With each new album, Lana Del Rey took on new depths. What began as the numbed-out musings of a disaffected sad girl character grew into the lush, amber-tinted songwriting of 2019's magnificent Norman Fucking Rockwell. Del Rey's visions of American culture, Hollywood disillusionment, and tragic love became the touchstones of her songwriting, and those familiar themes carry over to Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, her first volume of poetry and spoken word pieces. The selections are rich with imagery of uneasy party scenes and California landscapes. Translated from the torch song format of her songwriting, the lyrics take on a more organic feel, Del Rey laying out her thoughts in a calm meter that significantly tones down the breathless urgency of her music. Sonically, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass stays captivating, with musical bedding of various unobtrusive electric pianos and atmospheric sounds provided by Jack Antonoff. Del Rey often applies a lo-fi production to her voice, with the words to the beautiful and compact title track or the troubled desert soliloquy "Salamander" sounding like transfers from dusty cassettes warped by the sun. A mellow, jazzy instrumental backs "My Bedroom Is a Sacred Place," as Del Rey offers plainspoken poetry about disconnecting from a toxic love affair by embracing her work. It's a beautifully unguarded piece of writing, somewhat confessional in nature yet still retaining an aura of mystery. With this collection of poems, Lana Del Rey offers an alternate view of the sun-dazzled California dreaming that fuels her songs. Her spoken word pieces reveal a more immediate lyrical sophistication, but they maintain the strange and powerful magic Del Rey has been cultivating her entire career.

by Fred Thomas
allmusic.com