Before we begin, I need to make one thing abundantly clear: I am by no means a Lana Del Rey stan. Or, that is to say, I wasn't when I began this list. Like most 20-something men, Lana was someone whose music I was always familiar with, but never felt much of an inclination to really explore. Over the years, I had several friends try to get me to understand (shoutout Ava and Tina), and although I was certainly never a hater, I'd hardly ever thought to put on Lana when I was left to my own devices. Before I started this list, I had heard only 3 of her albums (Born to Die, Ultraviolence, and NFR!), but over the past week I have done an intensive deep dive into every single one of her studio albums in chronological order. Allow me to be the first to say: holy shit, I've been missing out.
Since breaking onto the scene with her self-produced music video for "Video Games," Lana's influence has been an omnipresent force in the lives of millions of music listeners. From the very beginning, she possessed the rare quality to not just garner attention, but obsession. The brilliance of Lana was that her fans didn't just want to be her, they felt like they always had been. While it's cringeworthy now, her distorted images of perfectly-smudged mascara and bloodstained cigarettes gave voice to an entire generation of repressed emotions and masochistic escapism. Almost instantly, Lana was met with an immense amount of scrutiny and criticism. While some of these critiques are incredibly valid (she's nothing if not problematic), the majority of the hullabaloo around the Lana Del Rey brand was rooted in a misogynistic dismissal of music that expressed an uncompromisingly-female perspective on love, lust, and sadness. While The Weeknd was being praised for his male escapist fantasies of drug-addled melancholy, Lana was being criticized for glamorizing an unhealthy lifestyle for an entire generation of young girls (OK, and maybe she actually was, but still; double standard). Regardless of how you might feel about Lana and her music, the time has certainly come for me to give her her dues, and this list feels like the perfect place to begin.
NOTE: I'll be ranking her eight mainline studio albums, so Lizzy Grant and the Paradise EP will not be making an appearance.
8. Lust for Life (2017)
While Lana Del Rey is certainly a bona fide superstar, much of her appeal has always come from her enigmatic and somewhat mysterious approach to pop music. She undoubtedly makes music for the masses (her numbers can attest to that), but all of Lana’s best work is able to capture a truly indie quality. In contrast, Lust for Life sounds like Lana’s attempt at making a shameless grab at streaming success, and this lack of inspiration translates into a boring and bloated release. It’s certainly not all bad, and with a slew of new collaborators like Metro Boomin and Benny Blanco, the most refreshing aspects of Lust for Life are the songs that completely abandon the Lana Del Rey conventions. “Summer Bummer” is a dreamy trap collaboration between Lana, A$AP Rocky, and Playboi Carti, and despite the bizareness of its mere existence, it’s actually a pretty solid song. The majority of the album, however, feels like a lifeless retread through familiar territory. Just take a look at album opener “Love,” which bears the trappings of a traditional LDR ballad but lacks so much of the wit and sophistication that makes her music shine. Nothing on this album is offensively bad, but nearly everything is forgettable. For some reason, Lana’s usually exceptional pen sounds uninspired and flat. Lana’s music has always been cheesy — it’s where she often finds the most authenticity — but Lust for Life can be actually tacky. “God Bless America” and “When the World Was at War” are even more cringe-inducing than they're trying to be, and lyrics such as “life rocked me like Mötley” are unforgivably corny. Even the album’s best moments, such as the Sean Lennon duet “Tomorrow Never Came," are dragged down by face-palming lines like “now I'm singing with Sean.” The best parts of this record certainly make for solid playlist-inclusions, but as an overall project it’s doesn’t really offer anything you can’t get for much better on another Lana release.
