Paris (AFP)

Taxed as a fake product in her early days, Lana Del Rey has established herself as an essential, hyper-productive pop author, with two jewels in three years, "Norman fucking Rockwell!"

and the recent "Chemtrails over the country club".

Between the two, the American even offered the luxury of a collection of poems - more difficult to access - set to music, "Violet bent backwards over the grass".

"Chemtrails ...", released in March (at Polydor / Universal), extends the magic of "Norman ..." (2019).

Two albums co-produced with Jack Antonoff, sound architect who magnifies the melancholy of the singer-songwriter.

In her latest opus, Lana Del Rey catches the listener right away with "White dress", sung in a beautifully chipped crystal voice, and the title track "Chemtrails ..." which ends with a breath of hypnotic drums.

The artist, who also covers Joni Mitchell ("For free") in conclusion, was as rare in interview as she is prolific (she promises yet another album for 2021).

A media withdrawal which is explained by the cruel critical reception at the time of his hitsque "Born to die" (2012), between taunts about his use of cosmetic surgery or starlet label made by the studios.

- "I really didn't like it" -

"The way things started for me, in the way I was portrayed, was that I was feigning sensitivity and emotions. I really didn't like that," the singer says in "Mojo" magazine. British musical, the only one to whom she gave an interview for the release of "Chemtrails ...".

"The case of Lana Del Rey is very telling of the way in which we treat women in music as soon as they + pretend + to have a minimum of culture. As she is hyper-dressed, that she plays on a image of pin-up, one expected that she will leaf only + Variety +, but she reads a lot ", analysis for AFP Sophie Rosemont, journalist and author of" Girls rock "(Nil editions).

Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, her real name, is not the first to suffer the macho wrath of a section of rock criticism.

"Rolling Stone had mapped all the guys (known musicians, editor's note) with whom Joni Mitchell had gone out at the start of her career ...", recalls Sophie Rosemont.

Joni Mitchell, the gifted Laurel Canyon (district of LA and stronghold of a talented artistic community), had even been nicknamed "Queen of El Lay", a sexist play on words playing on the English sounds of "Queen of LA" and " Sleeping Queen "...

- Tribute to Nancy Sinatra -

Lana Del Rey was also put on a flamethrower by Kim Gordon, iconic ex-bassist of Sonic Youth.

"Girls like Lana Del Rey ignore what feminism is and think it means (...) sleeping with disgusting and older men" she writes in her autobiography "Girl in a band" (ed. The word and the rest).

Even if in this case, Sophie Rosemont nuances: "Kim Gordon, and that's why we love her, is hyper-mean to everyone, one of the few who says that nobody can get bad at the show -biz (laughs) ".

But since "Norman ...", the criticism is unanimous and laudatory for Lana Del Rey (35 years).

"She explores more the North American territory, all that kidding, from patriarchy, to single-sex, she wonders", deciphers Sophie Rosemont.

And LDR always knows how to surround itself.

At her beginnings, she had called on Woodkid for her clips, which now benefit from the paw of the BRTHR duo (The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Selena Gomez, etc.).

For the cover of Joni Mitchell, she is also supported by the voices of her singer friends Zella Day and Weyes Blood.

And Joni Mitchell is not the only one of her elders to whom she pays homage, since Lana Del Rey often presents herself as a "Nancy Sinatra gangster".

"She gave me such a beautiful gift by saying that, she put my work forward," comments the interpreter of the mythical "These boots are made for walkin '" in Rolling Stone.

© 2021 AFP