Duran Duran - song-by-song rate & discussion thread

"Be My Icon"
5/5

A track that I skipped and dismissed a few years ago as being too industrial and atonal for my tastes has recently become one of my top fave DD recordings ever! Frightening and darkly humorous song ("I'm going through all your TRAAASHHH!") , with a catchy chorus to boot. This, along with "EB" and "Michael..." represent the best of Medazzaland, IMO.

 

Be My Icon

I liked this more when it came out...this hasn't held up as well as some of the other tracks.

2/5

 

Be My Icon 4.5/5. Great track. Another song upon first listening that made me stand up and take notice. Slow burn of a track that has the best bits of Nick and Warren working together. Even Warren's jarring guitar is kept at lower discord.

 

One more version of Who Do You Think, this time acoustic:


I never thought I would do such a deep dive on this album once it came up.

Be My Icon - 3.5/5: a big improvement over the Butt Naked version with John on lead vocals. Yet another song with strong elements but in the need of a producer/mixer/outside party as it also bears that muddled sound. Nellee Hooper would have knocked this album out of the park with them.

 

Be My Icon 4/5

I have to agree that this song made it harder for me to digest the album upon first listens.
But it has grown on me. Still think it could've been more melodic. Atonal is indeed a word that came to my mind in 1997. Maybe it's because the original Butt Naked only had John's parlando in the verses ?

Makes one wonder that if John hadn't left there may have been 2 songs on Medazzaland where other bandmembers than Simon would have taken the lead vocal. Butt Naked doesn't sound like an early demo. It's more like a finished song where it was agreed upon that John would do the verses and Simon the choruses.

The lyrics seem to be about John's failed marriage. The fact that John sings it must mean the song was personal to him. Did he bring that song to the table ? Or was it simply the result of Simon's writer's block that made John decide to have a go at the lyrics ?
Fact is that he didn't take the song with him when he left the band.

 

“Be My Icon” doesn’t sound like Liberty at all. What an odd assertion.

 

I'm a little behind here; spent the past week driving a RV across the country with my family as we moved away from LA. So I'll just comment on:

"Electric Barbarella" - 3/5. Not a bad single; it's certainly catchy enough. But the label ruined it for me a bit by advertising it as "This is what the future sounds like." Nothing ever self-proclaimed as "futuristic" ever is. Just like most people with license plates that proclaim they are "cute" or "sexy" never actually are.

 

I know you just copied what is written on the Duran Wiki-page. But this is indeed a very strange interpretation.
To me it doesn't have a Liberty feel at all/

Then about the guitar : how do you actually play a victim through a guitar ?
With the original lyrics (Butt Naked), it's actually the singer who plays the victim.
So did we then have to victims in one song ?

Then the lyrics, title and subject matter got totally changed and the song is now about a dangerous obsession/stalking. The singer is now more the agressor instead of the victim.
But not a note was changed in the guitar licks/solo !

 

Be My Icon is another lost opportunity: this would have made a great late-90s single.

 

Great sentiment but . . . who would have cared then?

If Electric Barbarella and Out Of My Mind didn't resonate, then nothing off that album was going to.

It's unfortunate because next to their early 80s heyday, the Warren years were their strongest period overall.

In a way, the 90's for DD were like the big 60's musicians who were struggling in the 80's to find some success in the charts. Plus their aging fan base was either not buying records any more or had moved on.

 

I don’t think Duran Duran’s commercial potential in 1997 was as dire as all that. The problem is that they are being measured against pop music like TLC or Hanson, when songs like “Be My Icon” and “Electric Barbarella” are clearly more alternative than that.. a lucrative market in and of itself at that time.

I completely blame label mismanagement of the band, the album, and the material, alongside and possibly due to the departure of John Taylor. John’s lack of presence in the visual component of the band went against a major hallmark in the branding of Duran Duran as a recognizable thing. His departure signaled an ending to a lot of people.

Think of Aerosmith, who coasted through decades of pop fame without losing much ground. The trends came and went, but there they were, making videos, appearing on award shows, hosting reality TV. If Joe Perry had left Aerosmith at some point (assuming that Steven Tyler is still the greater iconic presence), it might have hurt them irreversibly.

All that to say: John Taylor is iconic in DD and possibly irreplaceable. He is Duran Duran as much as Nick and Simon, certainly more so than Warren and Andy and even Roger.

 

Be My Icon:

“I’m going through all your traashhh"? Shouldn't that be "Gaaarbaaaage"?! Because that's actually what this song reminds me of, put a Shirley Manson vocal on top of it and it would make a nice Garbage song. You wouldn't even need to change the lyrics.

Still better than Oasis and it was the 90's, one had to prove that one was up to date and: This one works! Love the soaring guitar during the last forty seconds.

