"Tropico" (Scrapped) Album Recording/Writing Timeline and Creative Process Discussion

[Ethel Cain]

Hi! I wanted to make a thread where people could discuss and maybe share info about the Tropico album, because it really interests me and I'm sure some of you feel the same way! 

 

What we know:

- It was recorded during late 2012-2013 but was eventually scrapped and turned into "Ultraviolence".

- Lana announced that the short film would use three tracks from "Paradise" instead of songs from her then scrapped album in July of 2013.

- "Elvis", the laptop demo from 2008 was possibly considered for inclusion on the album, but was probably never re-recorded.

- The concept "Ultraviolence" was born and "Tropico" was scrapped sometime after October 23, 2013, since Pink Champagne is confirmed to be on Tropico's tracklist, and it is the latest known recording date we know of for any of the songs on Tropico.

 

"Tropico" track list (that we know of):

 

1. Old Money (Drums Demo)

2. Black Beauty (Demo)

3. Guns n Roses (Demo)

4. Lake Placid

5. Summertime (Janis Joplin cover)

6. Melancholia ("Ultraviolence" Demo)

7. Jesus (I Talk To Jesus)

8. Pink Champagne ("Let Me Love You Like A Woman" Demo)

9. Elvis

10. Earthquakes (Final Version)

11. Illegible

12. Illegible (Money & Power?, Fake Rolex?, Axl Rose?)

13. Illegible (Preacher?)

 

Picture of Lana's notebook with the alleged track list during January of 2013:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Other songs (and their recording dates) that were recorded during the Tropico sessions, in other words: songs that were recorded after "Paradise" but before the concept of "Ultraviolence" existed

 

(* = unsure)

 

- 80s Baby (Nov 15, 2012)

- Sweetheart (Nov 15, 2012)

- The Devil (Dec 7, 2012)

- He Hits Me Because He Loves Me (Dec 7, 2012)

- Nectar Of The Gods (May 5, 2013)

- Cherry Blossom (May 5, 2013)

- Angels Forever, Forever Angels (June, 2013)

- Unidentified Flying Bill (June, 2013)

- Madly (Oct 1, 2013)

- Ave Maria

- Cult Leader*

 

Lmk what I should add!

 

[The Siren]

Madly would probably have been for ultraviolence since you said that it's likely that the Tropico albumwas scrapped July 2013 if madly was recorded later that October

[Ethel Cain]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:10 AM, The Siren said:

Madly would probably have been for ultraviolence since you said that it's likely that the Tropico albumwas scrapped July 2013 if madly was recorded later that October

Expand  

I wasn't going to put it there at first but Pink Champagne was recorded after Madly, on October 23, so i'm assuming  she scrapped Tropico and started working on Ultraviolence at least after Oct 23 2013

[Dark Angel]

i'm pretty sure the last title on that notebook list was said to be "preacher"

[lanaismamom]

well I actually wrote a whole paragraph about timeline based oneverything we know from insider and from lana, but we dont have Jamie xx versions of the songs yet and im pretty sure they arent the one that were intended to be on tropico, and Dan auerbach demo isnt the one that was supposed to be on tropico

this is what I could come up with

  Reveal hidden contents

Lana's Creative Process 2012-2014. - "Tropico." "Ultraviolence."
 

From from the end of 2012 Lana starts recording new tracks in the form of voice memos and raw demos, and this is the time when Lana first started using the "Tropico" tag when saving audio. Such tracks are:

- "Sweetheart" (laptop a cappella; recording date: Nov. 15, 2012);
- "80's Baby" (laptop a cappella; recording date: November 16, 2012);
- "Melancholia" (laptop demo; recording date: November 22, 2012; this track would later become the basis for the demo for the song "Ultraviolence");
- "He Hits Me Because He Loves Me" (laptops a cappella; recording date: December 7, 2012);
- "The Devil" (a cappella laptops; recording date: December 7, 2012);
- "Connection" (laptop a cappella; recording date: December 14, 2012; some lyrics were later reworked into the track "Nectar of the Gods");
- "I Talk to Jesus" (2012 Version; recorded in late 2012; later reworked in 2014);
- "Mike" ("Wild One"; recorded in late 2012);
- "Money & Power" ("Money Power Glory" Demo 1; recorded in late 2012; demo version remains unleaked, but claims to sound almost identical to the album version);
- "Guns n' Roses" (Demo 1; recorded in late 2012; demo version remains unleaked; track was later released);
- "Old Money" (Demo 1; recorded in late 2012; sounds almost identical to the album version);
- "Earthquakes" (recorded in late 2012; the leaked version is a demo version);
- "Ave Maria" (recorded in late 2012 and early 2013);
- "Lake Placid" (reworked version of "I Don't Wanna Go"; recorded in late 2012/early 2013);
- "Black Beauty" (Demo 1; recording date: January 5, 2013; unleaked);
and several other currently unknown tracks.

