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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 as both a stand-alone EP, as well as a part of the re-release with her first album, Born to Die, entitled Born to Die - The Paradise Edition.
Background
After the release of her first major-label debut, Born to Die, and it's worldwide success, Lana 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 a song recorded for the album, titled "Will You Still Love Me", and also mentioned the song title of "Gods & Monsters." Later that month, on June 24, Lana performed "Body Electric" for the first time and announced that it would appear on her next release.
On July 25, 2012, Lana announced her intentions to delay her second LP, and instead re-release Born to Die as a "Paradise Edition".
Recording
For the EP, Lana worked with only three producers; Justin Parker, Rick Knowels, & 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, Lana 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, Lana 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 Lana herself. The ten-minute video received polarized reviews but quickly garnered views on YouTube.
Lana released a promotional video for the song "Bel Air" on November 8. The video features more excess footage from "Summertime Sadness", similar to the promotional Paradise Edition video.
On November 13, 2012, Lana announced that "Cola" would serve as the EP's second single, but no release date was set and the release was scrapped.
Lana 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.
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 aswell 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 internaqtional release of the album on CD.
| 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 (Bonus track)" | 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".