It was slightly scary last year how quickly the knives were out for Lana Del Rey, considering how ‘cool’ she had been a matter of weeks earlier. One not particularly amazing Saturday Night Live performance and you would have thought that she’d ripped up a picture of the Pope like Sinead O’Connor (actually that was an overreaction that had nothing to do with spiritual leadership and a lot to do with misogyny). Her debut album was ok, but because she hadn’t delivered a masterpiece, well she’d obviously let everyone down, hadn’t she? Not to mention using a stage name? I mean, Elvis Costello or Bob Dylan wouldn’t get away with that, would they…oh, hang on.

Anyway, for those of you who have four minutes to spare, check out her version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Chelsea Hotel #2.’ Simple, haunting and very, very beautiful…

Here is Mr. Cohen’s original:

As far as I can establish, at the time of writing the Lana Del Rey version is not available to buy yet.

There’s an interesting piece on the hotel itself (yes, it is a real place!) here