Paradise (EP)

Released November 9, 2012 (see release history) Recorded 2012 Length 33:07 36:58 (iTunes Bonus Track Edition) 47:36 (Target Edition) Producers DK Emile Haynie Dan Heath Tim Larcombe Rick Nowels Rick Rubin Label EP Discography "Blue Velvet" (promotional single) Released: September 20, 2012 "Ride" Released: September 25, 2012 "Burning Desire" (promotional single) Released: March 19, 2013

Paradise is the third studio EP and second major-label EP released by Lana Del Rey. It was released on November 9, 2012 by Universal Music Group. The EP is additionally packaged with the reissue of her first major-label studio album Born to Die (2012), titled Born to Die - The Paradise Edition.

Background

After the release of her first major-label debut, Born to Die, and its worldwide success, Del Rey returned to the studio to record new material. During an interview on June 15, 2012, Del Rey said she had begun work on a second album. She sang a snippet of "Young and Beautiful", then titled "Will You Still Love Me", and also mentioned the song title of "In the Land of Gods & Monsters". Although "Young and Beautiful" was intended to be released on Paradise, it was scrapped and was later used for The Great Gatsby soundtrack. Also in June 2012, Del Rey performed "Body Electric" live for the first time and stated that it would be released on her next album.

On July 25, 2012, Del Rey announced her intentions to delay her second LP, and instead re-release Born to Die as a "Paradise Edition". In the days leading up to the release, Del Rey released four fan made teaser images of songs from Paradise via twitter. These images included "American", "Body Electric", "Blue Velvet", and "Gods & Monsters".

Recording

For the EP, Del Rey worked with three main producers; Justin Parker, Rick Nowels, & Rick Rubin, all of whom had previously worked with her on Born to Die. Recording presumably began soon after the release of Born to Die and concluded in September, 2012.

Promotion

To promote the album, Del Rey began work with fashion brand, H&M. Her cover of the song "Blue Velvet", which would later appear on the EP, was used in commercials for the company, and a music video was also recorded for the song. It was released as a promotional single on September 20, 2012.

Lana Del Rey - THE PARADISE EDITION

On September 24, 2012, Del Rey unveiled the official release date, tracklist, cover artwork for Paradise, the album became available for pre-order, and ”Burning Desire" was released exclusively to those who had pre-ordered Born to Die - The Paradise Edition. Simultaneously, Del Rey premiered a video entitled "THE PARADISE EDITION" featuring snippets of all the songs from the EP, the video also included excess footage from the filming of "Summertime Sadness". The official upload of the video has since been privatized, but you can still view re-uploads that have been published online. The next day, "Ride" was released as the lead single from the EP.

On October 10, 2012, the video for "Ride", directed by Anthony Mandler, was premiered at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, California, by Del Rey herself. The ten-minute video received polarized reviews but quickly garnered views on YouTube. Del Rey released a promotional video for the song "Bel Air" on November 8. The video featured more outtake footage from "Summertime Sadness", similar to the Paradise Edition sampler video. On November 13, 2012, Del Rey announced that "Cola" would serve as the EP's second single, but no release date was set and the release was eventually scrapped.

Del Rey became a spokesperson for Jaguar in late 2012. It was announced that "Burning Desire" would serve as the company's official promotional song for its new automobile, the F-Type. A music video for the song was released on February 14, 2013, and it was later released on March 19, 2013, as the EP's second promotional single.

Artwork

The cover art for Paradise was shot by Nicole Nodland on the set of the "Blue Jeans" music video shoot. The shot features Del Rey standing in front pool in a white swimsuit. The composition of the cover is reminiscent to that of Born to Die, featuring identical font and font positioning, however it features metallic gold lettering instead of matte colors. The cover for The Paradise Edition is similar, using the same photograph but with different text. On physical copies of the deluxe boxset, the metalic gold lettering is replaced with actual gold foil.

Paradise (EP) artwork

Born to Die - The Paradise Edition artwork

Retouched artwork without lettering

Unretouched artwork without lettering

Paradise (EP) Artwork with Parental Advisory

Born To Die - The Paradise Edition Artwork with Parental Advisory

Paradise tracklist

Born to Die - The Paradise Edition tracklist

Paradise CD

Born to Die CD

Singles

On September 19, the first promotional single, "Blue Velvet", from the EP was released with a music video promoting H&M.

