#21 Lana Del Ray A.K.A. Lizzy Grant - Lana del Rey

Original release date: January 2010.

This is a mildly controversial inclusion only in that I don't own a genuine copy of the album. All I have is a download from YouTube that I grabbed a long time ago, back when it was prone to disappearing as fast as anyone posted it. These days it sits there all the time so you can hear it whenever you'd like, which really should be often.

I nearly bought the official MP3 album on release but it was fifteen quid or so on Amazon and I wanted the CD, which they may or may not have had in stock, I don't recall. I do know I wishlisted it to come back later and make a decision and by the time I got round to it the album had been withdrawn from sale. It's never been re-released and if you want a copy now it's going to cost you somewhere between $90 - $150, if you can find one.  

The moral of this story is something I'm always telling customers at work - if you see something and you want it, buy it there and then. Don't expect to be able to come back a week or a month later and find it still waiting for you. Things are ephemeral. Grab them when you can.

I hesitated because I'd only really heard Video Games and a few of the early demos that were starting to pop up on YouTube. It was just after Christmas and I'd been listening to more and more Lana del Ray (sic) as I could find it since I'd first read about her in the Guardian back in the fall.  

There was some astonishing stuff appearing on YouTube back then and I was watching and listening to some of it every night. Kinda Outta Luck, Yayo, Smarty  all of which are on this album. I watched them over and over and over again and fell asleep listening to the MP3s I'd stripped out and added to my iPod Touch.

I knew she was something special from the start but I never imagined what she'd become. It's a long, long way from Jump to Venice Bitch. Or maybe it's not so far, at that.