The "strongest" demos and tracks that Lana planned to record in the future that existed as voice notes or lyrics only (like the cover of "Summertime," to be recorded on February 26, 2013, or "Pink Champagne," whose leaked version was recorded October 23, 2013, but for January Lana probably had some sketches as lyrics or voice notes) were later formed into the very first draft tracklist for the "Tropico" concept album:

1. "Old Money."
2. "Black Beauty."
3. "Guns n' Roses;
4. "Lake Placid";
5. "Summertime."
6. "Melancholia."
7. "Jesus" ("I Talk to Jesus");
8. "Pink Champagne";
9. "Elvis" (a lapdog demo from 2008, Lana was going to re-record the track, but it's unknown if that happened or not);
10. "Earthquakes."
11. unreadable;
12. unreadable (possibly "Money & Power");
13. Unreadable (possibly the previously unknown song "Preacher").

 

We got to know about it after it was caught by the camera during the photo session in the studio on January 27, 2013. This tracklist gives a rough idea of what sound Lana wanted and wanted from the second studio album. All this is confirmed by the words of Lana herself, who in her interview for BBC Newsbeat of February 27, 2013 described the album as "dark and religious".

The idea of developing the sound and visual of "Tropico" continued for the next 4 months, when Lana's sound changed to a more acoustic and minimalistic direction. During this time, she reworked tracks from the "Paradise" era - "JFK" (version remains unleaked), "Hollywood" (version remains unleaked), recorded the first version of "West Coast" in April 2013 (which would later become a radio mix of the song and be released exclusively in Germany), "Cherry Blossom" and "Nectar of the Gods" on 5 May 2013, the first version of "Brooklyn Baby" on 1 June 2013, "If You Lie Down with Me", "Unidentified Flying Bill", "Flipside", a demo of "Black Beauty" by Rick Nowels, "Angels Forever, Forever Angels" (final version remains unleaked) and other unknown songs made with Barrie - in June 2013 and "Living Legend" in July 2013. A Tropico short film was also made in June 2013.

But the events of July 2013 were likely pivotal in the fate of this project when there was a leak of Lana's tracks, which included some demos of the upcoming album and were dubbed the "untouchable five" in the fandom: "Black Beauty" (Demo), "JFK," "Hollywood," "Starry Eyed" and "Angels Forever, Forever Angels." Then, Lana gives an interview in which she says, "Yeah, I feel discouraged. I really don't know what songs to make an album out of now. But I guess I can just put it together from them (the leaked tracks) and see what happens." She added that she was working on a new album "until last week when my records were leaked because my life was totally invaded. But yeah, now I'm writing songs that I really like. They're very minimalistic, understated and laid-back, all West Coast-inspired," and that description matches the songs Lana was working on in the first half of 2013.

 

But as the insider notes, the name "Tropico" was more tied to the visuals than to the music it produced. And yet, after the events of July 2013, the idea of "Tropico" moved into the mini-album "Tropico" and the movie of the same name (which were released on December 6 and 4, 2013 respectively), when work on the tracks was still in progress. Exactly because the visual was ready and the album was not (and she could not drag it out because, according to an insider, there were probably certain papers signed in late 2012 that obliged Lana to release this project within a certain time frame to make the visual happen), Lana decided to use the already released tracks from "Paradise" to accompany this movie (although it was not originally planned - "Paradise" and "Tropico" were different projects that had nothing in common). This point was the point where the idea of "Tropico" became a completely visual part, leaving the name "Tropico" for the film and not for the album, after which Lana continued working on the next album, which would later become "Ultraviolence", and the new visual for it.

The further sound of "Ultraviolence" embodied a mix of early acoustic tracks from late 2012 and early 2013 and a new, darker, harder and more explicit sound that developed in the October/November 2013 sessions, when the following tracks were recorded:

- "Madly" (recording date: October 1, 2013);
- "Pink Champagne" (recording date: October 23, 2013; some lyrics and melody were reworked from the song "Madly");
- "I Can Fly" (first version; recorded November 2013; not leaked);
- "Say Yes to Heaven" (first version recorded in November 2013; not leaked);
- "Fine China" (first version; recorded November 2013; not leaked);
- "Your Girl" (first version; recorded November 2013; not leaked);
- "Shades of Cool" (first version; recorded November 2013; not leaked);
- "Sad Girl" (first version; recorded November 2013; not leaked);
- "Ultraviolence" (Demo; uses instrumental and some lyrics from the track "Melancholia" from 2012);
- "Cult Leader";
- "Dragonslayer";
- "Is This Happiness?" (recorded in November 2013; released);
- "Pretty When You Cry."
*interesting fact: some number of tracks from the first half of 2013 were still intended for "Ultraviolence" after the cancellation of "Tropico" as a separate era. Those tracks were confirmed to be the final version of "Hollywood," which remains unleaked, "Ave Maria," "Flipside" (which was later released digitally as a bonus track on the "Fnac" and as a bonus track on the "Target Edition" discs), reworked versions of "Old Money," "Black Beauty," "Guns and Roses" and "Money Power Glory" that were released, "Unidentified Flying Bill" and maybe some more tracks*.

