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Paradise is the second major-label EP released by Lana Del Rey, and her third EP overall. It was released on November 9, 2012 by Universal Music. 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. She announced on June 15, 2012, that she had begun work on a second album. She sang a snippet of "Young & Beautiful", then titled "Will You Still Love Me", and also mentioned the song title of "In the Land of Gods & Monsters". Later that month, on June 24, Del Rey performed "Body Electric" for the first time and announced 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 only three 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.
On September 25, 2012, "Burning Desire" was released exclusively to those who had pre-ordered Born to Die - The Paradise Edition. The next day, "Ride" was released as the lead single from the EP. Simultaneously, Del Rey premiered a video entitled "THE PARADISE EDITION" featuring snippets of all the songs from the album, the video also included excess footage from the filming of "Summertime Sadness".
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 it's 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
Del Rey revealed the artwork for The Paradise Edition via twitter on September 24, 2012, alongside a teaser video on YouTube. 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.
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 first 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 Valentine's Day in 2013 and was released as the final promotional single on March 19 with a cross promotion in Jaguar.
Critical reception
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 reception
Paradise debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200, selling 67,000 copies in its first week.[1] It has since sold over 383,000 copies in the US.[2] It peaked number 19 in Australia and New Zealand.[3] Paradise peaked number 10 in Canada,[4] and 4, 4, and 5 in US Top Rock Albums,[5] Alternative Albums[6] and Tastemaker Albums[7] 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[8] | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 9. | "Burning Desire" | Del Rey, Parker | Haynie | 3:51 | ||||||
Total length: |
36:58 | |||||||||
| Special edition bonus tracks[9] | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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".
Digital Booklet
Credits
- Vocals — Lana Del Rey
- Mastering — John Davis at Metropolis Mastering, London
- Cover Photography — Nicole Nodland
- ℗ & © 2012 Lana Del Rey — under exclusive licesne to Polydor (UK), under exclusive license to Interscope Records in the USA.
- www.lanadelrey.com
Thank you to my devoted managers Ben Mawson and Ed Millett. And to A.G.
References
- ↑ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lana-del-rey-debuts-at-10-on-billboard-200-with-paradise-ep-interscopepolydor-180400941.html
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6062527/lana-del-reys-west-coast-set-for-strong-hot-100-debut
- ↑ http://www.australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Lana+Del+Rey&titel=Paradise&cat=a
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/306420/Lana+Del+Rey/chart?f=309
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/306420/Lana+Del+Rey/chart?f=408
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/306420/Lana+Del+Rey/chart?f=794
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/306420/Lana+Del+Rey/chart?f=407
- ↑ "Paradise by Lana Del Rey". iTunes. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/paradise/id566465601.
- ↑ "Lana Del Rey: Paradise: Extra Tracks". Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Lana-Del-Rey-Paradise/dp/B00A6RP8Z4.
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