The main image on the front cover of the album 'Born to Die' by Lana Del Rey, is Lana herself. She is directly addressing the camera and effectively the audience, which gives off a powerful and stern vibe from the artist herself. Her simple yet extremely effective image gives her a classy look due to the way her hair is styled behind her shoulders, her make up which is not to heavy and her chosen outfit of a classic white blouse. This allows her 'pop' label of genre to be very much questioned as this album perceives a indie artist as there is not very much going on within the mise en scene whereas with a pop artist, their front cover is usually technologically enhanced with a computerised feel to the image and the overall album. However, there is a slight element of hyper reality as her face has clearly been airbrushed as her skin is flawless and reaches the critic of perfection. Additionally, the outline around her hair looks to pristine, especially due to the fact the image was seen to be taken outdoors. The overall image of Lana look hyper reality however this is a similar trate used by a lot of artists when creating albums. Her placid and innocent expression could indicate a contradiction with the album title 'Born to die'. The narrative isn't specifically applicable to this image as the image doesn't necessarily tell a story about the artist, apart from she has a vintage vibe and approach to the music. The theme of a vintage style is continued to the mise en scene of her clothing, hair and make up; as her clothing is classy and classic and her make up is simple with the bright coloured lipstick.
The setting of the front cover album is plain which could suggest the main element would be the artist herself as she wants to stand out from her album cover. Secondly the background and the vintage car which connotates her genre. The boldness of the blue sky allows the text to stand out, the blue shade also compliments the white bold title as the blue enhances the white which makes the title bounce off the album cover. The shade of blue is also featured and is a main colour which is used throughout the album cover, this emphasises the artists songs as the shade blue represents sadness, as the title of the album is 'Born to Die', this suggests the theme of her songs is sadness.
The text is large and spread across the top of the front cover, in bold capital letters allowing it to protrude through the background and creating an impact. The text is seen as informal as it is spaced out and taking up a lot of area space on the album cover which grabs the audiences attention. However the text for the title of the album is much smaller and has been made to fit on the area of Lana, where the background is white allowing it again to stand out, but also reinforcing the use of the three main colours; which are red, blue and white. This could also be to show her national identity and be patriotic to her country, as the American flag is also featured in her music video to 'Born to die' as is the album.
Iconography is present within the mise en scene of the CD, as rose suggest love and passion but can also be seen as blood and death due to the deepness of the red which juxtaposes her album which allows the audience to portray their opinion. The continuous colour of red is also used to represent love and lust which is shown through the lyrics of her songs. On the CD there is no text or any title showing that the plain appearance of the CD may not correspond.
The text is the same font and colour as the text on the front cover, making it iconic to the album and the artist herself. The text is the same proximity of the text on the front cover, again suggesting an informal approach to the appearance of the album and to her attitude to music. Her first song on the song list is the title of the album.
