Lana Del Rey’s “National Anthem” & “This Is What Makes Us Girls”: Album Versions

Turns out those clips of Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die tracks “National Anthem” and “This Is What Makes Us Girls” that surfaced two weeks ago really were demos. Snippets of the album versions of the two songs have now been added to the divisive singer‘s YouTube channel, and you can compare them with what we’ve heard before below. The funky bass and hip hop drum sample present on the “National Anthem” demo is swapped out here on the final version for a much more subtle beat. Also missing on this recording: the punch that the chorus had in the demo. Lana’s vocals seem to have more of an underwater (and understated) effect. Boo to that.

Lana Del Rey — “National Anthem”

The new “This Is What Makes Us Girls” also has a slower beat than the demo, but the vocals here appear to be more fine-tuned, while an orchestral layer and some sampled effects have been added.

Lana Del Rey — “This Is What Makes Us Girls”

Based on just these short clips, we say thumbs up to “This Is What Makes Us Girls”. As for “National Anthem”, however, we prefer the original.

How do you think of the final album versions of “National Anthem” and “This Is What Makes Us Girls” compare to the demos we heard a couple weeks back?