CD Reviews: Lana Del Rey

Produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, the third album by Lana Del Rey ditches the shallow hip-hop experimentation of her patchy sophomore effort, Born To Die, and instead focuses on the singer-songwriter's strength, which is as a swooning, reverb-drenched femme fatale.

''Filled with poison but blessed with beauty and rage ...'' she sings on the title track, touching on the album's key themes of victim, protagonist and observer, all of which are rendered through a melancholic - and highly cinematic - lens.

Accused of being contrived, Del Rey's response is to bait critics in the droll F***** My Way To The Top.