Ultimate Fan's Guide To Lana Del Rey Magazine

THE EARLY YEARS

 

TROUBLED TEENS

 

ICONS AND INFLUENCES

 

STEPPING OUT ON STAGE

 

 SIRENS DEMO ALBUM

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Talent means little without the drive and commitment to back it up but Lana had all three attributes in abundance. She hustled and pushed her music, while waitressing and attending college. In 2006, she recorded her first album, Sirens, under the name May Jailer. The songs were gentle, introspective and entirely acoustic, completely devoid of the hip-hop beats, electronica and experimentalism for which she would become known. "Folky and fragile" was how Pop Crush reviewer Amy Sciarretto put it. The record never had a proper release at the time, but six years later, when Lana Del Rey had broken through, her debut was leaked online.

 

KILL KILL

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In 2007, Lana submitted a demo to the indie label, 5 Points Records. They offered her a deal, with an advance of $10,000. She used the funds to relocate to a trailer park in New Jersey, where she volunteered on outreach programmes for the homeless and those with addictions. She began recording with producer David Kahne, her first pivotal collaborator. "[David] is known as a producer with a lot of integrity and who had an interest in making music that wasn't just pop," she told The Quietus in 2011. In 2008, she graduated from Fordham University and released the EP Kill Kill as Lizzy Grant. All three tracks - 'Kill Kill', 'Gramma' and 'Yayo' - would later be released on her debut album, Lana Del Ray.

 

BECOMING LANA DEL REY

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Like David Bowie and Madonna before her, Lizzy Grant recognised the importance of assuming new personas to shape a creative vision. She envisaged a "gangster Nancy Sinatra™ image and settled on the name Lana Del Rey during a trip to Miami, as she felt it evoked coastal glamour. "It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue," she said. There was a strong vintage aesthetic to her look: chic retro silhouettes, sculpted eyebrows, bold 60s hairstyles and Hollywood Hills sheen. Yet there was a sense of disquiet beneath the sleek, suburban calm. It was a look reminiscent of female characters in films by David Lynch. "She's got some fantastic charisma," observed Lynch. "It's like she's born out of another time... She's got something that's very appealing to people."

 

LANA DEL RAY DEBUT

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On 4 January 2010, the 5 Points Records label released Lana Del Ray, the debut album by the artist who would change the spelling of her name to Lana Del Rey. In smaller text beneath the title was printed A.K.A. Lizzy Grant. The album was a digital-only release and featured 13 tracks. It was light years away from the cinematic melodrama of her later work, but there was a real maturity to the songwriting. Three months after the record's release, her new managers Ben Mawson and Ed Millett helped her buy back her rights from 5 Points and get her out of her contract. For Lana, all the elements for her sound and her style were not fully aligned. But within a year, that would all change.

 

VIDEO GAMES: THE BREAKTHROUGH

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By 2011, Lana was living in London and in late-summer, uploaded self-made videos of 'Video Games' and 'Blue Jeans' to YouTube. It was a pivotal moment. 'Video Games' became a viral internet sensation. Sumptuous strings elevate this slow, sultry and haunting track. Lana's vocals are rich, warm and gloriously understated. She was signed by Stranger Records, who released 'Video Games' as her debut single. The song earned her a Q award for 'Next Big Thing' and a prestigious Ivor Novello for 'Best Contemporary Song' in 2012. "I just put that song online a few months ago because it was my favourite," she told The Observer in October 2011. "To be honest, it wasn't going to be the single but people have really responded to it."

 

A NEW DEAL

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In October 2011, Lana signed a new deal with Interscope Records and Polydor to release her second studio album Born to Die. "The recent Interscope Records signee's debut album is due in early 2012," declared a news story in Billboard magazine. Lana kept fans updated on her progress via her Facebook wall. "Shooting video for my next single Born 2 Die in a castle in France with [French video director] Woodkid. I absolutely know that you will adore it. Am thinking of You. XXX LDR X."

