(popmusiclife) Lana Del Rey made a name for herself with a series of Youtube videos, and even more headlines with a recent performance on Saturday Night Live. Now, the singer gears up to release her debut album, "Born To Die," on January 31."Sonically, I always knew exactly what I wanted," Del Rey tells MTV. "That's really the only thing I do know. The rest of it was sort of up in the air. I've been a writer for a really long time, and a sort of bad composer, but a composer nonetheless. It was something I did alone for some time and then became a collaborative effort as I met better and better people."
Those people include Brit Justin Parker, who composed much of the music on the album, Philadelphia legend Larry Gold, who's arranged strings for the likes of Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake, and producer Emile Haynie, best known for tracks by Eminem. Del Rey calls them "her crew," and they helped shape her ideas into an album that mixes both the light with the dark, the sadness with the sweetness. more on this story