Favorite Track: Tomorrow Never Came feat. Sean Ono Lennon
7. Blue Banisters (2021)
In an interview with Q Magazine leading up to the release of her album Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Lana Del Rey spoke on the process, saying, “I just don’t know how long it’s going to take... it’s actually going to take longer than I want if it’s going to be as good as Norman Fucking Rockwell!” Her patience paid off when Chemtrails released a year later, and was a carefully concocted and concise statement that embodied her usual tricks. A day later, she announced that her new album was already in the works, and in July of 2021, Blue Banisters was released. It's by no means a bad album, but the rushed nature of the record's creation is certainly evident in the final result. Aside from a few career highlights, the majority of Blue Banisters passes by without leaving much of an impact, consisting of forgettable production (what is even up with the "Interlude?") and pretty decent vocals. Even by her own lackadaisical standards, Lana’s performances are noticeably flat on this record, leading to the majority of the track-list just feeling like a collection of B-Sides. Tracks like "Beautiful," "Dealer," and "If You Lie Down With Me" are excellent cuts with interesting instrumentation and the usual LDR-standard for melancholic poetry. In contrast, the title track, "Text Book," and "Violets for Roses" really fall short in the lyrical department. While her music is usually shrouded in some sort of persona, Blue Banisters makes a concerted effort to be relatable through direct references to real-life events like the Santa Clarita fires, BLM protests, and of course the COVID-19 pandemic during which it was released. It's an admirable change of pace, but the result is honestly just pretty distracting, and lacks so much of the wit and genuine introspection that Lana's metaphors usually have. Additionally, the album is far too long -- a recurring problem for Lana's work -- and by the time "Wildflower Wildfire" comes around, it's basically overstayed its welcome. It's still worthy of checking out, but if you're anything like me, you'll only come back to a couple of tracks and let the rest of the album fade into the background.
Favorite Track: If You Lie Down With Me
6. Born to Die (2012)
Following the viral success of her DIY music video for “Video Games,” the world wasn’t just ready for Lana Del Rey, it was ravenous. By the time Born to Die hit shelves and iTunes libraries in 2012, Lana’s influence was already indelible with an entire generation of teenage girls. By far her most commercially lucrative project, Born to Die was a rousing success that branded the Lana Del Rey character as much as it did the actual music itself. The album was quite divisive on its release, and many (misogynistic) critics saw the album as a gaudy and vapid appeal to harmful aesthetics. With more than a decade since its release, I think that re-listening to Born to Die actually reveals just how influential Lana’s hip-hop-tinged-slow-burns were to the sound of indie-pop during the 2010s. The album is certainly commercial (it literally sounds like an Urban Outfitters), but it’s still a powerful debut that I can’t help but enjoy. The album is manufactured to produce the strongest and most cinematic responses possible, and Lana’s performances toe the line between femme fatale seduction and sickly-sweet innocence. “Video Games,” “National Anthem,” and “Million Dollar Man” are all self-indulgent and languid, but they earn this approach through an earnest commitment to a cinematic aesthetic. Tracks like “Off to the Races” and “Radio” inject the album with plenty of energy, and singles like “Summertime Sadness” will never not sound like Gingham-filtered soundtrack to 2013. The runtime is admittedly a little long and a few of the tracks are forgettable (“Dark Paradise”), but Born to Die still holds up as a charismatic and evocative introduction to one of the most enigmatic and captivating songstresses of the past decade.
Favorite Track: Off to the Races
5. Honeymoon (2015)
Lana's third studio album is most easily categorized as a return to Born-to-Die-form after the guitar-heavy minimalism of Ultraviolence, but this is really a gross over-simplification that downplays so much much of what Honeymoon has to offer. While Born to Die was a modernized homage to bygone era of fantasy, Honeymoon completely immerses itself in a world of hauntingly effervescent glamor. The influences are wide-reaching and strange, ranging from pretty-girl-stoner ballads ("High By the Beach") to Godfather homages ("Salvatore"). The title track sounds fresh out of a Bond movie, and Lana's cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is an odd but completely inspired inclusion. Born to Die's production was certainly nothing to scoff at, but Honeymoon truly improves on nearly every aspect of her debut's style. The album sounds as if it was recorded in a crumbling Hollywood cathedral, and Lana's performances are masterfully eerie, fully filling out the shadow cast by her own persona. The soundscape is populated by muttering horns, twittering woodwinds, and string sections that would make the likes of Piero Piccioni proud. The album is a deliberately cinematic experience, but with nearly every song clocking in at close to 5 minutes, it's not always able to maintain my interest. "God Knows I Tried" and "Religion" are overly long cuts that don't stray far enough from the LDR formula to be very memorable. As a cohesive listen, however, Honeymoon packs one hell of a punch, and remains a deeply underrated chapter in her catalog that true fans will never fail to vouch for.