 

A UNIQUE VOICE

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There's a real ease and purity to Lana's singing voice, with its rich timbre and smooth vibrato. She is a natural alto and has an impressive range, spanning over three octaves.

On her earlier work, she sings low and broodingly, and there's a smokiness to her voice. Lana also has impeccable phrasing and crisp, clear intonation. If anything, she underplays the vocal delivery, which heightens the poignancy and impact of the lyrics. Admittedly, she doesn't have the vocal power of an artist such as Miley Cyrus, but she has a uniquely expressive voice, with a languorous feel that really carries the emotional narrative of her songs.

 

BORN TO DIE

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On 27 January 2012, Interscope released the hugely anticipated second album Born to Die, Lana's major label debut, crafted by herself and a crack team of co-writers. Anyone who suspected 'Video Games' was a one-off would have been struck by the strength of the material. 'National Anthem' positively soars while 'Diet Mountain Dew' and 'Dark Paradise' are swept along by powerful melodies. Strings and trip-hop beats pervade the album. Her vocals are breathy as she reflects on sex, drugs, wealth and relationships. It was critically acclaimed and a huge success commercially. The album shot to No. 1 in 11 countries including the UK.

 

SUMMERTIME SADNESS

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Released as the fifth single from Born to Die on 22 June 2012. 'Summertime Sadness' became something of a sleeper hit. Written by Del Rey and her longtime collaborator Rick Nowels, the 125bpm track song is a pop and trip-hop ballad. The music video for the song focuses on a couple reminiscing on positive moments before they both commit suicide. The original version was released as a digital download, becoming a top 10 hit in ten countries across Europe and yielded numerous club remixes. One remix in particular, by French DJ Cedric Gervais in the summer of 2013, led to a resurgence in the track's popularity. The Lana Del Rey vs Cedric Gervais version yielded the highest-charting solo single of her career in the US, peaking at No. 6, with a total of 23 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

 

YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL

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Released on 23 April 2013, 'Young and Beautiful' was written for the soundtrack of that year's big-screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby. "We are lucky that the song found a film," quipped its director Baz Luhrmann. It is written from the perspective of Daisy Buchanan, the wealthy socialite in F Scott Fitzgerald's iconic novel, played by Carey Mulligan. A snippet of the track appeared in the official trailer for the film, and it can be heard during the scene where the titular character (portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Daisy reveal their feelings for each other. The song is spacious and haunting, with lush pizzicato strings underpinning the sweeping melody. Critics hailed the song, which peaked at No. 22 in the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 23 in the UK.

 

FESTIVAL FIRST

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On the evening of Sunday 13 June 2014, Lana Del Rey stepped out on stage at the Coachella Valley Music & Art Festival in Indio, California, to perform a 45-minute set. It was a captivating, self-assured performance and the undoubted highlight was the unveiling of her much anticipated new single 'West Coast. "I can't tell you how right it feels to be here right now," she told the audience excitedly, after tiptoeing out onstage in an orange dress with a purple flower print. Lana kicked off her set with 'Cola' before moving through 'Body Electric, 'Born to Die, 'Summertime Sadness' and 'Blue Jeans. "I'm feeling it," she told the crowd between songs before lush cello elevated the intro of 'Video Games'. A stellar, star-making performance.

 

ULTRAVIOLENCE

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There's a tragic beauty and melancholy permeating Ultraviolence, Lana's third studio album. The choice of Dan Auerbach as producer was inspired and he is the perfect creative ally, sculpting lush slabs of sound that evoke the crisp counterculture-tinged sheen of late-60s America. Opener 'Cruel World' sets the scene, with its echo-soaked vocals and meandering electric guitar. These are slow, atmospheric ballads populated by unlikeable souls. "Great songs about awful, boring people," as The Guardian put it. Romance and abuse collide on the title track, with its stellar chorus, while the atmospheric slow waltz time of Shades of Cool', with its magnificent, soaring melody, focuses on a partner that just cannot be trusted. It's an exhilarating album and arguably her masterpiece.

