Duran Duran

Erica Ambler wrote:

Always interesting when bands reinterpret their material and this no-synths set from 1993 is as good as it gets.  

Warren Cuccurullo drilled Duran into a tight unit but a lot of its new-found soul was down to the late Miss Al-Mugheiry. Her solo spot at 4.30 (complete with fine wriggling arse) gets me every time

Warren was THE guitar virtuoso. Hard to believe he's been gone for about 16 years now.

x

Erica Ambler wrote:

I only realised how much Simon hated Warren when Duran didn't invite him back after Andy left for the nineteenth time.

Simon will be 60 in October 2018 and the band will be 40 years old. Not bad at all.

x

I can't believe all the Warren love on here. Fantastic. Usually I'm one of the few fans who is singing the praises of the Warren years. Medazzaland and Pop Trash are supremely underrated and the tours were quite good too. I've only heard recordings of the former but saw a Pop Trash show in person.

For me DD are essentially the most underrated band around. They never do get the credit they deserve as musicians nor for their longevity and influence. That being said I think after the first two albums they lost the initial impetus behind their work and it took many years to get it going again. As a band they do seem to work best when there is a driving force to meld with the other members whether it be Andy or Warren.

Rio is their masterpiece, the S/T is amazing and every other album really has interesting material-even if as a whole it doesn't quite work. But personally Paper Gods was a big letdown and felt both rushed and incomplete. It feels like an even worse Red Carpet Massacre-not to mention that it actually made me go back and start to appreciate things on RCM.
It didn't help that they took so long between albums and mastered the new record so inconceivably loud that it is impossible to enjoy properly. Seriously loud to the point of having songs brick walled to the level of Metallica's Death Magnetic.

The S/T and Rio are sonic gems. The original UK and Japanese LPs for their early days are musts and I regularly use them as sonic demos for my own sound system-particularly all the UK 12" 45rpm singles. I'm still collecting as many as I can find and lament that AVTAK never got one.

For me in order of relative preference:
Rio, S/T with To the Shore!!, Notorious, Astronaut, Medazzaland, Pop Trash, AYNIN, S&TRT, Big Thing, Liberty, Thank You, RCM, Arena, Paper Gods.

And of course I love both Power Station and Arcadia.

boot, you left out 1993's The Wedding Album with the band's iconic 90s hits.

Simon has an awesome solo....

Doh! I knew I was forgetting one somewhere. It would likely go right in the middle for me.

hegottheboot wrote:

Doh! I knew I was forgetting one somewhere. It would likely go right in the middle for me.

I wish there were single versions of Shelter from The Wedding Album, and Hold Me from Notorious. So I play those 2 a lot...which puts those albums higher up on my list.

Paper Gods has its moments, I still adore What are the chances and You Kill Me With Silence. But I hate that title track.

I got to where I could tolerate the title track, and hearing some of the songs live made me better able to appreciate others like "Silence". I need to track down the LP version one of these days as hopefully it isn't so darn loud.

x

This vinyl Budokan press, limited to 3000 copies was released earlier this week. The limited press wasn't a big deal on-line, since there were dozens listed up on eBay within a few hours of release. Picked up 2...

I was a fan in the 80s and thought it was awesome that they got to do a Bond theme. As I have gotten older, I remain a fan of their first two albums. Both "Duran Duran" and "Rio" are full of great tracks.

Come on, Don.

DD cover by Leæther Strip.

One of their best singles. DD seemed very influnced by Japan in their early years. The band, not the land.

I think this may have been my first encounter with DD:


Here they sample themselves heavily: