Lana Del Rey’s five most underrated songs
By now, Lana Del Rey has a lot of songs.
In total, the singer-songwriter has released nine studio albums, but it’s more than that, as fans of the artist will also know just how deep her archive of unreleased demos goes, scattered across the internet.
All of it has made her a star, some of it has rightfully become hits, but some of the artist’s best work has been left underappreciated in the shadows. This is always bound to happen, but especially when it comes to an artist like Del Rey. For any given mood, there’s a whole playlist waiting for you. Sad? She’s got countless songs for that. Feeling seductive? Someone on Spotify has already gathered all those tunes into one place for you. Specifically feeling fearful that you may never find true love and settle down into a domestic life because your artistic pursuits keep you from a normal path of connection? She’s got you covered.
But with so much to unpack and so much emotional ground being covered, let alone the variety of influences, references and genres that Del Rey brings into her work, it’s inevitable that some great moments are going to be left without as much praise as they deserve. Stuck in the shadows of the bigger hits or more obviously hooky tunes, it’s a crime that some of these songs aren’t celebrated amongst her greatest.
Spanning her entire career from her debut to her most recent record, these five tracks demand a revisit as they represent some of her finest moments in terms of lyricism and energy but have been left painfully underrated. Give them another go, and then give your head a shake and tell yourself off for not appreciating them before.
The five most underrated Lana Del Rey songs:
‘The Grants’
As far as album openers go, I’d argue that ‘The Grants’ is Lana Del Rey’s most impactful. Beginning her 2023, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, this wasn’t just the start of a new record, but it felt like the start of a new era where Del Rey went all in on honesty with her most revealing record yet.
“I’m gonna take mine of you with me,” the choir begins on this album that focuses heavily on memories and Del Rey’s ownership over her own story. Perfectly capturing the type of artist she’s becoming more and more, it’s a spanning yet subtle tune that needs no big, grand, hooky chorus to be incredibly impactful. All too often forgotten in the shadows of the album’s hits like ‘A&W’ or ‘Candy Necklace’, this opener needs a revisit.
‘Dance Till We Die’
Justice for Chemtrails Over The Country Club!
An album that was never given its flowers. Perhaps the 2021 release was lost in the pandemic haze, or perhaps it was due to the classic Del Rey treatment of announcing a record, changing its name several times, pushing back the release, and then randomly delivering it one day. Either way, the album is a treasure trove of songs of all colours that seem to reference every single era that has come before.
At the end, though, there’s a true piece of gold that demands more love. ‘Dance Till We Die’ is a masterpiece that seems to meander between different songs altogether. It feels like an early sign of the topics she’d cover on Blue Banisters as she name-drops the women that surround and inspire her while contemplating the strangeness of fame. But on this track, that’s all light and breezy as she recalls dancing with Joan Baez, bonding with Stevie Nicks, messing around with Courtney Love, and generally choosing to enjoy her life in a moment of joy that’s still complex.
‘Gods and Monsters’
Can a song count as underrated when Jessica Lange literally covered it on a TV show? Probably not, but somehow, it still is.
A decade on from Del Rey’s debut, it still feels like there are songs on Born To Die, and especially on the Paradise Edition, that have never got the credit they deserve as truly remarkable tunes. It’s songs like this that show exactly why the artist became the phenomenon she is, as she burst onto the scene with so much potential, so much originality and such clarity of vision.
In the case of ‘God and Monsters’, it genuinely feels like the opening of the curtain. While Lana Del Rey isn’t necessarily a character the singer plays, this track would feel like her theme tune if it were, as she sings about feeling like a “groupie posing as a real singer” and hoping that “life imitates art” as she wanders into the pits of hell, aka, Los Angeles.
‘Tomorrow Never Came’
“And I could put on the radio / To our favourite song / Lennon and Yoko / We would play all day long / “Isn’t life crazy?”, I said / Now that I’m singing with Sean, whoa-oh,” Del Rey sings as Sean Ono Lennon plays guitar and harmonises with her. It should be one of the most beloved moments in her whole discography, but it’s criminally in the shadows.
It’s not just the Lennon cameo that makes this song special, although his voice does provide such a gorgeous contrast to hers. But ‘Tomorrow Never Came’ is simply so beautiful and so tender. Del Rey has mused on that kind of bittersweet, loving breakup song throughout her career, but this is where she nails it as beloved memories are mixed with melancholy for a truly special number.
‘Blue Banisters’
In a similar vein to Chemtrails, Del Rey’s other 2021 release, Blue Banisters, recieved the same kind of underwhelming reception, caught up in the same logistical and world chaos. But once again, gold was left shining in the shadows as this album houses some of the artist’s most poignant lyrics yet.
‘Blue Banisters’, the title track, should be in the race for the number one spot in that ranking. Del Rey has considered the topic of her own success so much, and the topic of love, but here she merged the two, defying the pressure to make her work relatable, instead going deep on this personal fear that perhaps her fame and artistry keep her from finding someone.
In what is arguably one of the best lyrics she’s ever penned, she sings, “She said, ‘You can’t be a muse and be happy, too / You can’t blacken the pages with Russian poetry and be happy’ / And that scared me.”
It’s so special, so moving, so deeply Del Rey – and it deserves to be celebrated as such.
