The album cover for Lana Del Rey's "Born to Die" establishes her beauty through a simple mid-shot that focuses on her face. This allows her record label to create an individual representation of her as an indie pop artist. The pastel color scheme and simple font style convey a youthful and straightforward message that matches her target audience and music. Elements of the album art, such as her innocent appearance and references to love through roses, connect to the themes in her lyrics about naive romance and the dark side of love.

1. ALBUM ANALYSIS By Naseha Yasmin

2. LANA DEL REY – BORN TO DIE

3. ‘Born To Die’ was released in January
2012 by indie pop artist, Lana Del Rey.
Her music generally appeals to young
adults, who enjoy vintage and rather
old fashioned style of music.
The use of a simple mid shot/medium
close up on the album cover establishes
the artist’s beauty and displays a
voyeuristic feature. This is common to
find in an indie pop artist’s album cover
as it allows the record label to create an
individual representation of their artist.
Similarly, this can be seen in other indie
pop artists album covers to the right;
Marina and the Diamonds ‘Electra
Heart.’ There is much focus on the
artist due to the close up, likewise, the
audience can notice a vintage, retro
style which is a common feature used
by indie pop artists.

4. MISE EN SCENE
Overall, the simplicity of the album cover
allows the audience to clearly focus on
Lana’s style, with regards to her outfit,
hair and makeup. The wavy yet polished
hair creates a sense of effortlessness and
the soft colours used for makeup
contributes to this natural look.
She is slightly pouting which accentuates
focus on her mouth area; yet again,
another feature usually found in her H&M
posters and adverts aswell. Subsequently,
allowing her to create a visual style which
is a high demand – this illustrates what
she stands for as an artist and allows the
target audience to recognise her for
vintage style.
The white blouse has connotations of
purity and innocence, which is ultimately
the look she is trying to create – coincides
with the natural and simple layout of the

5. COLOUR AND FONT
The pastel colour scheme conveys a
very fresh and youthful ambiance,
which resembles her young target
audience. The style of font is very
bold yet simple, which displays the
artist’s style and is consistently used
across other albums. It is a feature
that she is easily recognised for,
enhancing how she can create a
unique and individual style. The
simplicity of the styled font relates
to the simplicity of Lana’s music;
meaning her message within her
songs are very straightforward and
can be comprehended easily by her
target audience.

6. CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ALBUM
AND MUSIC
The filter that has been used softens the
image and reflects a link between Lana and
her music, by extension her lyrics aswell. For
example, in the music video ‘Blue Jeans’ the
artist is in a white bathing suit throughout
the whole video, with a similar hairstyle and
natural makeup, alluding to this idea of her
being this innocent, possibly chaste
character. The lyrics within the video
illustrate her demure nature; she is
hopelessly in love with a ‘bad boy’ character
and states ‘I will love you til the end of time.’
These lyrics establish her naïve persona and
contributes to this idea of innocence – which
is also evident in her album cover, where she
looks very youthful and fresh.

7. On the back of the digipack, there is a listing of
all the tracks, in a similar style font as the one
on the album cover (creates the same visual
style). The simplistic style resembles her
simplistic nature within many of the songs.
Redundant elements such as the barcode can be
seen at the bottom of the album. Moreover, I
believe the fact that there are no images on the
back allows the audience to focus on the tracks’
names and allows us to discover the meanings of
the names.
However, there is a difference in terms of the
colour scheme – the red and black connote a
more intimate and passionate vibe. These
dominant colours suggests the powerful
emotions displayed within the lyrics of the
songs. The red has connotations of love, which is
the key theme within the songs and generally a
topic included in many indie pop artists’ music.

8. The inside of the digipak consists of
a same style image as seen on the
album’s front cover, however, it
draws the audience’s attention
towards Lana’s body language. The
slight low angle, close up allows us
to concentrate on her slightly
serious yet playful facial
expressions. This coincides with
Goodwin’s theory of vouyeuristic
features where the audience get an
insight to what the artist is like as a
character; and from Lana’s music we
are aware she is very serious.
Similarly, these elements are used
with other indie pop artists, where
there is an evident focus on the
artist’s facial expressions or body
language – this can be seen in the
album cover of Florence & the
Machine’s ‘Ceremonials.’

9. Yet again, the simplicity of the
whole album is conveyed on the
actual cd. The plain white
background allows us to focus
intently on the red roses; they are
very prominent and suggests the
idea of love, which is a central
theme throughout the album and
in most of her music.
By placing the roses on a white
background symbolises the
innocent love the artist has
encountered. However, there is
also a slight melancholic vibe about
it, the hints of black within the red
roses implies the dark side of
romance. This interlinks with some
of Lana’s gloomy and depressing
lyrics; ‘Dark Paradise.’