"Ride" was announced as the lead single from the EP on September 13, 2012 and was released on September 25. The music video, directed by Anthony Mandler, was released online on October 12, being premiered 2 days before in Santa Monica's Aero Theatre.

On November 14, 2012, "Cola" was unveiled as the second single from the EP, although it was never released.

A music video for "Burning Desire" was released on February 14, 2013 and was released as the final promotional single on March 19 with a cross promotion in Jaguar.

"Blue Velvet"

"Ride"

"Burning Desire"

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(64/100)
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
American Songwriter
Drowned in Sound	8/10
PopMatters	7/10
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine
Sputnikmusic	3.5/5
Tiny Mix Tapes

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the EP has received an average score of 64, based on 9 reviews indicating "generally favorable reviews". Gil Kaufman of MTV wrote that "[the reissue] is as mellow and languorous... as she was on her debut." On the snippet video, he said, "...the new songs gives a peek at the gangster Nancy Sinatra's ongoing fascination with a sleepy, seductive sound and lyrics that mix old-fashion girl group obsession with sometimes profane, shocking new-school swagger." Stuff said the song titles were predictably pokerfaced. "Ride" received widely positive reviews, with the only qualms circling around the unrealistic cover art and coy song title. Of the cover art, Jessica Sager of PopCrush said it's unclear how the tire swing is suspended, with no visible trees nearby. Sager highlighted rumors circulating the internet about the music video for the single being recorded in Valley of Fire in Clark County, Nevada. Contactmusic.com noticed the track adheres to Del Rey's trademark sound, stating that the notion of her even having a trademark after one commercially successful album indicates that "we haven't seen the last of her just yet". Of the production itself, it was said that "Ride" is more accomplished than Del Rey's previous endeavors, with the strengths of the track outshining the flaws. The reviewer concluded by saying, "All that doe-eyed "you can be my full-time daddy / baby" shtick is going to start getting a little tired pretty soon, though, we reckon."

Commercial performance

Paradise debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200, selling 67,000 copies in its first week. It has since sold over 383,000 copies in the US as of April 2014. It peaked number 19 in Australia and New Zealand. Paradise peaked number 10 in Canada, and 4, 4, and 5 in US Top Rock Albums, Alternative Albums and Tastemaker Albums respectively.

Track list and release history

There were three versions of the album available: the stand-alone Paradise EP including the 8 new tracks; the deluxe Born to Die - The Paradise Edition album including the 8 new tracks from Paradise and the original Born to Die 15 track deluxe version album; and also the deluxe boxset of Born to Die - The Paradise Edition. The stand-alone EP as well as the deluxe edition were both released on 12" vinyl in the United States.

"Burning Desire" was released as a bonus track on Paradise in the iTunes store as well as on the international release of the album on CD.

Paradise

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Ride"	Lana Del Rey, Justin Parker	Rick Rubin	4:49
2.	"American"	Del Rey, Rick Nowels, Emile Haynie	Nowels, Haynie	4:08
3.	"Cola"	Del Rey, Nowels	Nowels, DK	4:20
4.	"Body Electric"	Del Rey, Nowels	Nowels, Dan Heath	3:53
5.	"Blue Velvet"	Lee Morris, Bernie Wayne	Haynie	2:38
6.	"Gods & Monsters"	Del Rey, Tim Larcombe	Larcombe, Haynie	3:57
7.	"Yayo"	Del Rey	Heath, Haynie	5:21
8.	"Bel Air"	Del Rey, Heath	Heath	3:57
Total length:				33:07

iTunes Store bonus track
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
9.	"Burning Desire"	Del Rey, Parker	Haynie	3:51
Total length:				36:58

Special edition bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
9.	"Blue Velvet" (Penguin Prison Remix)	Morris, Wayne	Haynie, Penguin Prison	5:03
10.	"Blue Velvet" (Lindstrøm Remix)	Morris, Wayne	Haynie, Lindstrøm	9:36
Total length:				47:46

Born to Die - The Paradise Edition

Disc 1 - Born to Die

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Born to Die"	4:46
2.	"Off to the Races"	4:59
3.	"Blue Jeans"	3:30
4.	"Video Games"	4:42
5.	"Diet Mountain Dew"	3:43
6.	"National Anthem"	3:51
7.	"Dark Paradise"	4:03
8.	"Radio"	3:35
9.	"Carmen"	4:09
10.	"Million Dollar Man"	3:52
11.	"Summertime Sadness"	4:25
12.	"This is What Makes Us Girls"	3:58
13.	"Without You"	3:49
14.	"Lolita"	3:40
15.	"Lucky Ones"	3:47

