The 1981 Listening Post - Duran Duran - Duran Duran

 Duran Duran - Duran Duran

#242

By Michael Gaynor

June 15 1981

Duran Duran

Duran Duran

Genre: New Romantic

Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Michael’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Highlighteds:

Girls on Film

Planet Earth

Is There Something I Should Know

First, two disclaimers: 1. I’ve never actually seen Barbarella. 2. In 5th grade I HATED Duran Duran because (a) 10 year old girls LOVED Duran Duran, and (b) people kept saying they were the new Beatles. 

Now, the review: Duran Duran peaked with their eponymous debut. It would have been much cooler to make one really pretty good album and call it quits. But there’s a reason besides make up and haircuts that they sold a gazillion records, they were good. And they sure nailed the New Romantic thing (Ferry + Bowie + 70s funky disco, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that these Birmingham boys were all into Northern Soul growing up) right out of the gate. Three undeniable hits (idk if there were any other singles): Girls on Film (John Taylor’s bass line is sick, listen to Blur’s Girls and Boys for a flat out homage), Planet Earth (unstoppable refrain, plus a new romantic reference), and Is There Something I Should Know (“you’re about as easy as a nuclear war” might be the best line ever written). The rest? Meh. Anyone Out There coulda been a sleeper but the ending is too abrupt. Night Boat is no Night Boat to Cairo (apples and oranges). Sound of Thunder just recycles the exact same synth effect from the start of Planet Earth intro (c’mon, Nick, not enough buttons?) but is otherwise ok. Friends of Mine is the darkest track. Tel Aviv is just a long, self-indulgent, almost-instrumental Klezmer thingy, again with the abrupt ending (somebody must have told them it was arty). Further the affiant sayeth not.

Wow. That was unexpectedly fast.

Did you enjoy this?

Sure, am a music nerd

Well, I’d love to have you do some more. If you’re interested, of course.

The way it works now is: anything that is “unassigned” you may request and for each you receive I will also assign you something else. 

That way it’s not just the popular records that get reviewed

Got it

I think we have most of the first quarter covered so there’s puhlenty of time

Cool, let me know when.

Go ahead and look at the sheet. Make your requests and I will assign. 

I’m pretty good at gentle reminders as well. Glad to have you on board!

I’ll gladly take Madness.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7rCjItVh49HVMaHqxFKPRZ?si=Ng-96Y63S_ygKBrLOcnjpw

The 1986 Listening Post - Duran Duran - Notorious

Duran Duran - Notorious

#502

November 18 1986

Duran Duran

Notorious

Genre: How the mighty have fallen

2.5 out of 5

Anybody here remember Trouser Press? 

I know this was a mistake but, by dint of picking up an issue with Adam Ant on the cover I was convinced that TP was a music mag alternative to Rolling Stone. It was just better, is all. I was disabused of this notion when The Who was on the cover and there was a feature article on Martin Briley’s Fear of the Unknown (which is a stellar 5 star record but is power pop, not alt.)

That isn’t totally fair because TP was where all the nascent New Wave and punk bands advertised. In retrospect that might have been because it was cheaper to advertise. But it’s where I heard of a bunch of bands for the first time, like Duran Duran. 

I recall TP doing an article on “New Romantics” and featuring DD. There might have been a DD flexi-disc but I didn’t subscribe until later so I didn’t get one. (I DID get my “A.N.T.S.” single, though! Played the crap out of that.)

So, Duran had a lot of cred with indie kids like me, enough that I looked past their obvious dance club leanings. I grew up during “Disco Sucks” but I didn’t really get what that was about and, in retrospect, it was really dumb, man. And Disco never went away, anyway. 

I guess, after listening to their records and now this one, that Duran Duran was always just a dance band dressed up in different clothing. 

Welp, that’s a lot of words to say this ain’t a very good rekkid by a bunch of guys who don’t really fit in to either camp, alternative or dance, so you end up with middling junk like Notorious. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/notorious-deluxe-edition/693606394

The 1985 Listening Post - Arcadia - So Red the Rose

Arcadia - So Red the Rose

#462/1095

November 18 1985

Arcadia

So Red the Rose

Genre: SynthRock

2.25 out of 5

Yet another Duran Duran spinoff band? Only this is one I’ve never heard of, have you?

It’s weird. It’s like if you took everything about DD and then stripped out the accessibility and likability and songwriting craft you’d be left with this. And I think that’s the point. I applaud the experimentation. But it’s not much ado about nothing. The second, moodier side is better than the first, where they can’t get out of their own way.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/so-red-the-rose/692631182

The 1985 Listening Post - The Power Station - The Power Station

The Power Station - The Power Station

#83

March 25 1985

The Power station

The Power Station

Genre: Dance rock

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Some Like it Hot

Get it On (Bang a Gong)

Dance music with guitars. But realllllly well produced. 

Heavily front loaded to the point where I wished it would’ve just been an EP.

The hits hold up, the rest not so much but I have to give them credit. They took a 10 year old song and made it into a vibrant, dance rock gem. 

The rest? I don’t expect much from Robert Palmer so, I was not disappointed. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-power-station/894224064

The 1983 Listening Post - Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger

November 21 1983
Duran Duran
Seven and the Ragged Tiger
1.75 out of 5

Remember Eric? The roommate who wanted to put me through a wall cuz I was complimenting his record collection?
He got this the day it came out. Man, he loved music even more than I. (I really wonder what happened to him…)
Was “The Reflex” any good or were we just pummeled with it? I can’t tell anymore. This British invasion is getting me down and it only seems to be getting more and more intrusive.
I dare you to listen to "(I'm Looking For) Cracks in the Pavement" and tell me that this isn’t a band bereft of ideas. “Tiger Tiger” is the most palatable thing here and it’s an instrumental in the vein of Gary Numan’s work on I, Assassin.
Skip this.