Monday, 27 January 2014

Song of the Week January 27th 2014

Song of the Week- Once Upon a Dream, by Lana Del Rey

If I am honest, picking a song of the week has been hard this time around, because I have still been riding on the waves of Kylie’s new song from last week. And January just doesn’t tend to be that great a time for stellar new music releases. However, today I was very much intrigued to hear a rendition of the Disney song ‘Once Upon a Dream’ by American singer Lana Del Rey. Acting as a promotional tool for the upcoming film Maleficent, this new rendition of the track has a much darker and haunting tone, sitting with this new film’s focus on the legendary villain from the Disney animated classic Sleeping Beauty. As a big fan of the Disney brand, I was very weary of the idea of Del Rey tackling such a classic song, but upon hearing this rendition I am really surprised and happy, and I kind of feel like the singer has somehow managed to make her own spin on the track even better than the original. Originally the track focused on the Sleeping Beauty character Aurora singing of love and walking with her prince in her dreams, but here the lyrics are giving a much more haunting and mysterious meaning, in no small part thanks to Del Rey’s languid and airy vocals. Del Rey has that perfect tone of grandeur that makes this new rendition dramatic and moody, and yet whilst it is a Disney classic, the song also for me feels like it in some ways could have been made by Del Rey. Keeping the production minimal is a strong point as the lyrics and vocals can really work their magic on you, and so what this track does is get me both excited for this new Maleficent film, and get me excited for when Del Rey releases some proper new material of her own this year.

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