Del Rey - Unreleased Tracks — Lana
Fans have created their own “albums” from unreleased tracks, like Sirens (2006 folk album as May Jailer) or The Unreleased Collection (fan-curated 3-volume set).
If you ask the average person on the street about Lana Del Rey, they will likely mention "Summertime Sadness," "Video Games," or perhaps her recent foray into country-tinged Americana with Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. But if you ask a fan—a real, die-hard Lana stan—you will get a very different answer. You will hear about Lizzy Grant. You will hear about the “Sirens” sessions. You will hear about Hundred Dollar Bill.
For nearly fifteen years, Lana Del Rey has maintained one of the most fascinating and prolific shadow catalogs in modern music history. While her studio albums have garnered Grammys, critical acclaim, and billions of streams, it is her unreleased tracks that have built the mythology. To the uninitiated, the cache of nearly 200+ songs floating across YouTube, SoundCloud, and Reddit forums might look like discarded demos. To her fans, they are a parallel universe—a darker, rawer, more chaotic version of the American dream.
This article dives deep into the vaults, exploring the history, the holy grails, the legal battles, and why Lana Del Rey’s unreleased work is arguably more important than half of the songs on the radio. Lana Del Rey - Unreleased Tracks
Rumors persist of an album titled The Unreleased Collection or American Standards. In 2023, Lana joked in an Instagram comment about releasing Serial Killer "for real." But nothing has materialized.
The problem is legal. Lana has switched labels (from 5 Points to Interscope to Polydor), and rights to those old recordings are held by different corporations. Untangling that web is a logistical nightmare. Furthermore, some tracks (Maha Maha, Boom Like That) might be too controversial or politically charged for a mainstream release.
However, hope remains. We have seen improbable releases before. Say Yes to Heaven, a fan-favorite unreleased ballad from the Ultraviolence sessions, was officially cleared and released on streaming in 2023 to massive success. It proved that the appetite for these tracks is enormous—and that Lana is willing to feed the beast, albeit slowly. Fans have created their own “albums” from unreleased
| Theme | Unreleased Emphasis | Released Equivalent | |-------|-------------------|----------------------| | Substance use | Grittier, less romanticized (“Hollywood’s Dead,” “Trash Magic”) | Glamorized or tragic (“Ride,” “Ultraviolence”) | | Money/poverty | Direct desperation (“Money Hunny,” “Boarding School”) | Metaphorical or nostalgic (“Carmen,” “Old Money”) | | Violence & control | Unsettling, playful, or deadpan (“Put Me in a Movie,” “Kill Kill”) | Framed as toxic romance (“Shades of Cool,” “Norman Fucking Rockwell”) | | America | Failed promise, motels, strip malls, trailer parks | Wistful, vintage highway imagery | | Lolita trope | Explicit, uncomfortable, age-play explicit | More coded or literary |
Example: “Put Me in a Movie” (2011) – “Come on, you know you like little girls” / “Fuck me to death” – would never pass modern label standards, yet it’s a cult favorite for its raw unease.
Technically an album track from the A.K.A. album, it exists in a gray area. This stark, piano-only ballad about selling her turquoise and losing her home is arguably her most literal biographical song. When she sings "I don't really wanna die / I just want the pain to be over," it transcends the "Lana persona" and reveals the real human underneath. If you ask the average person on the
Before Lana Del Rey was a household name, she was Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, a melancholic singer-songwriter living in New Jersey and later London. She recorded under several monikers (Lizzy Grant, May Jailer, Sparkle Jump Rope Queen) and produced three distinct eras of material that would eventually leak to the public.
If you want to understand Lana's subversion of the 1950s housewife trope, listen to this. Over a lurching, bluesy guitar riff, she sings with a breathy, childish pout about committing adultery and shooting her lover. It is vulgar, hilarious, and brilliant. The line "He's a loser, he's a user / I'm his baby, he's my king" sums up her entire artistic thesis.