 

PUBLIC IMAGE

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"Never had a persona," tweeted Lana Del Rey in September 2019. "Never needed one. Never will." She was responding to an essay by NPR music critic Ann Powers, who saluted her use of persona. It all raises the question of whether an artist always plays a role onstage, or if they can be 100% themselves. Lana maintains she is the latter. Back in 2011, she told Pitchfork: "I'm not trying to create an image or a persona. I'm just singing because that's what I know how to do." In 2023, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett of Vogue suggested that Lana's persona is sad and mournful. "It isn't that she glamorizes depression or sadness... but there's a thrill in her refusal to be apologetic about it."

 

FANS AND FOLLOWERS

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Lana is renowned for having legions of loyal fans and followers, and in 2022 they proved just how devoted they are by dubbing themselves The Lana Cult and flooding TikTok. They did this by changing their own profile photos to the same selfie of Lana, which features her smiling to camera while a car behind her is engulfed in flames. As of July 2022, the #LanaCult hashtag had amassed 48.6 million views on TikTok. Like Lana, her fans are unique. For starters they are not known by one collective name like Swifties or Chalamaniacs. Adam Hall, the fan behind the Twitter account Lana Del Ray Info, told Billboard in 2019 that it's "all about the music, the lyrics, the aesthetic and the mystery".

 

HONEYMOON

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Lana's fourth studio record, Honeymoon, is a dark album but a consummate work, consisting of noir-ish, dream pop with cinematic strings, twangy guitars and beautifully melancholic melodies. Trap-inspired beats grace tracks such as 'Freak' and there are jazz tinges on 'Art Deco' and 'Terrence Loves You'. There's sadness across the album but equal measures of rage and bitterness. Lyrically, there are nice touches: "I like you a lot, so I do what you want," she sings on Music to Watch Boys To, one of the album's highlights. It's an impressive album, which finds Lana moving forward, with a polished yet uncompromising set of songs.

 

QUESTIONS OF FAITH

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Lana had troubled teenage years, which were sparked by her awareness of mortality. "I was sort of floored by the fact that my mother and my father and everyone I knew was going to die one day, and myself too," she said. She was born into a Catholic family and studied philosophy and metaphysics at university, explaining that it bridged the gap between God and science. She also included references to astrology and Churchome sermons in her music. She rarely speaks about faith, but in an interview with The Quietus in 2011, she gave a glimpse of her beliefs. "My understanding of God has come from my own personal experiences. Because I was in trouble so many times in New York that, if you were me, you would believe in God too.""

 

CINEMATIC SKILLS

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From her very early career, Lana showed a real ability to create videos that were engaging, evocative and enigmatic. She would edit together classic stock clips with home-shot webcam footage and 'Video Games' and 'Blue Jeans' are two or her finest early examples. As of January 2024, she has appeared in 55 music videos, one documentary. six short films and three commercials, and has directed and edited many of them. Lana's music is cinematic and dreamlike, and her videos reflect and enhance that. They are stylish and sumptuous, but there's often a sense of disquiet within that gives them a real edge and resonance.

 

LUST FOR LIFE

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The cover for this 2017 album features Lana smiling warmly, a shift from the sullen poses of previous covers. She explained that this album represented a "moving-on-ness" from Honeymoon and Ultraviolence. "I loved those records, but I felt a little stuck in the same spot". It's a sublime, heartfelt album, with warm textures and a laconic pace. First track 'Love' is a pure 4/4 rock anthem.

There's a sincerity at play here. 'God Bless America - and All the Beautiful Women in It' was a response to the political landscape at the time, particularly with attacks on women's rights. 'Beautiful People Beautiful Problems' is a moving piano ballad sung with Stevie Nicks. On Tomorrow Never Came' she duets with Sean Lennon. '13 Beaches' meanwhile features one of her strongest vocal performances ever.

