Written by Del Rey, Rick Nowels, and Kieron Menzies, it was released as the lead single from the album on August 10, 2015 Preceded by a premature online leak.

[10] El Hunt of DIY writes, "The chorus is oddly paced, half a leg behind [the production] like it's just quaffed a glass of white wine and a sedative".

[26] According to Patrick Hosken of MTV News, Del Rey's vocals in the song are "patented distant" and sound "like she recorded them via a tin can tied to a shoe lace".

[4] Erin Jensen of USA Today viewed it as a "bitter breakup ballad",[27] while Hosken suggested that the song "could just represent a rough patch in an overall dramatic but very intense relationship".

[34] The cover art is pastel in color and features Del Rey in a silk dress standing atop a dock next to a miniature model sailboat.

[35] Emily Manning of Vice deemed the cover art "nautically nostalgic" and wrote, "It's something of a departure from the singer's previously dark aesthetic, which has served as ample inspiration for online movements of sad girls and Tumblr goths".

Jason Lipshutz of Billboard deemed it "perhaps the most radio-friendly song of [Del Rey's] entire career", and praised the "gloriously whiny bounce" of its chorus and "sparkling Lana wisdom" in its lyrics.

[10] Cinquemani also complimented Del Rey's "crisp" vocal and the track's "hypnotic" synth line, and quipped, "lazy, revenge- and smoke-filled summer days never sounded so sweet".

[4] Writing in Time, Nolan Feeney said that "High by the Beach" was Del Rey's "poppiest song in a while" and highlighted its "skittering beat and dizzying hook".

[41] Feeney's view was echoed by Constant Gardner of Pigeons & Planes who felt "High by the Beach" was "a pop song surely destined for radio play".

[13] Stereogum's Peter Helman found "High by the Beach" to be "positively fun" and "probably the straight-up catchiest thing she's done in a while", complimenting its "sultry keys" and the "refreshing independence" of its lyrics.

[16] Rory Cashin of State also felt the song was "far more commercially minded" and added, "if it wasn't for that title and the heavy drug references, we'd imagine this would fit quite snuggly on the charts and radio rotation".

[12] Similarly, HitFix's Marcus Ezra stated that the track proved that Del Rey "knows how to do summer right", and praised its drum instrumentation which he felt lent the song "a harder edge".

[7] Mapes also commended the track's "several anthemic lines" and felt that despite it "reaching peak Sad Girl nihilism", it worked as "a chilled-out trap-pop single you can blast as a comedown from 'Bitch Better Have My Money'".

[46] Due to an error in calculation by Nielsen, "High by the Beach" was originally reported to have debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 7 with 248,000 copies sold.

The video begins with Del Rey wearing a low-cut white sundress over a black bra and a sea glass blue robe entering a beach house as a helicopter hovers above her.

In the aftermath of the explosion, flaming pieces of tabloid articles flutter through the air as Del Rey lowers the rocket launcher and re-enters the beach house.