Song · Lana Del Rey
“West Coast” by Lana Del Rey
From the album Ultraviolence (2014)
“West Coast” by Lana Del Rey appears on 19 radio countdowns from 14 stations between 2014 and 2024. It was first released in 2014 on the album Ultraviolence. Its best result is #7 on the WBER Listener Countdown 2014. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #33 alternative song of 2014 and #459 of the '10s.
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"West Coast" was the first taste of Ultraviolence, Lana Del Rey's third studio album, arriving on April 14, 2014, and it announced a guitar-heavy turn. Del Rey wrote it with Rick Nowels, and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys produced, playing electric and 12-string guitar, synth and shakers himself alongside Kenny Vaughan's guitar, Russ Pahl's pedal steel, Nick Movshon's bass and drums, and mellotron from Leon Michels and Seth Kauffman.
It's a woozy psych-rock ballad split down the middle: the verses sway, then the chorus slams the brakes, dropping nearly 60 beats per minute. Del Rey plays a woman caught between love and ambition, breathy and anxious with a sensual, unhinged edge, and the song doubles as a valentine to the West Coast itself. It debuted at number 17 on the Hot 100, her highest entry there, and landed on best-of-2014 lists at NME, Spin and Consequence of Sound.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 36 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 2014 | 91 |
| 2014 | 30 | 107.1 The Peak Westchester County, NY | WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2014 | 107 |
| 2014 | 57 | 96.5 The Buzz Kansas City, MO-KS | 96.5 The Buzz Top 96 Songs of 2014 | 96 |
| 2014 | 50 | WXPN Philadelphia, PA | WXPN Year in Review: Top 200 Songs of 2014 | 200 |
| 2014 | 39 | Lightning 100 Nashville, TN | Lightning 100 Top 100 Songs of 2014 | 100 |
| 2014 | 7 | WBER Rochester, NY | WBER Listener Countdown 2014 | 129 |
| 2014 | 39 | 102.7 WEQX Southern Vermont and the Capital District of New York (Albany) | WEQX Top 102.7 of 2014 | 103 |
| 2014 | 21 | The Current Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN | The Current Top 89 Songs of 2014 | 89 |
| 2014 | 23 | WRNR 103.1 Annapolis, MD | WRNR Top 103.1 Songs of 2014 | 104 |
| 2014 | 77 | WFUV New York, NY | WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2014 | 90 |
| 2014 | 82 | WTMD Baltimore, MD | WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2014 | 89 |
| 2014 | 32 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 2014 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 579 | WTMD | WTMD Listeners' Top 897 Songs, 2003-2018 | 896 |
| 2019 | 837 | WYEP | WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 | 1017 |
| 2019 | 837 | WYEP | WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 | 1099 |
| 2022 | 1100 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2022 | 603 |
| 2023 | 947 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2023 | 742 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
| 2024 | 709 | WXPN | WXPN The 885 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century (2024) | 885 |
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