 

Thus, by December, the record was complete and first announced to the public on December 4, 2013 with a release date in early 2014 during the premiere of the "Tropico" mini-movie.

But a quick change of plans in the form of a chance meeting between Lana and Dan Auerbach in January 2014, which was followed by a rethink of the "Ultraviolence" sound, contributed to the complete cancellation of the already completed album with Rick Knowles (tracklist is unknown) and an almost complete reworking of the sound with Dan Auerbach's team, which took place in 3 weeks at Dan's "Easy Eye Sound" studio in Nashville, Tennessee, in January-February 2014. So, by the end of February, the record was completed. The man on Dan's team who did the song mixes later recounts: "We worked very quickly and tried not to get bogged down in setting up the sounds. Most of the sounds you hear came very quickly. We recorded about 13 songs in 12 days and mixed 7-8 songs that made the album. Then Robert (Robert Orton, did the final mixing of the songs in April 2014) took our mix sessions and finished mixing. Most of the final mixes on the record are our raw mixes with only a few vocal changes." Thus, the sessions with Dan Auerbach include the following tracks:

- "Cruel World";
- "Ultraviolence";
- "Shades of Cool";
- "Brooklyn Baby";
- "West Coast."
- "Sad Girl";
- "Money Power Glory" (Dan Auerbach Version; leaked; released version by Greg Kurstin);
- "Fucked My Way Up to the Top";
- "The Other Woman";
- "Florida Kilos."
- "Pretty When You Cry" (Dan Auerbach Version; not leaked; released version by Blake Stranathan and Lee Foster);
- "Guns and Roses" (Dan Auerbach Version; not leaked; released version by Rick Novels and Lee Foster);
and the thirteenth song is supposed to be "I Talk to Jesus" (Dan Auerbach Version), though this has not been confirmed.

But throughout February-March 2014, Lana continued to send some tracks to other producers:

- "Driving in Cars with Boys" (sent to Paul Epworth for a reworking of the original 2011 song; recording date: February 21, 2014);
- "Fine China" (sent to James Ford in March 2014, but the final tracklist for "Ultraviolence" features Rick Knowells' version from November 2013);
- "I Talk to Jesus" (was reworked in 2014 by Tim Larcombe);
- "Say Yes to Heaven" (sent to James Ford in March 2014; it is unknown whose version appeared on the final Ultraviolence tracklist);
- "Your Girl" (was reworked in 2014 by an unknown producer and it was this version that appeared on the final "Ultraviolence" tracklist).

 

Thus, the final mastering took place on April 30, 2014. It went through all the album tracks of "Ultraviolence", which were released on June 13, 2014, + 2 unreleased tracks - "Your Girl" and "Fine China", which, unfortunately, were removed from the album at the last minute, if not second.

Some interesting facts:
- On January 27, 2013, when the "Tropico" tracklist was captured, the word "Trans-Am" can also be seen on the notebook. It is unknown whether this meant the name of the song, the supposed name of the project or just a random word. Insiders are also unaware of any information about it.
- In December 2013-January 2014. Lana and Emile Haynie, the head producer of the first studio album Born to Die, met for an Ultraviolence session where they recorded the song "Wait for Life." Although the song was recorded during the "Ultraviolence" sessions, it was never intended for that album. Rumor has it that he also did a version of "Fine China" during this session
- The 2012 version of "I Talk to Jesus" is the only known outtake from the "Tropico" mini-album.
- The leaked "untouchable five" were not the result of a hacker attack. These songs were found legally on the producer's website, which ended up there by mistake.
- Back in October 2013, "Brooklyn Baby" was supposed to have a fit with Lou Reed, which didn't happen due to the singer's death on October 27, 2013.
- Some tracks from the "Ultraviolence" sessions were recycled from 2014 to 2017 for further releases, which never happened until October 22, 2021, where four tracks from 2013 - "Living Legend," "Cherry Blossomsom," "Nectar of the Gods" and a recycled version of the track "If You Lie Down with Me" were released on "Blue Banisters". But the tracks "Fine China" and "Wild One" were originally planned.
- During the recording of one unknown song in 2012-2013, Lana expressed concern that people didn't get the point of the "National Anthem" video, even though it was expensive, and feared the same would happen with "Tropico", which could have been one reason it was cancelled.
- The original release date for "Ultraviolence" was May 1, 2014.

