Reviews: Lotus tastes like Pepsi Cola if history could set you free.

Lotus - Christina Aguilera
Electra Heart - Marina & The Diamonds
Born to Die (Paradise Edition) - Lana Del Rey

What do these three women's album have in common? Sex & empowerment.
Two great words for me. 
Let's start with Lotus. Christina has been overtly sexual since, well, Genie in a Bottle. Over time she's lost the subtly and gone straight for the sex punch line. 
Example: 
"It’s true what you heard, I am a freak, I’m disturbed / So come on and give me your worst / We’re moving faster than slow, / If you don’t know where to go, / I’ll finish off on my own"
There is no hiding what she's singing about. But the good thing about Lotus is, it isn't all about sex. The album has an emotional range from "let's turn down the hate" to "spin around in circles on my middle finger" to "In my own way, regret choices I've made/ How do I say I'm sorry? to "For every time you broke me/There's a thousand faces of me.......Now you're gonna face an army/Army of me." I like Lotus. It's a decent body of work. 
Songs I recommend:  
Red Hot Kinda Love - it's funky beats are refreshing.
Blank Page - a confessional ballad
Overall I give the album **1/2. She's still hasn't topped her album Back to Basics.

Electra Heart - Marina & The Diamonds
With such a unique voice, it's hard to dislike any syllable that comes out of her mouth.(she is Welsh, so, cool dialect) Plus, her lyrics are cheeky, sexual, and devious. And these are a few of my favorite things!
The opening song Bubblegum Bitch sets the tone for the whole album. 
"I’m miss sugar pink liquor, liquor lips/I’m gonna be your bubblegum bitch." Seems vapid? Nope. This song, like the rest of the songs are a commentary on young love, self doubt, sexual empowerment, and the need for fame. 
My favorite song on the album is Sex Yeah. Seems like an obvious, right? The song isn't just about sex as in intercourse, but sex as female or male and how "sex" defines women. It's entirely too clever for the weak mind. Lyrics:
If history could set you free (from who you were supposed to be) / If sex in our society (didn't tell a girl who she would be) / 'Cause all my life I've tried to fight what history has given me
Another must listens: Teen Idle, Homewrecker, Hypocrates,.... Ahh hell, just listen to the whole album cause I give it ****. It's on constant repeat.

Born to Die (The Paradise Edition) - Lana Del Rey
So the interweb has been in a frenzy over Lana's song Cola with the opening line of the song she swoons "My pussy tastes like Pepsi Cola." Instead of using the album art, I had to use this lovely vintage inspired poster. It makes me laugh. Cola as a song is just okay for me. I think mostly because it is in the shadows of other songs. American is a haunting tale of love. 
Gods & Monsters is a haunting tale about the loss of innocence. In an ode to Walt Whitman, Body Electric sticks in your head with her melancholy voice repeating "I sing the body electric." Seems like it might be annoying, but it isn't. It's once again, haunting. I don't think Lana is for everyone. But I love her voice and her American references and obvious love of the country. There's just something about this chick that makes me wanna ride :) I give the album ***1/2

Ride.

I'm obsessed. Can't stop watching. Can't stop listening. 
Breathtaking short film/music video.
I wish this piece came from my mind.
I love it so much that jealously overcomes the love. Oh the thin line.
Watch it below, but really click HERE and watch it big.

"I was always an unusual girl. My mother told me I had a chameleon soul. No moral compass pointing due north. No fixed personality. Just an inner indecisiveness that was as wide and as wavering as the ocean."  - Lana Del Rey  (Full poem below)

P.S. - This is 10 minutes long. Set the time aside, open your mind, and soak it in. 

   
 
 I was in the winter of my life — and the men I met along the road were my only summer. At night I fell asleep with visions of myself dancing and laughing and crying with them. Three years down the line of being on an endless world tour and my memories of them were the only things that sustained me, and my only real happy times. I was a singer, not a very popular one, who once had dreams of becoming a beautiful poet — but upon an unfortunate series of events, saw those dreams dashed and divided like a million stars in the night sky that I wished on over and over again — sparkling and broken. But I didn't really mind because I knew that it takes getting everything you ever wanted and then losing it to know what true freedom is.

When the people I used to know found out what I had been doing, how I had been living — they asked me why. But there's no use in talking to people who have a home, they have no idea what it's like to seek safety in other people, for home to be wherever you lie your head.

I was always an unusual girl, my mother told me I had a chameleon soul. No moral compass pointing due north, no fixed personality. Just an inner indecisiveness that was as wide and as wavering as the ocean. And if I said that I didn't plan for it to turn out this way, I'd be lying — because I was born to be the other woman. I belonged to no one — who belonged to everyone, who had nothing — who wanted everything with a fire for every experience and an obsession for freedom that terrified me to the point that I couldn't even talk about — and pushed me to a nomadic point of madness that both dazzled and dizzied me.

Every night I used to pray that I'd find my people — and finally I did — on the open road. We had nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing we desired anymore — except to make our lives a work of art.

Live fast. Die Young. Be Wild. And Have Fun.

I believe in the country America used to be. I believe in the person I want to become. I believe in the freedom of the open road. And my motto is the same as ever —I believe in the kindness of strangers. And when I'm at war with myself — I ride. I just ride.

Who are you? Are you in touch with all of your darkest fantasies? Have you created a life for yourself where you're free to experience them? I have. I am fucking crazy.

But I am free.