I’m assuming you might have heard a little something about Lana Del Rey over the past couple of months. The smoky voiced 24-year-old New York singer with a penchant for Nancy Sinatra’s piled-high hair, dark eye makeup, and sultry stance has been both loudly lauded and lambasted in the blogosphere, with two self-made music videos (“Video Games,” “Blue Jeans”), an earlier musical incarnation as Lizzy Grant (her real name), a couple of interviews, and some questionable lip-puffery used to support various critiques.

For all the good and bad buzz Lana Del Rey’s received, it was only today that her debut EP, Video Games, was released via iTunes, featuring the title track, “Blue Jeans,” and a pair of remixes. With musical contemporaries Elly Jackson of La Roux, VV Brown, and Shirley Manson declaring their love for Del Rey (“We have a lovely new star in the universe,” the Garbage frontwoman posted on Facebook), I suggest everyone put aside petty squabbling about authenticity and focus on the music. After all, Lady Gaga was once Stefani Germanotta, performing on the Lower East Side like Del Rey did, before later adopting a new stage name, image, and going pop.

And as Del Rey adroitly points out in a new GQ profile, “It’s 2011, it’s not like I planned on erasing my history.”

Purchase Lana Del Rey – Video Games EP via iTunes

Penguin Prison (aka Chris Glover), whose own highly anticipated debut finally arrives in the U.S. next week, has remixed “Blue Jeans.” While the original version has an certain “Wicked Game” feel to it, Penguin Prison’s dancefloor re-do conjures up Fleetwood Mac, with Del Rey sounding even more like Stevie Nicks on the verses. Grab a free download here.