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

Standard version[10]
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Paper Gods" (featuring Mr Hudson)	John Taylor Roger Taylor Nick Rhodes Simon Le Bon Mr Hudson	Duran Duran Mr Hudson	7:04
2.	"Last Night in the City" (featuring Kiesza)	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Kiesza Mr Hudson	Duran Duran Mr Hudson Josh Blair	4:44
3.	"You Kill Me with Silence"	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Mr Hudson	Duran Duran Mr Hudson	4:26
4.	"Pressure Off" (featuring Janelle Monáe and Nile Rodgers)	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Nile Rodgers Mark Ronson Mr Hudson Janelle Monáe	Duran Duran Ronson Rodgers Mr Hudson Blair^[a]	4:21
5.	"Face for Today"	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Dom Brown	Duran Duran Blair	3:52
6.	"Danceophobia" (featuring Lindsay Lohan)	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Brown Mr Hudson	Duran Duran Blair Mr Hudson^[b]	4:14
7.	"What Are the Chances?" (featuring John Frusciante)	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Brown Mr Hudson	Duran Duran Blair Mr Hudson^[b]	4:55
8.	"Sunset Garage" (featuring Hollie Cook)	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Mr Hudson	Duran Duran Mr Hudson Blair	4:43
9.	"Change the Skyline" (featuring Jonas Bjerre)	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Mr Hudson	Duran Duran Blair Rodgers^[b]	3:57
10.	"Butterfly Girl"	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Brown	Duran Duran Blair	3:15
11.	"Only in Dreams"	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon Rodgers Ronson Mr Hudson	Duran Duran Rodgers Ronson Mr Hudson^[b] Blair^[b]	6:05
12.	"The Universe Alone"	J. Taylor R. Taylor Rhodes Le Bon	Duran Duran Blair	5:48

Deluxe version (bonus tracks)[11]
No.	Title	Length
13.	"Planet Roaring"	3:49
14.	"Valentine Stones"	3:30
15.	"Northern Lights"	5:13
Total length:		69:54

Target Exclusive Edition (bonus tracks)[12]
No.	Title	Length
13.	"On Evil Beach"	2:48
14.	"Cinderella Ride"	3:56
Total length:		63:05

Notes

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

Personnel

Duran Duran[1] Simon Le Bon – lead vocals Nick Rhodes – keyboards John Taylor – bass guitar Roger Taylor – drums Technical personnel[1] Nile Rodgers – production Mark Ronson – production Mr Hudson – production Josh Blair – production Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing

Additional musicians[1][10] Dom Brown – guitar (track 10, deluxe edition 15) Anna Ross – additional vocals (track 10, deluxe edition 13) Mr Hudson – vocals (track 1) Kiesza – vocals (track 2) Janelle Monáe – vocals (track 4) Nile Rodgers – guitar, backing vocals (track 4) Lindsay Lohan – vocals (track 6) Hollie Cook – vocals (track 8) Jonas Bjerre – vocals (track 9) John Frusciante – guitar (tracks 7, 10, 12, 15) Steve Jones – guitar (track 13) Davidé Rossi – violin & strings arr. (track 4, 5, 7, 12) London Youth Choir – voices (track 12)

Charts

Chart (2015)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[13]	19
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[14]	24
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[15]	19
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[16]	8
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[17]	5
Croatian Foreign Albums (IFPI) [18]	7
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)[19]	14
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[20]	27
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[21]	4
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[22]	28
French Albums (SNEP)[23]	60
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[24]	24
Greek Albums (IFPI) [25]	14
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[26]	6
Irish Albums (IRMA)[27]	27
Italian Albums (FIMI)[28]	2
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[29]	24
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[30]	16
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [31]	18
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[32]	15
UK Albums (OCC)[33]	5
US Billboard 200[34]	10
US Digital Albums (Billboard)[35]	10
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[36]	2
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[37]	8

References

1. "Duran Duran Announce Title & Release Date of Upcoming New Album". DuranDuran.com. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
2. "Alex Israel - Sky Backdrop". Artsy.net. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
3. "Duran Duran - Rio at Discogs". Discogs. Discogs. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
4. "Duran Duran - Skin Trade". Duran Duran. DuranDuran.com. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
5. "Duran Duran - Perfect Day at Discogs". Discogs. Discogs. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
6. "Duran Duran - Paper Gods Deluxe Fan Edition CD". Warner Music Store. Warner Bros. Records. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
7. "Duran Duran US & UK Tour Pre-Sale/On Sale Information!". DuranDuran.com. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
8. "Duran Duran - Pressure Off at Xbox Music". Xbox Music. Microsoft. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
9. "Duran Duran: Pressure Off". Google Music. Google. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
10. "Duran Duran: Paper Gods". Google Play. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
11. "Duran Duran: Paper Gods (Deluxe Edition)". Google Play. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
12. "Duran Duran: Paper Gods (Target Exclusive)".
13. "Australiancharts.com – Duran Duran – Paper Gods". Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
14. "Ö3 Austria Top40: Longplay-Charts". orf.at.
15. "Ultratop.be – Duran Duran – Paper Gods" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
16. "Ultratop.be – Duran Duran – Paper Gods" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
17. "Duran Duran – Chart history" Billboard Canadian Albums Chart for Duran Duran.
18. Ideoskop doo. "Top of the Shops - službena tjedna lista prodanih albuma u Hrvatskoj". hdu-toplista.com.
19. "ČNS IFPI". ifpicr.cz.
20. "Danishcharts.com – Duran Duran – Paper Gods". Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
21. "Dutchcharts.nl – Duran Duran – Paper Gods" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
22. "Duran Duran: Paper Gods" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
23. "Lescharts.com – Duran Duran – Paper Gods". Hung Medien. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
24. "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
25. "IFPI Charts". ifpi.gr.
26. "Top 40 album DVD és válogatáslemez-lista – 2015. 39. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
27. "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 38, 2015". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
28. "Italiancharts.com – Duran Duran – Paper Gods". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
29. "Charts.org.nz – Duran Duran – Paper Gods". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
30. "Portuguesecharts.com – Duran Duran – Paper Gods". Hung Medien. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
31. "Promusicae - Productores de Música de España". promusicae.es.
32. "Swisscharts.com – Duran Duran – Paper Gods". Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
33. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
34. "Duran Duran – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Duran Duran.
35. "Duran Duran – Chart history" Billboard Digital Albums for Duran Duran.
36. "Duran Duran – Chart history" Billboard Top Alternative Albums for Duran Duran.
37. "Duran Duran – Chart history" Billboard Top Tastemaker Albums for Duran Duran.