Favorite Track: Music To Watch Boys To
4. Chemtrails Over the Country Club (2021)
While I remember when it was released, Chemtrails Over the Country Club was one of the Lana albums I’d never actually listened to before making this list. Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that the album kicks off with maybe the best song Lana Del Rey has ever released. “White Dress” is a stunning achievement of songwriting and performance; a captivating ballad that barely maintains a discernible structure and showcases some of Lana’s most emotive vocals to ever be recorded. In all honestly, I had to loop this song about 5 or 6 times before I even got to the rest of the album. Unfortunately, the rest of the tracklist didn’t quite live up to the heights of “White Dress,” but this doesn’t mean that Chemtrails isn’t still a worthwhile record. Following up NFR was always going to be a tall order, but Lana and Jack Antonoff took their time and crafted one of the strongest entries of her discography. The album plays like an auditory tour through Lana’s entire career, with a multitude of lyrical and melodic references to her previous work, as well as several shoutouts to her idols and friends (the Sun Ra love is amazing). Lana glides through the album with her usual grace, but there’s a post-NFR maturity to her presence that dissolves so much of the LDR persona and gives a genuine glimpse into her life. The production is spacey and gentle, emphasizing a pseudo-acoustic approach that tricks the listener into not even noticing the oceans of instrumentation accompanying Lana’s piano. The title track is a modern LDR classic, and the closing collaboration with Weyes Blood and Zella Day to cover Joni Mitchell’s “For Free” is the ideal epilogue to the album’s folksy aesthetic. This album also gets major points for being the only record in Lana’s entire career to clock in at under 50 minutes, which is definitely an apt choice considering the record’s slow-moving pace. Needless to say, Chemtrails Over the Country Club caught me completely off guard with how much I enjoyed it, and serves as a testament to just how much Lana has grown and how much she still has to offer her fans.
Favorite Track: White Dress
3. Ultraviolence (2014)
When it came to following up the bombastic success of Born to Die, Lana Del Rey doubled down on the darkest and moodiest parts of her debut for a sequel that was probably the last thing her haters wanted her to make. For basically everyone else, though, it was everything they could have hoped for. Ultraviolence is by no means a speedy record; it's got probably the most consistently dirge-like pacing of all of Lana's releases. Admittedly, this can lead to a couple songs overstaying their welcome (there's no reason for "Sad Girl" to clock in at over 5 minutes), but for the most part, the album maintains an excellent pace despite its sonic slowness. Gone are the trip-hop breakbeats of Born to Die, and the emphasis is instead placed on sun-bleached guitars and psych-rock drum fills. Tracks like "Brooklyn Baby" showcase the LDR formula at its absolute best, pairing a genuine homage to her own interests with a snide middle finger to the type of people who would ever relate to the song. "Sad Girl" and "Pretty When You Cry" really gave 2014 Tumblr users every reblog-able lyric they could have dreamed of, and "Cruel World" opens the album with a psychedelic slow-burn that sounds like a sonic journey through a housewife's midday drug trip. Thematically, this album definitely feels fairly removed from the actual person who made it, and this can certainly be alienating at times. While "Fucked My Way to The Top" is a blast to listen to, it lacks some of the self-effacing honesty that would come to define Lana's later work. In general, however, Ultraviolence is still an absolutely essential Lana Del Rey record, and holds a special place in my heart for being the first album of her's that I heard in full. It's a fully cinematic experience that truly plays like every possible visualization you could imagine (tendrils of cigarette smoke, a top-down ride through the desert, etc.), and while it may conjure the most vivid Tumblr flashbacks of any of her works, it's still a joy to revisit.
