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

I love So Red The Rose and Arcadia, I was definitely Team Arcadia back in the day. It's just very cohesive and atmospheric and just has some really beautiful music on it.

5/5 for the Album

4.5/5 Election Day
4.5/5 Keep Me in the Dark
5/5 Keep Me in the Dark

 

Well....to date Baroness have used drawings of women on all five of their albums. So two is nothing!

 

Power Station and Arcadia are OK but I'd leave everything else off for now and focus on DD. Because I'm not sure how many people have heard Taylor solo records, The Devils or TV Mania. I certainly haven't. Even though a friend keeps recommending "Dark Circles" to me.

 

Well Duran Duran did it again for Medazzaland too.

later
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Goodbye Is Forever - allegedly written by Simon about his break up with Canadian actress Clare Stansfield. Another great song. I wasn’t keen back in the day but now love it. 4.5/5

 

Oh, the defaced "Rio" image? Amazing!! Probably a nod to "Scary Monsters"s back cover!

 

One problem with the TV Mania album are definitely current Discogs prices for any of the vinyl versions. I mean.... really? This must be a spectacular collection! Never heard it myself.

 

Perhaps just do the John Taylor single "I Do What I Do" which I think most of us would know.

Until today I'd never heard of the Rhodes/Duffy album, just read up on it and it's on my "to buy" list.

 

Keep Me in the DArk doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid. 2/5

 

I really enjoyed Election Day when it came out, bought both 12" singles of it. For some reason though I never bought the album. About 5 years ago I made a list of things I would like to find on vinyl cheap and the album went on the list. About 2 years ago I finally got a copy which was crackly and then about 6 months ago bought a better copy, plus the CD. It doesn't grab me in the same way that Rio and 7 does, but it is a pretty solid album and one I intend to invest some time in.

 

So Red The Rose - 5/5. A perfect album for me from start to finish. Much like Scott said in this thread, this album also reminds me strongly of late '85 to early '86. Actually faded out late spring but then came back once "The Flame" was released as a single. I was working at a Musicland store when it was released, and I firmly remember creating a big display in the store of the album and stocking up the LPs and cassettes in the display on the eve of Thanksgiving to prepare for "Black Friday." This was back when CDs were released weeks (sometimes months) after the LP and cassette.

"Keep Me In The Dark" - 5/5. Could have easily been a single had the other tracks after "Election Day" had performed better.

"Goodbye Is Forever" - 5/5. Love the song, love the single. Perfect choice for second single; unfortunate it didn't perform better. Heard it on the radio once or twice but that was it. Love the single edit.

 

Goodbye Is Forever

Again I feel this song sounds great to listen to; musically it is rich & sumptuous. Simon sounds great on this, especially on the verses. But I feel the song is not quite strong enough. I can understand why it was released as a single, but I always felt that there were two stronger candidates on the album as a second single.

You might enjoy this:

Arcadia: Filming Goodbye Is Forever video


4.0/5

 

051 The Flame



"The Flame" is the fourth single by Arcadia, released from the album So Red the Rose by Capitol-Parlophone in 1986.

This was the group's third UK single. It stalled at UK #58 & USA #29 upon its July 1986 release.

The song was written and performed by Arcadia, a pop group formed in 1985 by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor of Duran Duran, during a break in that band's schedule.

The song features a theatrical arrangement and catchy, hook-filled chorus. This is probably the Arcadia song that comes closest to sounding like Duran Duran. Especially on the Nile Rodgers single remix of the Alex Sadkin produced album version Arcadia - The Flame

The track features James Bond A View to a Kill actress Grace Jones contributing vocals.

The video was directed by long time Duran Duran collaborator Russell Mulcahy. It was his final video collaborating with members of Duran Duran, as he was about to become a successful film director (starting with Highlander, featuring music from Queen).

The campy, slapstick video was made in the retro style of an Edwardian-era drawing room murder mystery à la Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock. The storyline revolved around a series of comic disasters that befall an awkward, nerdish character (played by Simon Le Bon) and his girlfriend while visiting a haunted house. Nick Rhodes plays the debonair host of the dinner party at the house, and he frequently uses Simon as his comic stooge for a number of macabre and mildly sadistic sight gags throughout the video. Various unsavory bits of business ensue with revolving walls, trapdoors and mysterious assassins hidden behind paintings and within exotic taxidermied animals. The slapstick comic interplay between Nick and Simon is faintly reminiscent of Abbott and Costello.

