After the release of the EP Kill Kill (2008) and her debut studio album Lana Del Ray (2010) via 5 Points Records, an independent label, the EP was released in anticipation of Del Rey's major-label debut album Born to Die (2012).

[7] The third track, "Blue Jeans", was influenced by hip hop and has a minimalist beat that recalls songs by Timbaland.

[3] "Off to the Races" has been lyrically described as "a freak show of inappropriate co-dependency",[8] with a chorus that recalls Sheryl Crow's "down and out drunken loner persona" in her 1994 single "Leaving Las Vegas".

Instead the psychosexual rumblings of the lyrics and the dual voices she uses off set the comparatively simple musical shades on display.

"[8] John Bush of AllMusic considered the singer a femme fatale "with a smoky voice, a languorous image, and a modeling contract".