Paper Gods

Paper Gods
Studio album by Duran Duran
Released	11 September 2015
Studio	London[1]
Genre	New wave pop rock pop
Length	57:21 (standard edition) 63:05 (target exclusive) 69:54 (deluxe edition)
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Mark Ronson Nile Rodgers Mr Hudson Duran Duran Josh Blair
Duran Duran chronology
All You Need Is Now (2011) Paper Gods (2015)
Singles from Paper Gods
"Pressure Off" Released: 19 June 2015

Paper Gods is the fourteenth studio album from British new wave band Duran Duran on Warner Bros. Records. The record was announced on 15 June 2015 via an official press release posted on their website, confirming a scheduled world-wide release date of 11 September 2015. The record was produced by Mr Hudson and Joshua Blair, who has worked with the band on All You Need Is Now (2010) and A Diamond in the Mind; Nile Rodgers, who had previously first worked on the band's "The Reflex", his remixed version reaching number 1, "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.^[1]

Release

The album cover, designed by artist Alex Israel, is his 2013 painting titled, "Sky Backdrop",^[2] that features icons that represent the band's history. This includes lips and the eye painted by artist Patrick Nagel for their Rio album;^[3] 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";^[4] 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.^[1][5] The deluxe physical copy of the record comes with sixteen stickers of Duran Duran iconography to mirror the album cover.^[6]

Promotion

The band announced a tour of the United States and the United Kingdom to coincide with the album's release.^[7]

The lead single from the album, "Pressure Off", was released in the United States on 19 June, first via Microsoft's Xbox Music.^[8] The song subsequently appeared on Google Music.^[9]

Commercial performance

On 3 October 2015, the album entered the Billboard 200 at number 10 and became their first top 10 album since 1993's Duran Duran (1993). In its second week, the album fell to number 76, and in its third and final week fell to number 194. In the UK it hit number 5. In Italy it hit number 2. The album reentered the Billboard 200 at #45 during the week of January 12, 2016 (5 months after its original release date of September 4, 2015).

Track listing

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

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies lead vocal production
• ^{^[b]} signifies an additional producer

Personnel

Charts

References