At one point, John Taylor (at the time a member of The Power Station, the other Duran Duran side project) comes out of the closet with a contract for the band to sign. This is an especially pointed inside joke, as it was around this time that the three remaining Duran Duran members were preparing to write and record their next album, Notorious, while in legal negotiations with their now-estranged guitarist Andy Taylor.

The video's treatment is said to have been written by Nick and the various near-fatal pratfalls that occur to Simon's character was intended as punishment for his decision to enter the Fastnet boat race that almost cost him his life.

In fact, Simon was in the middle of the South American leg of another race (the Whitbread Round the World Race) when he had to fly to Spain in April to shoot the video. He then flew straight back to join his team in Uruguay.

 

Goodbye Is Forever

It's a good basic DD type song. It doesn't really stand out for me. I like Nick's keys on this, and Simon has a solid delivery and it's a good melody. I just think the chorus is a bit weak.

 

The Flame

This is a fantastic track. The chorus and use of the reverse reverb on Simon's voice coupled with the great keyboards from Nick. I especially like the piano playing going on.

 

The Flame - 5/5. Superb track, and once again, it really shines in its single mix form. Love when JT showed up in the video, and smart to use those images on the single art.

 

The Flame:

Sue me but this reminds me a bit of "A View To A Kill". With it's dramatic intermezzos. Which means it's another great song before "So Red The Rose" finally veers off into more adventurous sonic territory with "Missing" and the second side.

I'm really amazed how tastefully this album is produced. It sure sounds like 80's but not in a bad, poorly aged way.

4/5

 

The Flame 5/5 - love the extended mix, I guess Nile added some guitar here and there? It has one foot in A View To A Kill and the other in Notorious, and is as good as both.

I think that Live Aid and the increase in popularity of Bowie, U2 and others that played well may have impacted on the success of Duran in late ‘85/early ‘86. In the public’s mind I think they were seen as from the early 80s and I know got less airplay. The fans were getting older and the teens were into slightly younger bands. Notorious did well but the other singles from the album struggled. I remember being a little surprised when uni friends started raving about the Big Thing album in ‘88/‘89. Dashing ahead a bit but I do feel The Flame was a bit of a watershed moment, the end of the first phase of their career.

 

I think Duran Duran needed a proper 1985 album and they would have kept riding that wave of popularity. They splintered with these two groups, neither of which did as well as a proper DD album and then when DD came back, they were not whole anymore. Maybe if the five had got back for Notorious things would have been different, there are a lot of maybes with DD.

 

The Flame is pretty good, and again brand new to my ears.

 

The Flame - good song. Very dramatic singing from Le Bon and yes, those synth stabs are a bit AVTAK. The video was great fun and Simon pulled off the slapstick acting pretty well. It’s shocking that single did so badly and yes, I suppose it was a bit of a turning point for the band as they never reached the dizzy heights of 83/84 again. I recall some fans at the time become disillusioned by the splintering of the band and either becoming Aha fans or Bon Jovi fans. It was a weird time to be Duranie as they was a lot of uncertainty over whether they’d ever get back together. To me the Berrow Bros (management) didn’t handle it well, which probably explains why they got fired in ‘86.

 

A word about "So Red The Rose" on vinyl. Bought it last year for.... urgh.. 3€ as US original and this is a very good sounding pressing. Virtually no surface noise. Is it safe to assume that Robert Ludwig - who mastered it - also cut the lacquer for at least the US pressing? I don't see his classic "RL" signature but it can be tiny.

 

I was just thinking about this today and I've got no answer. Did Arcadia and Power Station help to keep or kill the momentum? Would "Notorious" have been more successful if the band would have been complete? And wouldn't at least Andy have left anyway? I dunno.....

 

The Flame - Didn't we already hear this song before,
it has a lot of repeated elements people have noticed with
a view to a kill, which i didn't care for either.

If you listen to the short 'flame game' remix, its more apparent:


Again, another single that came out, that I never heard until much later.

Here's the cover of the CD-single from the bootleg boxset:


The Flame 23:03
4-1 The Flame (Remix) 4:07
4-2 Flame Game (Yo Homeboy Mix) 2:49
4-3 The Flame (Extended Remix) 7:13
4-4 Election Day (Early Rough Mix) 8:53

Sorry, it's an it ok song, but it doesn't really stand out to me - 1/5

later
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The Flame

Catchy tune. I had forgotten about its video, kinda fun to watch again. Probably the Nick's keyboards are the highlight in my opinion.

3/5