Lana Del Rey - "National Anthem"

[POP!]

How about a TOPICAL POLL for US Election Day?



Tbh I don't listen to it as much as other Lana classics outside the context of the amazing video. But it really is brilliant from start to finish. The "red white blue is in the sky, summer is in the air and heaven is in your eyes - I'M YOUR NATIONAL ANTHEM ..." bit is the highlight. I'm also surprised it didn't generate any traction as a single back at the height of her commercial success. Was it not a proper single despite the video treatment?

And I'm also genuinely surprised how well she evokes emotion in the video through just facial expressions 6:40 onward.

 

[Loufoque]

I used to be obsessed with it, and heavily associate it with a certain person, and a specific period. It's such a nostalgic song for me that I almost can't appreciate it in any objective way.

 

[Pipo]

@POP! What were the MAIN singles released anyway? Didn't it go something like Video Games, Born To Die, Blue Jeans, Summertime Sadness?
BTD had so many releases around the world, especially in the US where Off To The Races was a radio only single and Wikipedia suggests this one was as well.

 

[POP!]

@POP! What were the MAIN singles released anyway? Didn't it go something like Video Games, Born To Die, Blue Jeans, Summertime Sadness?
BTD had so many releases around the world, especially in the US where Off To The Races was a radio only single and Wikipedia suggests this one was as well.

Yes looking at Wiki it went:

1) Video Games
2) Born to Die
3) Blue Jeans
4) Summertime Sadness (released later in 2013 in USA via edm remix)

National Anthem and Off to the Races got limited releases. The former was released in the UK/Ireland. The latter was released in select European countries.

 

[Pipo]

Not to mention Dark Paradise and This Is What Makes Us Girls also were radio only singles in some local European markets (ie Germany). WHAT AN ALBUM.

 

[Apoca]

Lana at the absolute peak of her powers. I kind of assumed she peaked with the video for National Anthem and just a few weeks later she dropped Ride and NONE OF US WERE READY.

 

[Jark]

I really massively overdid the debut album back when and I never play it anymore. The only single that still holds any replay value for me is Ride, which is not-coincidentally the very best song from both the album and the Paradise Edition (and possibly her best EVER).

National Anthem just feels a bit frivolous to me these days. It's an 8 from me. Artistically she's outdone herself so completely since Born To Die, it's hard for me to enjoy it anymore. Summertime Sadness still shines my gunny every now and then, though, and I can bop to Radio like it's still 2012.

 

[Loufoque]

Yes, it's true that Ride completely obliterated everything that came before (and after, TBH).

 

[RJN]

Jark is probably right that she has surpassed this, but the stuff from her first album is so nostalgic for me. Also, I found this a little subversive at the time, due to the name, so its hard to not still get a thrill from it.