 

[Dark Angel]

.

[blackenedrussianpoetry]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:06 AM, Break Me Down said:

Lana announced that the short film would use three tracks from "Paradise" instead of songs from her then scrapped album in July of 2013, which means the album was probably scrapped around that time.

Expand  

But Lanz said she already had a movie in mind that concludes with bel air gods and body electric as early as november 2012

that og bel air mv

[lanaismamom]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:35 AM, blackenedrussianpoetry said:

But Lanz said she already had a movie in mind that concludes with bel air gods and body electric as early as november 2012

that og bel air mv

Expand  

im pretty sure that was a different concepr and tropico and paradise were supposed deffirent project from the start but then she merged them

[Ethel Cain]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:15 AM, Surf Noir said:

i'm pretty sure the last title on that notebook list was said to be "preacher"

Expand  

It looks a lot like that but i dont think anyone has confirmed a song with that title exists

[Dark Angel]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:41 AM, Break Me Down said:

It looks a lot like that but i dont think anyone has confirmed a song with that title exists

Expand  

 

i believe it may have been? @Say Yes to Heaven added the title "preacher" to their "songs we don't have" thread which only really includes songs we know to be legit

 

 

[Ethel Cain]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:19 AM, lanaismamom said:

but we dont have Jamie xx versions of the songs yet and im pretty sure they arent the one that were intended to be on tropico, and Dan auerbach demo isnt the one that was supposed to be on tropico

Expand  

The Old Money Jamie xx Demo leaked a couple months ago

https://krakenfiles.com/view/JRfs7wTty6/file.html

 

As for the Dan Auerbach situation I'm really not sure what other version would be on it considering the only person we know did a demo of G&R is Dan

[MakingOut]

Do you guys think preacher is produced or a voice memo concept demo kinda thing???

[lanaismamom]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:51 AM, Break Me Down said:

The Old Money Jamie xx Demo leaked a couple months ago

https://krakenfiles.com/view/JRfs7wTty6/file.html

 

As for the Dan Auerbach situation I'm really not sure what other version would be on it considering the only person we know did a demo of G&R is Dan

Expand  

yeah but its not Jamie xx version of old money that leaked

and Dan auerbachs demos were made in 2014, long ago after the cancellation of tropico era album

[Ethel Cain]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:52 AM, pehhg said:

Do you guys think preacher is produced or a voice memo concept demo kinda thing???

Expand  

Im guessing it's a voice memo if it does exist, i dont even have anything to go off of though im just guessing lmao. We probably would've heard something about it by now if it was that interesting. Good title potential though

[blackenedrussianpoetry]

@lanaismamomhow do you know brooklyn and if you lie down was from June 1, 2013? Not from August heh

 

also i thought i can fly doesn’t have a demo or sort? Someone here said they just kept on making it better and the final product is the result of that

[lanaismamom]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:55 AM, blackenedrussianpoetry said:

@lanaismamomhow do you know brooklyn and if you lie down was from June 1, 2013? Not from August heh

Expand  

Brooklyn Baby demo was confirmed in one thread and well if you lie down with me was a little speculatiom from me? I Just guess it was done around summer 2013 at the least and guessed it was from june july as they worked pretty much during that

and im also not sure if cult leader and dragonslayer were recorded in october february, but honeymouns once posted a rick nowels UV version supposed tracks where these tracks were, but the rest information are pure facts

[Ethel Cain]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:54 AM, lanaismamom said:

yeah but its not Jamie xx version of old money that leaked

and Dan auerbachs demos were made in 2014, long ago after the cancellation of tropico era album

Expand  

Ok you're right, I was looking at the tracker and it listed the Demo as the Jamie xx version, someone needs to update that.

[blackenedrussianpoetry]

  On 6/14/2023 at 4:58 AM, lanaismamom said:

Brooklyn Baby demo was confirmed in one thread and well if you lie down with me was a little speculatiom from me? I Just guess it was done around summer 2013 at the least and guessed it was from june july as they worked pretty much during that

and im also not sure if cult leader and dragonslayer were recorded in october february, but honeymouns once posted a rick nowels UV version supposed tracks where these tracks were, but the rest information are pure facts

Expand  

Sweet info from u as usual. I might annoy you with bombing these questions towards u

[YourGirl666]

Dgmw, I love the Tropico tracks, but I'm pretty much sure that UV would've always been the superior album either way. Like, it's a much stronger concept and sound direction. I wished she could've found a way to release the songs + the UV outtakes tho, in an EP or something.

[Ethel Cain]

Ok so now im confused again  @lanaismamom if IYLDWM and Brooklyn Baby (Demos) were recorded June-July 2013 does that mean they could've been on a draft of Tropico too?