 

KNIVES OUT

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Even by the standards of the Met Gala - where the beautiful people compete each year for the most scandalous outfit - Lana's arrival at the New York fashion event in 2018 was a head-turner. Running with that year's theme - Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination - the singer-songwriter served up a Gucci spin on Our Lady of Sorrows, wowing Manhattan crowds with a crystal-embellished bohemian dress and chest-piece featuring seven silver daggers piercing a golden heart. She'd already stolen the show - even before we spotted the wand and winged headpiece.

 

GIVING BACK

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Lana's persona as a recording artist might be icy hauteur, but behind the scenes, she's proven herself a warm-hearted philanthropist. Whether pledging all profits from 'Looking for America' to victims of US mass shootings, or performing at the 2014 amfAR Charity Gala that raised $38 million for AIDS research, the singer has always put her money where her mouth is. On 2023's US mini-tour, she even announced from the stage that her takings would be poured back into worthy causes in each city. "Because it's not about [the money] for me," she stressed. "I tour because I love it."

 

NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL!

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The f-bombing title of Lana's sixth album enraged the censors, but fans embraced this swerve into a 70s soft-rock palette so sunbaked and mellow that at times it felt like a great lost session by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Yet there was darkness here, too, with the singer examining the sad-eyed casualties of the American Dream, while spicing her piano ballads with frazzled psych-pop and dust-blown desert rock, often on the same track (try the shape-shifting nine-minute epic, Venice Bitch'). Most of the record was produced by Lana and Jack Antonoff (pictured), and it was lauded as one of the best albums of 2019 by many critics.

 

DON'T CALL ME ANGEL

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Teaming with Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus for the theme song of 2019's rebooted Charlie's Angels film nudged Lana out of her melancholy groove into an addictive hip-hop banger she described as "a spicy little track". The songwriter made her presence felt with 'Don't Call Me Angel's breathy middle-eight, and had by far the most fun in the espionage-themed video, in which she whirls nunchucks, sharpens katana swords - and gleefully throws a stiletto into the groin of a man-shaped target.

 

CALLING CARDS

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As modern pop's most fearless songwriter, Lana has evolved across her nine studio albums, but certain themes and fascinations remain strands of her artistic DNA. The faded glamour of Hollywood's golden age, the emptiness and ennui of wealth, the suffocation of relationships, the lost and lonely people who fall between the cracks in America (and let's not forget her obsession with cars, drugs and death). Lana's eloquence on these subjects makes her best albums unfold like a night drive across Los Angeles, soundtracked by a crackling radio.

 

POETRY IN MOTION

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Lana's skills as a lyricist - and fixation with Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg - had long hinted at the poet within, and so it proved with 2020's Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass. The book was a collection that spanned from tightly structured haikus to works born from a stream of consciousness ("It's sort of in the vein of deep poetry," she explained, "where anything is allowed and it's totally free-form"). The words were powerful enough on the page, but really came alive on Violet's associated spoken word album, which peaked at #19 on the Billboard chart.

 

CHEMTRAILS OVER THE COUNTRY CLUB

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Derailed by the Covid pandemic but eager not to break the momentum from the acclaimed Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana rehired that album's co-producer, Jack Antonoff, and struck back in 2021 with her seventh studio release, which dialled down the lush Hollywood strings in favour of rootsy guitar picking and ghostly country/folk flavours. Meanwhile, autobiographical tracks like 'White Dress' laid the singer-songwriter so emotionally bare that she admitted listening to Chemtrails was "a fight... there's a life lived in there".

 

DRESS TO THRILL

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Just as Lana has shed her musical skin on every record, her style sense is always on the move. But whether she is leaning towards retro, modern or just plain surreal (see her heart-stabbing 2018 Met Gala outfit), the keyword is usually 'glamour', with Lana favouring the floor-length dresses that evoke high society debutantes stepping from gleaming limousines. On the flipside, she's not averse to cut-offs and trackies, and while in the age of austerity, it was refreshing to see her arrive at the 2020 Grammys in a dress picked up from the mall

 

HEART TO HEART

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Lana grants few interviews - and allows even fewer to stray onto her personal life - leaving fans to piece together her dating history for themselves. If there's a pattern, it's perhaps her fondness for musicians, with rapper G-Eazy, Scottish songwriter Barrie-James O'Neill and country star Clayton Johnson all linked to the singer over the past decade. But in Lana's November 2023 interview with Harper's Bazaar, she laid her current singledom on the line: "I'm definitely not in love right now. Have been, but no..."

