Paper Gods

Last updated

Paper Gods
Duran duran paper gods album artwork.png
Standard and deluxe edition cover [lower-alpha 1]
Studio album by
Duran Duran
Released11 September 2015
Studio
Genre
Length57:21
Label Warner Bros.
Producer
Duran Duran chronology
A Diamond in the Mind: Live 2011
(2012)		Paper Gods
(2015)		 Future Past
(2021)
Singles from Paper Gods
  1. "Pressure Off"
    Released: 19 June 2015
  2. "Last Night in the City"
    Released: 10 March 2017 [1]
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 64/100 [2]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [3]
Billboard Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Consequence of Sound B− [5]
Drowned in Sound 5/10 [6]
Entertainment Weekly B− [7]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Magnet Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [9]
PopMatters 8/10 [10]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [11]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [12]

Paper Gods is the fourteenth studio album by the English pop rock band Duran Duran, released on 11 September 2015 by Warner Bros. Records. The album was produced by Mr Hudson and Joshua Blair, who had worked with the band on All You Need Is Now (2010) and A Diamond in the Mind: Live 2011 (2012); Nile Rodgers, who had previously first worked on the band's "The Reflex", his remixed version reaching number one, "The Wild Boys" single and Notorious album; and Mark Ronson, who produced All You Need Is Now. The first single, "Pressure Off", features vocals from American singer Janelle Monáe. [13] The album was supported by the Paper Gods on Tour.

Contents

Release

The album cover, designed by artist Alex Israel, consists of his 2013 painting titled "Sky Backdrop" [14] that features icons that represent the band's history. This includes lips and the eye painted by artist Patrick Nagel for their Rio album; [15] also representing the Rio album is a chauffeur's cap alluding to that record's closing track "The Chauffeur"; a pink telephone, champagne glass and the saxophone representing the single "Rio"; a sumo wrestler representing their controversial video for "Girls on Film"; Duran Duran's teeth are shown to be from "The Wild Boys"; the Eiffel Tower is a reference to the title song from the film A View to a Kill ; a rocket from the greatest hits album, Decade ; a silhouette of a female representing the single "Skin Trade"; [16] an image of a tiger and a snake nodding to their third album Seven and the Ragged Tiger ; a white shoe from the single cover and the music video of "Come Undone"; a stylized ice cream cone taken from their "Perfect Day" single. [13] [17] The deluxe physical copy of the record comes with sixteen stickers of Duran Duran iconography to mirror the album cover. [18]

Promotion

The band announced a tour of the United States and the United Kingdom to coincide with the album's release. [19]

The lead single from the album, "Pressure Off", was released in the United States on 19 June, first via Microsoft's Xbox Music. [20] The song subsequently appeared on Google Music. [21]

Commercial performance and critical reception

The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number five, becoming the band's ninth top-five album overall and making them one of only a handful of bands who have scored top-five albums in four consecutive decades. In the United States, it entered the Billboard 200 at number 10 and became their first top-10 album since Duran Duran (1993). In its second week, the album fell to number 76, and in its third and final week fell to number 194, though it re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 45 in January 2016. In Italy, the album peaked at number two.

Paper Gods was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 64, based on 14 reviews.

Track listing

All tracks are written by John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Nick Rhodes and Simon Le Bon, with additional writers noted

Standard edition [22]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Paper Gods" (featuring Mr Hudson)Mr Hudson
7:04
2."Last Night in the City" (featuring Kiesza)
  • Kiesza
  • Hudson
  • Duran Duran
  • Hudson
  • Josh Blair
4:44
3."You Kill Me with Silence"Mr Hudson
  • Duran Duran
  • Hudson
4:26
4."Pressure Off" (featuring Janelle Monáe and Nile Rodgers)
  • Duran Duran
  • Ronson
  • Rodgers
  • Hudson
  • Blair [a]
4:21
5."Face for Today" Dom Brown
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
3:52
6."Danceophobia"
  • Brown
  • Hudson
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
  • Hudson [b]
4:14
7."What Are the Chances?"
  • Brown
  • Hudson
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
  • Hudson [b]
4:55
8."Sunset Garage"Hudson
  • Duran Duran
  • Hudson
  • Blair
4:43
9."Change the Skyline" (featuring Jonas Bjerre)Hudson
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
  • Rodgers [b]
3:57
10."Butterfly Girl"Brown
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
3:15
11."Only in Dreams"
  • Rodgers
  • Ronson
  • Hudson
  • Duran Duran
  • Rodgers
  • Ronson
  • Hudson [b]
  • Blair [b]
6:05
12."The Universe Alone" 
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
5:48
Total length:57:40
Deluxe edition (bonus tracks) [23]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
13."Planet Roaring"Brown
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
3:49
14."Valentine Stones" 
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
3:30
15."Northern Lights" 
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
5:13
Total length:69:54
Target-exclusive edition (bonus tracks) [24]
No.TitleProducer(s)Length
13."On Evil Beach"
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
2:48
14."Cinderella Ride"
  • Duran Duran
  • Blair
3:56
Total length:63:05

Notes

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of the deluxe edition of Paper Gods. [25]

Duran Duran

Additional musicians

Technical

Artwork

Charts

Notes

  1. ↑ On the Target-exclusive edition, the shades of blue in the background are replaced with additional shades of pink.
  2. 1 2 Additional recording

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