An Enigmatic Chorus, But The Rest Of The Tune Fell A Little Flat: Lana Del Rey And Quavo – ‘Tough’ Review

Words: Ruby Corrigan

Alternative pop icon Lana Del Rey released her first single of the year titled ‘Tough’, a collaborative tune with popular rapper Quavo, that welcomed in Lana’s new era ahead of her country style album ‘Lasso’ that is set to release later this year. Now, this is not the first time The singer has collaborated with a rapper in order to genre bend her music and open it up to wider audiences, most notably her work with A$AP Rocky, and in fact when the teaser of ‘Tough’ was released a month or so before, I was extremely excited for what the pair would offer us on the full track, however I was honestly left a little underwhelmed. 

Now don’t get me wrong, this song has still made itself a place on my ‘July Faves’ playlist, as I adore Lana Del Rey’s voice and it is just so damn catchy, yet, I do still have some critiques. The song opens with the chorus, a poetic set of lyrics that perfectly embodies the alternative country style of the song. Musically, the chorus is perfect, Lana’s vocals as always are on point and it is so refreshing to hear Quavo explore his singing voice, as he is so heavily associated with his incredible rapping skills. In fact, I’d argue that Quavo’s prowess with singing that was teased in the song trailer and performed in the chorus is the reason why I was so underwhelmed, because I was wanting more of it!

Like I said, lyrically this song is fantastic, it uses nuanced elements of country lifestyle that makes the song feel authentic rather than a stereotype, and Lana of course sounds fantastic, but that is not a surprise. However, the verses are mostly contributed to by Quavo, not singing, but rapping. I wholeheartedly believe that he is an incredible rapper and in fact thoroughly enjoy his solo music, in the rap world he is a visionary. However, due to the fact that the chorus exposes his phenomenal singing voice, the verses just feel short for me. Maybe I just got too excited, but I was thoroughly enjoying the notion of an entire song of Quavo and Lana BOTH singing, bringing their expressive voices together in harmony for the entire tune, not just the chorus. 

To reiterate, I LOVE this song. I think a collaboration with an artist such as Quavo is genius and it has made me very excited to hear the rest of Lana’s country album and what other twists she is going to bring to the genre. Yet, with SUCH an enigmatic chorus and teaser trailer, the rest of the song just fell a bit flat for me.