Consequence Of Sound: "She counters a world in which 'rape' is not even considered in the same category as 'ultraviolence' by dragging up the second word and blaring it in capital letters below a photo of herself gazing enigmatically at the camera. She does her violence to the last century%u2019s culture as we've rendered it in pixels the second time around. She is exactly the villain our history needs."

The Guardian: 4 stars. "You don't have to be a radical feminist to feel wearied after a full hour in the company of Ultraviolence's collection of alternately feeble and awful women. The music begs you to overlook it, and it nearly succeeds, but for all the improvements on Born to Die, the problem with Ultraviolence remains the same: Lana Del Rey keeps repeating herself."

New York Daily News: 2 stars. "No doubt Del Rey owes the switches to producer Dan Auerbach (of Black Keys fame). He adds psychedelic guitar outbursts that give the album whatever tiny signs of life it has. Auerbach does not, however, lift the last album's blinding fog of echo. He can't. They serve to camouflage Del Rey's singing and to simulate her chosen mood of mystery - but there's a consequence. His production makes it sound like someone sneezed into the mix, blowing green ooze and unmentionable chunks."

Slant Magazine: 3.5 stars. "Repeated listens reveal nuances, like the acoustic guitar bristling beneath the blues-rock verses of 'Sad Girl' and the male backing vocals layering the final chorus of 'Brooklyn Baby,' but the album's steadfast narcotic tempo and Del Rey's languid delivery, doused in shoegaze-style reverb throughout, conjure a hazy picture of the singer swaying wearily in some sweltering sweat-lodge of a dive in the deep South. An appealing, cinematic image, no doubt, but one that, after 14 tracks, can prove to be enervating."

Irish Times: 4 stars. "Do we learn anything about Lana Del Rey here? Is her worldview really so wrapped up in the stupid sleaze and the sticky sordid? Is it a schtick that she continues to beat us around the head with in the hope that we'll submit? Maybe. Maybe not. What seems certain is that whatever she really is, or whatever she does in her chosen milieu, Del Ray is the best at it. "

DIY: 4 stars. "Ultraviolence sees her playing with pre-conceived ideas. Born to Die didn't have a moment's notice to deal with the backlash. This second record knocks the rumours and naysayers out of the park. After all, there's a track called 'Fucked My Way Up to the Top'. Confused by Lana Del Rey? Good - that's exactly how you should feel. "

Entertainment Weekly: Del Rey has spent countless hours stalking the night, searching for answers and trying on various guises - and Ultraviolence is the masked bacchanalia that finally unleashes the full potential lurking beneath the hype.

Drowned In Sound: 7/10: "It’s just that, with the record so often lyrically indistinguishable from Born to Die, she hasn't exhibited its subject matter in a way that’s particularly gripping, or even, at points, coherent. As an album to invest in, feel sentimental about, or be genuinely thrilled by, Ultraviolence falls short. Take it simply as a sumptuously-presented pop record, though, and you have to wonder if you’ll hear a better one this year."

Stereogum: "She’s writing a ton of songs and keeping the best ones, relegating the others to B-side status, fleshing out her best moments until they achieve a terrible sort of beauty. And given the leap between her first album and her second, I can’t wait to hear what she does next time, when she’s had even more time to explore her character’s nuances."

The Telegraph: 3/5: "The final two tracks are the best. Old Money has a haunting chorus that brings to mind Del Rey’s breakthrough hit, Video Games, while The Other Woman is a jazz-infused ballad in which her voice is underscored by a smoky sax. But absorbing though Ultraviolence is, the album could certainly do with a dollop more musical levity. Without the hip-hop beats that peppered her first album, the songs here lack a sprinkling of brashness – a little of the Kim and Kanye touch would have helped."

Pitchfork: 7.1/10: "You can feel Lana Del Rey inching into territory where she’s daring you not to like her, and by the time you get to the Ultraviolence bonus track “Florida Kilos”, a Harmony Korine co-write that might as well be called Spring Breakers: The Audiobook, you begin to remember why many people find the whole project repellent. Still, it’d be wrong to overlook the many things Ultraviolence does well, and how sui generis Lana Del Rey is. She’s a pop music original full-stop, and there are not nearly enough of those around."

Female First: 2/5: "I come away from the record with close to the same feelings I had for Lana's music before. There's a little more hope from me and a real admiration for 'Money Power Glory', but other than this I'm pained to find many positives. Though I wish I was on the loving-Lana express train with her millions of fans, it's one I just cannot seem to board."

Billboard: 83/100: "She hands the bulk of the production duties to Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, whose back-to-basics rock 'n' roll aesthetic serves these tracks well. Auerbach offers a more sedate take on the "Born to Die" template, lightening the orchestrations, ditching the hip-hop beats, and presenting Lana as a perpetually scorned pop-noir fugitive — part Neko Case, part Katy Perry. It's a delicious contrast that makes for a surprisingly great album."

Gigwise: 9/10. "The title, a reference to Anthony Burgess's controversial novella A Clockwork Orange, is an appropriate marker for the album's tone. It's a dark, uneasy offering, and when it's at its best, it drips with a beauty that is as compelling as it is disturbing. Del Rey's vocals are at times angelic, at times haunting and discomforting - helped along by the carefully crafted mess of noise that accompanies them."

The 405: 3/10: "She could channel anger, or revenge, or terror, into something positive, or use her chequered past as a spur to reach out, maybe even say something meaningful - Lord knows the world could do with more people willing to stand up and fight. Instead, all we get are dollar signs fluttering steadily in the background; 'Money is the reason we exist,' after all. How much are her depictions really based on her own life? Where in fact does Elizabeth Grant end and Lana Del Rey begin? The most damning aspect of Ultraviolence is that, by the end, you really couldn't care less."