After being released in 2012, the most infamous Lana Del Rey album, “Born to Die,” reached its 10-year anniversary on January 30, 2022. As an avid Lana Del Rey fan, I, of course, had to break down my top five songs from the album and share my own analysis songs in light of this anniversary.

This album was a true game changer for pop at the time and, really, music as a whole as it inspired countless future albums and artists including A$AP Rocky.

Let’s start off with the best song on the album, “Dark Paradise.” The entire song has a pretty obvious theme of mourning your true love. In the song, the line, “there is no remedy for memory, your face is like a melody,” is consistently repeated throughout the song. This gives way to the emotional hole that is left after losing someone you truly love, “All my friends ask me why I stay strong, I tell them when you find true love it lives on.” The pure emotion that Rey puts into this song is breathtaking every time; the wish of death when she can’t be reunited with her love until death. Not even mentioning her uncertainty of if he will actually be on the other side (gates of heaven) when she finally is able to reunite with him.

The song also shows the haunting factor of losing someone you were so close to, when you see them in your dreams and getting deja vu in everyday life. In the song, she often repeats the phrase, “Every time I close my eyes, it’s like a dark paradise,” showcasing her peace and desire to stay with his memory in the dream that she has with him. In the dream, he tells Rey that she will be okay but she seems too scared to accept that fact because there will never be anyone like him again. Just like how the love of your life is irreplaceable.

The second best song and fifth track on the album, “Diet Mountain Dew,” is Rey’s warning to not drink Diet Mountain Dew. She’s just warning listeners of the cancer causing aspartame additive diet sodas have, obviously. Lana Del Rey is definitely using this song to convince listeners to avoid the delicious drink of Diet Mountain Dew. I will not expand more on this song, as she simply wanted to express her concern of the health effects of Diet Mountain Dew.

On a serious note, I believe that the song is about a romantic relationship she had with a girl. The lyric, “You´re not good for me; baby, you´re not good for me; […] but baby, I want you,” shows how if this gay relationship got out, it would hurt her career because many people don’t support LGBTQ+ relationships in society. Furthermore, the lyric, “Let´s take Jesus off the dashboard,” could be referencing to the common belief that Christians, or followers of Jesus, object to gay relationships.

My third favorite song of the album,“Radio,” the eighth track on the album, is very bittersweet. With similes such as, sweet like cinnamon and sugar as sweet as venom, I think the song uses these opposing comparisons to show her happiness and contentment of being famous but then goes deeper, showing the negative effects of being famous, like forgetting your past experiences that brought her to this point. “I didn’t even notice how hard life was, I don’t even think about it now because I finally found you [success].” In this verse, I believe Rey is putting across the message that she doesn’t even have the time to actually reflect on her past but is content with the aloofness of her new life.

The song also goes into how she is portrayed in the music industry, and how she doesn’t feel as beautiful as the industry is portraying her to be. Now that she has her fame and fortune, she is having trouble knowing who is really there for her and she is also having trouble knowing who really loves her, “Baby love me ’cause I’m playing on the radio. How do you like me now?”

The fourth best song and consequently the fourth song on the album, “Video Games,” portrays a relationship in which she had to leave her personal career ambitions to enjoy being at home with her partner. According to Lana Del Rey, he would come home from work and play video games. This song is more personal to her, as she took inspiration from her actual life experiences and wrote about it. “When I was writing that song I was reflecting on the sweetness of it but also something else I was longing for at the same time,” said Rey in an interview during her press release tour.

“Video Games” is what got me hooked on Lana Del Rey. It’s an actual masterpiece.​ The classic orchestral track in the background tying into the peaceful nature of the song that reflects how she felt in the relationship is just so magical to listen to. I couldn’t imagine someone else singing this song, because her voice is perfect for it. When she sings, she accents certain parts of the song and uses a more rich and deep voice for the other parts, sounding  as if she’s actually smiling in some parts of the song when describing the past relationship.

My fifth ranked song of the album, “National Anthem,” the sixth track on the album, is always taken as a political statement towards the United States politics at the time of its release. In reality, I take the song to be about equating love and money. The man in the song is loaded and will forever worship money over love, so she then presents herself as his equal, presenting love as being more valued than money. If money is the anthem of success, then she wants to be his national anthem, his most important possession. Nevertheless, he could never love her as much as his wealth.

Overall, the Lana Del Rey album, “Born To Die”, is one of the most legendary albums to be released within the last 10 years. It shaped her music career and inspired many other artists during the last 10 years. If you’re interested in listening to the album and witness the brilliance of the album, it is available anywhere you consume music (except probably SoundCloud, last time I checked, Rey is not a SoundCloud rapper). However, if you are going to dive into the world of Lana Del Rey, I would recommend starting with “Dark Paradise” or “Diet Mountain Dew.”