More about: Lana Del Rey

As evidenced by Pitchfork's recent Revisionist piece rescoring albums they feel they mislabeled, Lana Del Rey was unfairly dismissed by the industry when she debuted ten years ago with her impeccable debut album Born To Die.

Now with seven albums behind her—many of them 10/10s—and an eighth about to drop, the industry have woken up. It's fortunate for them to finally catch up to the general public: unlike Pitchfork & Co., the fans have known that Lana was a modern icon ever since she dropped 'Video Games' in the summer of 2011.

We old faithfuls have kept a close eye on Lana's work, admiring as she gracefully (okay, sometimes not so gracefully) dropped beautiful album after beautiful album. We know her discography inside out and if you're looking for highlights, there are many.

Here is an ode to the songs that casual listeners may have missed.

'Lolita'

"Kiss me in the P-A-R-K park tonight" Lana sings, a bratty backing vocal repeating the chant like a group of girls in the corner of a playground. An ode to coming of age, 'Lolita' strikes a cinematic balance between innocence and burgeoning worldliness. 

'This Is What Makes Us Girls'

A softer, eerier turn for Lana, 'This Is What Makes Us Girls' foreshadowed songs like 'High By The Beach' with its smoky build-up and ecstatic explosion into one of her more heady choruses. In many ways, it continues the story begun in 'Lolita': the girl who finds her ride or dies grows older, causes trouble and gets sent away in a wildly dramatic intervention.

'Looking For America'

A standalone single written with long-time producer Jack Antonoff, Lana shared this beautiful Norman Fucking Rockwell! precursor as a response to the back-to-back shootings in Dayton and El Paso in August 2019. Thirty-two people were murdered in total across the two events, and 'Looking For America' beautifully confronts the ongoing problem of gun control and murder rates in the United States. 

'Florida Kilos'

One of several stunningly complex guitar riffs to be found on Lana's third album Ultraviolence, 'Florida Kilos' closed out what remains one of the star's very best long-plays. Still firmly in her wild-girl phase, Lana used the opportunity to sing about cocaine on this unsubtle ode to dangerous living. 

'Fucked My Way Up To The Top'

Another lesser-cited track from Ultraviolence, 'Fucked My Way Up To The Top' did the classic double whammy: delighting fans and pissing off conservatives. Delightful. 

'Religion'

One of Lana's most perfectly-realised songs, 'Religion' sounds as if it could be a cover of some old-timey American Blues lullaby. It's not though: the song is all Lana, one of so many love songs that make it into a Hall of Fame comprised only of songs written by her. 

'Art Deco'

Watery synth introduces this Honeymoon highlight as it means to continue: as a dark, beachy lust song that proves once and for all that calling some "so art deco" is definitely a compliment.

'13 Beaches'

A moving sample of Candace Hilligoss' quote from Carnival of Souls ("I don't belong in the world, that's what it is. Something separates me from other people") kicks off this melancholy track alongside swelling strings. It's somewhat of a follow-up to Honeymoon's 'High By The Beach', again visiting Lana's desire to be able to fo something as simple as go to the beach without being visited upon by plagues of paparazzi.

'The greatest'

Though the album was in no way underrated (being rightly named the Album of the Year by many a publication), some of Norman Fucking Rockwell's cuts received lesser attention than others. 'The greatest', with its deeply satisfying melody, was one of them. 

'Bartender'

Another lesser spun track on NFR!, 'Bartender's melancholy introduction hinted back to those early tracks about girls just wanting "to have fun". Its piano carousel meanwhile, smacked of late-noughties sad girls like Coeur de Pirate and the environment that made it possible for the newly-christened Lana Del Rey to thrive. 

'Driving in Cars with Boys' 

Another from the flower crown era, 'Driving In Cars With Boys' is one of many Lana songs no longer available on streaming services but which can be excavated on YouTube. 'Driving in Cars with Boys' is one of the best of this category, a song that sprinkles dozens of Americana references in among the high drama. Classic early Lana Del Rey. 

More about: Lana Del Rey