 

 

BLUE BANISTERS

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Just seven months after Chemtrails, Lana returned with her second album of 2021. Perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised by her urgency: the singer-songwriter was keen to counter accusations of cultural appropriation and glamorising domestic abuse ("Blue Banisters was more of an explanatory album, more of a defensive album," she told Rolling Stone UK). The release was barely promoted, and so slipped somewhat under the radar, but offers some of Lana's most elegant songs ('Arcadia") and biggest curveballs ('The Trio"s Spaghetti Western brass and trap beat).

 

SNOW ON THE BEACH

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If news of the collaboration between Lana and Taylor Swift was tantalising, the first take of 'Snow on the Beach' - released on Swift's 2022 album Midnights - fell a little flat, seemingly burying the guest star's vocal avalanche-deep in the mix. Fans complained, Swift got the memo and in 2023 a new version appeared 'Featuring More Lana Del Rey'. But in fact, as Lana told Harper's Bazaar, she was all over the original: "I can mimic almost anyone. I layer and match Taylor's vocals perfectly, so you would never even know that I was completely all over that first song."

 

 

TIME OUT

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Lana's fierce work ethic - nine studio albums in 13 years so far - suggests 'downtime" is not in her vocabulary, while her icy on-record persona makes it hard to imagine her indulging in anything as frivolous as a hobby. Yet the singer has given us occasional glimpses into her passions outside music, from the ones you can probably imagine (she has spoken of poring over Allen Ginsberg's seething 1956 beat poem Howl) to the ones you really can't - Lana is a diehard fan of Liverpool FC, admitting in 2013: "I love watching Luis Suárez play".

 

 

DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE'S A TUNNEL UNDER OCEAN BLVD

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Perhaps the praise for the more personal lyrics of Blue Banisters gave Lana the confidence to drop the mask and pen this ninth album from the heart (many of the best moments, like 'Fingertips', began with the songwriter singing a raw stream of consciousness into her smartphone). Running to 77 minutes - and trading more in atmosphere than standalone hits - 2023's ..Ocean Blvd might be an overwhelming entry point for newcomers, but for the LDR hardcore, it's the most candid window into her soul yet.

 

ON THE ROAD

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After six tours - and almost a hundred festival sets - under her belt, the road holds no fears for Lana. Losing herself in her stories of love-turned-sour, and presiding over an audience who mimic their idol with flower crowns, petticoats and cowboy boots, few artists walk a more compelling tightrope between relatable and otherworldly. And while she went four years without playing a full-length set, Lana's comeback concerts of summer 2023 were showstoppers, rivalling Beyoncé and Taylor Swift's production values with everything from backing dancers to flower-garlanded swings.

 

SAY YES TO HEAVEN

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When Lana and her long-standing collaborator Rick Nowels tracked 'Say Yes to Heaven' for 2014's Ultraviolence album - then cut it from contention - the song seemed doomed to sink without trace. But the web had other ideas: having leaked online for a number of years, and built up a cult following, this ambient slow-burner was officially released in May 2023 (with a sped-up version as the B-side). No wonder fans want to know - what else is in the vaults?

 

 

FATHER & DAUGHTER

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Rob Grant, pictured here sightseeing in Paris with Lana, has a résumé almost as colourful as his daughter's. His early professions as advertising copywriter, restaurateur and real estate mogul paid the bills, before his foresight snapping up domain names in the internet's infancy made him rich. But Grant became an artist in his own right with the swooning piano balladry of 2023's debut album Lost at Sea (featuring Lana on the title track and 'Hollywood Bowl'). And while the elder Grant happily calls himself a 'nepo daddy, his daughter insists "he's always been the star".