Disc 2 - Paradise

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Ride"	4:49
2.	"American"	4:08
3.	"Cola"	4:20
4.	"Body Electric"	3:53
5.	"Blue Velvet"	2:38
6.	"Gods & Monsters"	3:57
7.	"Yayo"	5:21
8.	"Bel Air"	3:57
9.	"Burning Desire"	3:51

Born to Die - The Paradise Edition Deluxe Box Set

The deluxe box set entitled Born to Die - The Paradise Edition is a limited edition release of Born to Die and Paradise. The cover of the set features embossed gold text, and the set includes a 2CD digipack including Born to Die and Paradise with pictures of the Bird of Paradise flower and a sunset on the respective sleeves, a remix CD in a blue and yellow cardsleeve featuring remixes of all the singles, a DVD containing music videos in a blue and yellow cardsleeve, a 7" picture disc vinyl of "Blue Velvet" backed by a remix by Penguin Prison, and four card prints featuring the original un-tagged single covers of "Video Games", "Blue Jeans", "Born to Die", and "National Anthem".

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Paradise.

Performance credits

• Lana Del Rey – vocals (all tracks); backing vocals (track 7)

Instruments

• James Gadson – drums (track 1)
• Emile Haynie – drums (track 2, 7); additional keyboard (track 7)
• Dan Heath – percussion (track 4); horns (track 6); keyboard (track 7); strings (tracks 7, 8); piano (track 8)
• Devrim Karaoglu – drums (track 3)
• Jason Lader – bass guitar (track 1)
• Tim Larcombe – keyboards, guitar, drums (track 6)
• The Larry Gold Orchestra – strings (track 5)
• Songa Lee – violin (tracks 1, 8)
• Kieron Menzies – drum programming (track 3)
• Rick Nowels – synthesizer (track 2); keyboard (tracks 2, 3); bass guitar, acoustic guitar, drums (track 3); piano, mellotron, strings (track 4)
• Tim Pierce – electric guitar (track 2); slide guitar (tracks 3, 4)
• Zac Rae – piano, keyboard (track 1)
• Kathleen Sloan – violin (tracks 1, 8)
• Patrick Warren – electric guitar, synthesizer, piano (tracks 2, 3, 4); strings, glockenspiel, brass (track 3); organ (tracks 3, 4); dulcitone, bells, optigon, mellotron (track 4)

Technical and production

• Graham Archer – vocal engineering (track 7)
• Ben Baptie – mixing assistant (track 5)
• Spencer Burgess Jr. – recording assistant (track 5)
• Nikki Calvert – engineering (track 8)
• Jeremy Cochise Ball – mixing (track 7)
• John Davis – mastering (tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
• DK – co-production (track 3)
• Tom Elmhirst – mixing (track 5)
• Chris Garcia – additional recording (tracks 2, 3); recording (track 4)
• Larry Gold – string arrangements (track 5)
• Emile Haynie – co-production (track 2); production (tracks 5, 7); additional production (track 6)
• Dan Heath – string arrangements (tracks 1, 6); orchestral arrangements (tracks 2, 4); production (tracks 4, 7, 8); engineering (track 8)
• Jason Lader – recording (track 1)
• Tim Larcombe – production (track 6)
• Eric Lynn – recording assistant (track 1)
• Kieron Menzies – recording, mixing (tracks 2, 3, 4)
• Rick Nowels – production (tracks 2, 3, 4)
• Sean Oakley – recording assistant (track 1)
• Robert Orton – mixing (track 6)
• Tucker Robinson – string recording (track 1); engineering (track 8)
• Jeff Rothschild – mixing (track 8)
• Rick Rubin – production (track 1)
• Andrew Scheps – mixing (track 1)
• Peter Stanislaus – mixing (track 8)
• Jordan Stilwell – additional recording (tracks 2, 3)

Digital booklet

Paradise

• Front cover

1/5

Born to Die - The Paradise Edition

• Front cover

1/11

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2012-2013) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA) 19 Canadian Albums (Billboard) 10 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) 19 US (Billboard 200) 10 US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard) 4 US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) 4 US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard) 5

Year-end charts Chart (2013) Position US (Billboard 200) 115

External links

• Buy Paradise on iTunes.
• Buy Paradise on Google Play.
• Buy Paradise on Amazon.
• Stream Paradise on Spotify.