Marcel Winatschek

Lana Del Rey: National Anthem

National Anthem is the song that made me understand Lana Del Rey was doing something different from everyone else around 2012. Not better, necessarily, but committed to a specific mood in a way most pop songs aren’t—all that melancholy wrapped in production that sounds like it cost a fortune. The song feels expensive and sad, which shouldn’t work together but does. There’s something almost cinematic about it, the way she stretches syllables out, the way the beat sits back like it’s already resigned to something. It’s not a song that tries to make you dance or feel inspired. It just wants you to sit with it, in it, aware that beautiful things are often kind of dark when you look close.