 

TIME'S UP AT GLASTO

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Not even Lana Del Rey gets to break the Glastonbury curfew. At 2023's festival, the singer arrived onstage a half-hour late for her Saturday headline set on the Other Stage ("If they cut power, I'm super f*cking sorry," she told the crowd, "my hair takes so long to do.") Sure enough, following a riotous 'White Mustang'. Worthy Farm plunged into darkness, leaving Lana singing a capella to the front row. "No matter," wrote The Guardian's Shaad D'Souza, "the hour she did perform was compelling and brilliant, a showcase of one of the world's greatest living pop stars."

 

AND THE WINNER IS...

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At a time when we're told pop music has never been more transient or throwaway, Lana's catalogue feels utterly timeless, drilling into human truths that will resonate for as long as we hurt. No wonder that, over 14 years after her debut, she's among the most acclaimed artists of her generation. Lana has received over 100 nominations and won more than 40 trophies in her career so far, including Brit, MTV, Billboard, and Satellite awards. She was also saluted on Rolling Stone's countdown of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. With Lana already teasing her tenth album, she'd better clear a little space on that crowded mantelpiece...

 

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

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They broke the mould when they made Lana Del Rey - but her vibe and aesthetic has drip-fed into countless artists who arrived in her wake. From New Jersey electro-pop princess Halsey citing Lana's albums as her "favourite ever" to Marina Diamandis telling The Independent that "I adore her", it's hard to imagine the post-millennial scene without Lana lighting the fuse. For Interview magazine, Lana chose a thrilled Billie Eilish (pictured) as her interviewer, during which Billie gushed, "You were on my lock screen on the first phone I ever got [...] You will never understand how much of an impact that you have had on me in my life." Meanwhile, Lorde's mega-hit 'Royals' literally wouldn't exist without Born to Die - even though the song was a reaction against "all those references to expensive alcohol, beautiful clothes and beautiful cars".

 

AWARDS SEASON

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Lana was nominated in five categories at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, including two apiece for Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Album of the Year/Best Alternative Music Album) and 'A&W' (Song of the Year/Best Alternative Music Performance), plus a nod for 'Candy Necklace' as Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Not bad, considering she almost forgot to submit her work for contention ("That was out of my wheelhouse"). It was a notably strong year in all those categories, and although she didn't win directly, Lana contributed to award winners in other ways: Producer of the Year Jack Antonoff worked on ..Ocean Blvd, and she worked on the Album of the Year winner in her duet with Taylor Swift on Midnights. In Taylor's acceptance speech, she brought Lana up on stage with her and said, "So many female artists would not be where they are or have the inspiration without the work [Lana) has done. She is a legacy artist, a legend in her prime right now."

 

FIELD WORK

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The Reading & Leeds festival in the UK has come a long way from the hoary rock-pig haven of the 70s and 80s, and Lana's headline set in summer 2024 will bring a crowd wearing flower crowns, not throwing horns. After the embarrassing blackout at 2023's Glasto, Lana will be hitting the stage with a point to prove (perhaps a fistful of new songs too) - and the only place to be this August Bank Holiday weekend is down the front. In the US, Lana will be headlining Coachella in April 2024, and if it's anything like her last stunning set there a decade ago, you won't want to miss it.

 

 

 ON THE HORIZON

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If her track record is any indicator, Lana surely has new music in the pipeline - and a tantalising soundbite given to The Hollywood Reporter suggests it'll build on her recent vibe, but take a few risks. "I'm going to continue going where I feel the only next stop is, but I think it'll be in an Americana vein." In January 2024, she posted a snippet of a track called Henry, Come On' on Instagram. From first impressions it's a simple piece featuring just her signature voice accompanied by gentle acoustic guitar. She also provided a video update where she mentioned working with Jack Antonoff and Luke Laird (an award-winning country music songwriter and producer). With these teases, we can't wait to find out what Lana's got in store for us next.