Favorite Track: Brooklyn Baby
2. Did You Know There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. (2023)
In many ways, my dear friend Ava is directly responsible for me wanting to make this list. One day, while driving down Sunset Boulevard sometime close to golden hour, she put on the latest single from Lana Del Rey's upcoming album, "A&W." We listened to the entire 7 minute track, and by the time it had come to a close, not only was I dying to hear it again, but I finally realized just how hard I'd been sleeping on lil' ole Lizzy Grant. As a whole, the latest edition to Lana's discography is a staggering achievement that is easily one of the best records of the year so far, and firmly cements the metamorphosis that began on NFR! as being the new status quo. From the first few moments of opener "The Grants," it's clear that Ocean Blvd is playing with some new tricks. The album features a considerable but never overwhelming focus on gospel and R&B music, and this slight shake-up to Lana's usual production is a truly refreshing change of pace. Conceptually, the record re-frames Lana's forlorn romanticism into ruminations on death, God, and legacy. You get the sense that Lana isn't working alone on this record, not just in the sense of her phenomenal producers and collaborators, but in the way that she channels her family, her influences, and even herself. The album is arguably her most cohesive project to date, and while the songs can certainly be enjoyed on their own, they're really meant to be experienced in one continuous listen. With that being said, this does lead me to my only gripe with the record: while the songs flow together nicely, the pacing of the album is noticeably slow. After my first listen, I have no intentions to ever sit through either of the album's long interludes ever again. However, this is really just nitpicking; 90% of Ocean Blvd's track-list are among the best songs Lana has ever produced. The title track features potentially the best songwriting of her career, "A&W" is still as jawdropping as the first time I heard it, and "Paris, Texas" is an addictive album cut I just can't get enough of. Did You Know There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd is more than a late career highlight for alt-pop's latest queen; it's the beginning of whatever she still has in store.
Favorite Track: A&W
1. Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019)
It’s difficult to imagine just how validated Lana Del Rey’s fans must have felt upon the release of her sixth studio album, Norman Fucking Rockwell! While she’d certainly never fallen off, stans had been forced to battle “sad girl” labelings and eye-rolling boyfriends for far too long. Then, NFR! dropped… and everyone finally shut up. Quirked-up white boys the world over suddenly had to pretend they’d always known Lana was great, and the album was quickly awash in mountains of critical acclaim. As one of the least qualified people to speak on the matter, I would also like to attest: NFR! really is that good. From the moment you hear Lana croon, "goddamn manchild," it's clear that this album is another beast entirely. Track after track, NFR! remains hard-hitting, catchy, and absolutely addictive. There's still so much of Lana's traditional persona, but it's been distilled into a mature, jaded, and deeply poetic master of ceremonies who commands each song with an impeccable charisma. I'd certainly be remiss not to mention the album's co-star, super-producer Jack Antonoff. While his prolific pop productions have become somewhat of a running joke as of late, his chemistry with Lana here is nothing short of electric. Together, the duo are able to justify a nearly 5 minute outro to "Venice Bitch," and bizarre inclusions like a cover of Sublime's "Doin Time" are not only well-done, they're absolutely essential. More than anything, NFR! takes the top slot on this list for one simple reason: the pacing. While the music is often fantastic, Lana really struggles with making her albums that maintain interest all the way through, but NFR! has no such problems. Despite a hefty runtime, this album breezes by on each and every listen, and you best believe that it has my attention for that entire time. There's really not much else to say about the matter; nearly a decade after her career had begun, Lana released her most quintessential and well-rounded body of work to date. While there's definitely a chance that Ocean Blvd could surpass when given some more time, at this particular moment, I have absolutely zero qualms about putting today's crown on Norman Fucking Rockwell's perfectly bee-hived head.
Favorite Track: Venice Bitch
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