When it comes to collective obsessions around the Georgia Straight office, there aren’t many artists who rank higher than perma-tortured goddess Lana Del Rey.

Blame group seasonal affective disorder, which pretty much debilitates us every month not named August. Or thank a general feeling of worthlessness and self-loathing that’s been instilled in each and every one of us since birth.

Whatever the reason, Del Rey is the one that we turn to when we’re feeling blue, which is somewhere around 362 days of the year.

When we're bummed, few things make us feel better than cuing up “Born to Die”and singing along en masse to “Don’t make me sad, don’t make me cry/Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough, I don’t know why.”

And because we’ve long been fans of delicious irony, we’ve all been known to break into tears over the “Radio” lyrics “Now my life is sweet like cinnamon/Like a fucking dream I’m living in.”

Considering our undying admiration of New York’s saddest chanteuse, it goes without saying that we’re breaking out the champagne this afternoon to celebrate a milestone that only three female artists have ever reached.

In January of 2012 the artist once known as Elizabeth Grant gave this world her major-label debut. Today Born to Die is being celebrated as only the third album by a woman to have spent 300 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 chart. (For those with a Nardwuar-like appetite for trivia, the other two records are Carole King’s Tapestry and Adele’s 21).

After we’ve shotgunned two flutes of Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs, you’ll find us all in the office bathroom, singing—through ropes of snot and salty tears—“Young and Beautiful” to our reflections.

Congratulations, Lana Del Rey. Your Born to Die Billboard accomplishment is a reflection of the fact that you continue to give us—and thousands of others across the world—a reason to live.