4/5

 

Be My Icon


I love Nick's deranged lyrics on this track, which Simon delivers suitably well. Whilst it is a great excuse for Warren to bring out his Zappaisms on the guitar sound front. I agree with Neonbeam I could completely imagine Shirley Manson singing this. As some of you have remarked about the murky, sludgy production of Medazzaland maybe DD should have got Garbage's Butch Vig to produce the album (but I doubt they could have afforded him then). Oh whatever nevermind ....

4.5/5

 

133 Buried in the Sand


"Buried in the Sand" is a song by Duran Duran, released on the album Medazzaland by Capitol-EMI-Virgin on the 14 October 1997.

The lyrics were written by Nick as a goodbye to fellow founding member John Taylor.

Can't say that I was surprised when you broke the ties they were hanging by a thread
But now I have realized it couldn't be the same 'cause everything has changed
I'm still lying out my hand tried to pull you back but you were buried in the sand

I'm glad that you came along but here our journey ends I say good-bye to you
My very dear friend ...

This hypnotic Middle Eastern sounding track features Anthony J. Resta on live drums.

 

Buried In The Sand: 5/5

Reportedly about John Taylor’s departure from the band but certainly less aggressive as Who Do You Think You Are? was. I like the quiet reserve in this song but it’s also a simmering cauldron of emotions too with that really off-kilter beat throughout. The mystical sound of the song only thinly veils the hurt about John’s departure. I like how it just ends unfinished-like on “burieeeeeeeed …..” like he’s a mirage that dissolves right before your eyes.

 

"Buried In The Sand"
3.5/5

Another uncharacteristically biographical DD song. I enjoy the prominent bass riffing during the coda, which is fascinating since the lyrics are about the bassist in the band.

 

Buried in the Sand

Odd that I've totally forgotten this song...and it's pretty good!

3/5

 

Buried In The Sand:

It's odd/ somewhat funny that the same band that sounded super glossy only three years earlier now actively tries to deteriorate their sound. Do we actually know what inspired this? I mean... DD wouldn't have seriously hoped to see some chart action with this weird little collection? So, is this about street credibility? Deliverability trying to sound "arty"? Testing EMI's tolerance level? I mean... the destroyed "Rio" artwork on the sleeve is really saying something.

Whatever it is, it somehow works. Not like a blockbuster works, it's more like a great b-movie. This song too, it meanders, uses some - probably preset - exotic flavour, sounds off but: It's quite good.

3/5

(Too bad I have to listen to this on my mobile since I don't own a physical copy of "Medazzaland". But lo and behold: Found a digipack "Pop Trash" last week for 3€! Score!! Still don't have "Astronaut". My first copy of that was a cd-r somebody had dumped in the hall of the building I lived in around 2006. Ironically it sat in a box next to pristine vinyl copies of "The Lexicon Of Love" and "Beauty Stab" (ABC). Which went with me as well!)

 

Buried in The Sand - 4/5: Great experimental track with incredibly personal lyrics from Mr. Rhodes about's John's departure. Would love if DD brought some of this experimental spirit back from its album cuts.
To the poster above who spoke to John's importance in DD's brand: spot on. I was more willing to jump off the DD train after John leaving. Even the most curmudgeon-y rock critics would often concede to John's bass prowess and how DD's rhythm section was underrated. And yes, the commercial fate of Medazzaland was sealed by label indifference and profound mismanagement. BBG and WDYTYA had solid single potential.

 

I agree for me the nearest comparison I can think of is it would be like Fleetwood Mac without Mick Fleetwood. Of course John Taylor was more integral to the songwriting than Mick Fleetwood. But in the scheme of things DD's guitarists Andy & Warren whom were (apparently) of bigger importance in terms of songwriting and musicianship to the band were more disposable from a band's image & brand point of you to founder member JT.

 

Buried in the Sand 4.5/5. Love the Nick's magic on this track. I'm a sucker for the instruments on this track when mixed with rock. Exotic, powerful, and slightly demonic sounding.

 

I see Medazzaland as DD's arty trip-hop and industrial album. The sleeve design reminds me of something one would see on Massive Attack and NIN albums. Brit pop was on its way out by 1997. Coincidentally, Blur had delivered their first post-Brit Pop collection (S/T) in early 97, which was noticeably more loose and lo-fi than previous efforts.

 

Yeah but it contained that song!
(The concert was great btw)

 

If only...

4.0/5.

 

Oh wow! What a difference. That is so much better than the album version. Amazing what a different mix can do. A bit like the Harry Maslin mix of Station to Station. It has a clear separation of instruments and vocals and not so murky. Me thinks the album could do with a remix. 4.5/5 for the Alt Mix.