Who I'm Meant To Be

As a tenuous link to that big thing happening this weekend, here's one of tonight's headline acts, Lana Del Rey. 

Whatever your opinion of Lana aka Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, there's no denying that she is prolific on an old-school level. Her breakthrough came with Video Games in 2011 and album Born To Die in 2012; actually her second, third if you count the unreleased album From The End from 2005. Lana's ninth album, Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, was released in March 2023. She's also found time to collaborate with other artists, drop mixtapes and release a further spoken word album, 2020's Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass. 

 

I've given it a good go, but I can't keep up with the rate of album releases. Aside from her latest, I'm still missing the brilliantly-titled Norman Fucking Rockwell! from 2019. I admire Lana Del Rey as an artist; some of her songs don't always work for me but the hit rate is astonishingly high.

The dozen selected here aren't the hits or even an attempt at a "best of"; as usual, I've just followed my instinct and let the songs find themselves. I've included some earlier, pre-Video Games songs and demos, which were leaked in the early 2010s. Apart from being good songs, they're stylistically different but hint at the cinematic sweep of the words and music to come. 

 

The subsequent material shows Lana shrugging off the labels, stereotypes and preconceptions and pursuing her vision and honing her craft. And delivering some bloody good songs along the way.

Tonight should be epic, even if I am watching it on BBC iPlayer and not in a field of thousands, cheering my throat raw.

1) Pawn Shop Blues (2010)

2) Million Dollar Man (2012)

3) Thunder (2021)

4) Once Upon A Dream (Cover of Mary Costa & Bill Shirley) (2014)

5) Oooh Baby (2010)

6) Put The Radio On (2010)

7) High By The Beach (2015)

8) Quiet Waiter Blue Forever (2020)

9) Gods And Monsters (EP Version) (2012)

10) Heroin (2017)

11) Let Me Love You Like A Woman (2021)

12) For You (2005)

 

2005: From The End: 12 

2010: Lana Del Ray a.k.a. Lizzy Grant: 1 

2010: Oooh Baby (unreleased demo): 5

2012: Born To Die: 2

2012: God Bless America (mixtape): 6 

2012: The Paradise Edition EP: 9

2014: Once Upon A Dream EP: 4 

2015: Honeymoon: 7

2017: Lust For Life: 10

2020: Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass: 8

2021: Chemtrails Over The Country Club: 11

2021: Blue Banisters: 3

 

Who I'm Meant To Be (44:41) (Box) (Mega)