the music scene as a haunting figure. She was "Born to Die," in the words of her breakthrough album, and darkness permeated her sound and worldview.

Five years after "Born to Die," the prolific singer on July 21 put out her fourth major-label album, whose title -- "Lust for Life" -- would appear to show the inverse mindset.

Yet for the 32-year-old singer, sorrow and joy are intricately interconnected. On "Lust for Life," she enjoys the world's pleasures all the while feeling cursed by their ephemerality.

Del Rey carries the album through her quickly recognizable voice, breathy and coquettish yet sauntering with echoes of Nancy Sinatra.

"Lust for Life" builds on Del Rey's signature cinematic style, melancholic with an aura of classic Hollywood, yet the album also shows touches of hip-hop swagger -- most apparent in seamless appearances by rapper A$AP Rocky.

The title track -- no relation to punk icon Iggy Pop's classic "Lust for Life" -- brings in emerging R&B superstar The Weeknd, who in his mellifluous falsetto at times reaches a higher range than Del Rey.

Even if the song celebrates life, it opens with a dark allusion to a Hollywood suicide before finding joy in the here and now.

"Take off / Take off all your clothes," Del Rey intones, as The Weeknd sings, "They say only the good die young / That just ain't right."
  
 Del Rey teams up with other major names on the album. Stevie Nicks, her sandy voice smoothly complementing Del Rey's, joins for "Beautiful People, Beautiful Problems," while Sean Lennon brings a gentle beauty to "Tomorrow Never Came."    
       
If "Lust for Life" largely stays true to the sound honed by Del Rey, the New York-born singer...