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

UMF

I've wrongly had the theory for much of this album many of the tracks are homages to others acts. For me this is not a Prince homage (it is not that good) rather a homage to the early 90s Massachusetts based funk rockers Extreme or the Portland, Oregon funk rockers Dan Reed Network. On top of that it sounds like I'm listening to an extended version as it would have been better ending/fading out circa the 4 mins 20s mark.

3.0/5

 

103 Femme Fatale


"Femme Fatale" is a cover song by Duran Duran, released as a single in France from The Wedding Album by EMI France during 1994. Its accompanying video was directed by Ellen Von Unwerth.

Written by Lou Reed, the song was originally recorded by The Velvet Underground for their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico.

At producer Andy Warhol's request, band frontman Lou Reed wrote the song about Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick. The Velvet Underground released the song as a single in December 1966.

This was added to the album at the request of EMI (alongside "Come Undone") during the early sessions for what became the Thank You covers album.

Duran Duran's version was also released as a 1994 promo single in the Philippines.

 

Femme Fatale
I feel about the Velvet Underground the way a lot of people on these forums feel about The Beatles, so when it comes to covering one of their songs, I say... JUST. DON'T. DO. IT.*

But someone in the Duran camp thought it would be a good idea to turn one of the most gorgeous songs ever recorded into a glossy, over-produced Adult Contemporary cheese-fest. All it's missing is a guest appearance by Celine Dion.
0.5/5

*That said, REM recorded a pretty good cover of this in 1984, but they had the good sense to make it a b-side.

 

Femme Fatale 2/5. Totally unnecessary cover on an already too long album. Should have had one of the b-sides instead. Should have kept it for Thank You. Hard to improve on the VU’s first album.

 

His rapping might not be "bad" technically.

But in my opinion, some people just SHOULDN'T rap.

Off the top of my head, such people include... Bryan Ferry, Morrissey, Dame Judi Dench, and Simon Le Bon.

So when Simon Le Bon, raised on the mean streets of Pinner, tries to be Flava Flav -- or Prince, for that matter -- it's hilarious. To me, anyway. YMMV, of course.

 

Don't forget bernard sumner, and neil tennant

later
-1

 

Not so sure about the latter.. he pulls off something close enough to rap on "West End Girls".

 

exactly, that's a horrible type of rap, and he uses that talking voice in other
songs also.

later
-1

 

There’s a stripped down alternate version on the back of one of the Thank You singles, I think. But as is, it ranks as one of the most overproduced tracks I’ve ever heard.

And theirs was stripped down to its bare essence.

Femme Fatale, 2/5
Can’t blame them for liking the song, but wow, how unnecessary.

 

Femme Fatale
Uhh. I mean, I don’t need to hear it all the time, but to me it’s certainly more listenable than the original. Something about Lou Reed’s voice is very off-putting to me. I guess in the same way that a lot of people can’t stand Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen’s voice.

I like the guitar tone in the solo, but then Simon starts doing that super British talking. I guess I hate that part as much as a lot of you seem to hate his “rapping”.

So in a lot of ways it gave fresh life to a great song to me.

3/5

 

Femme Fatale

Didn't like it then, still don't like it now. It had no business being on the album. Should my ears ever have the misfortune to hear it, I replace the title with "She's a big fat cow". For those that like the song, there are at least 4 versions out there to keep you happy:

4:21 Femme Fatale [Album Version]
4:13 Femme Fatale (Alternative Mix)
?:?? Femme Fatale [Alternate Pre-Release Version] <from NEW SONGS a Left Bank In-House tape>
?:?? Femme Fatale (Rough Mix) <from ROUGH MIXES a Left Bank In-House tape>

0/5.

 

Nico sings “Femme Fatale.”

 

Femme Fatale

I'm going to defend this version. I like the production.
I think it's only because of the minimal production of the original that this cover sounds overproduced.
And why shouldn't this song belong on this album ? Because they followed it up with a covers album ?
That doesn't really make sense, does it ? We didn't know back then there was going to be a covers album.

I like the dynamic that's been put into this version : it starts intimately and then builds to a climax that is absent from the original.
I also like that the song now has a bridge, also absent from the original.

I can totally understand that Velvet Underground fans think this is sacrilege but I'm a DD-fan and I think they augmented it.
I knew the original before I heard the cover. I like them both for different reasons.
I also like the altering of the original message of the song because now a man is singing it.
A woman would never sing "She's gonna mess you up, pal", would she ?


But that English pronounciation of the word "Femme".... : it's pronounced "famme". Neither Nico nor Simon nor REM nor Claudia Brücken (Proganda also made a cover) get that right.

4/5

 

Oh snap. I think it was 4 AM when I put that in. Definitely was comparing the voices on Perfect Day.

 

Come Undone ★★★★★
The second I first heard this I knew it was special. The liquid guitars, as well as the beautiful words and ditto singing from Simon and Tessa Niles. I listened to this repeatedly, wishing for it to be released as a single. Yes, you may thank me for willing that one to happen. That was when the song was out in the open though, and it risked getting ruined one afternoon by a friend who started singing lewd lyrical variations concerning masturbation over the chorus. Luckily he had a short attention span (he would later be the first person I know with diagnosed ADHD), and I got my song back.

Breath After Breath ★★★★
I practically memorised Dutch magazine OOR's review at the time. He started saying that never in his wildest dreams he ever expected to write a positive review of a new Duran Duran album, how their hollow music and arrogance had always rubbed him the wrong way, and how he couldn't understand why they ever got popular. Of course tis was followed with a "but". But this new album was phenomenal, and he singled out "Breath After Breath" as the highlight, which should be released as a single asap. His wish was somewhat granted, I guess. Just not where he lived. Anyway, while I do not think it's the highlight, "Breath After Breath" is a wonderful song, and I struggle to think of another song in their catalogue that sounds quite like it (maybe "Box Full O' Honey"). Never saw the video until this thread.

UMF ★★
Not the worst song on the album, thanks to "Drowning Man" and one song that's still to come up in the discussions in a couple of days, but there's nothing appealing about this except for a few moments towards the end of the song, around 4:10, where it breaks open with some nice guitar sounds and Simon going "oh-oh-oh" (though that bit also outstays its welcome).

Femme Fatale ★★★
This actually introduced me to the Velvet Underground. I'd heard of them (often in aforementioned OOR) in relation to Nirvana and R.E.M., I knew Rolf, an older guy in my neighbourhood, liked them, and my father had a VU-loving colleague (turned out later he only knew "Pale Blue Eyes", and was just making conversation when he found out dad had recently bought Lou Reed's New York), but never actually heard them. I loved this song, so went to Rolf and borrowed his copy of Velvet Underground & Nico. I loved some of it, but you cannot imagine how disappointed I was with their "Femme Fatale". It sounded horrible! Back to Duran Duran. This is quite a pleasant cover version, and to this day I like it better than the original or the R.E.M. version. Our OOR reviewer agreed, calling it "stemmig" (moody). I did learn to love Velvet Underground, and their more abrasive side ("Run Run Run", "Sister Ray", et al) in particular.

 

Femme Fatal:

I'm in two minds about this. The VU is a very important band to me and I'm sick of "classic rock" fans - some of which are friends of mine - ridiculing Duran Duran for covering this song. I mean.... Nick was actually friends with Warhol, Lou Reed knew who DD is, so: What the fok?! This band has every right to pay tribute to the VU. Now that I've got that out of my system, I have to say that as cover version it's great. Love what they did to with it. Easily 4/5.

But: Why did they feel the need to include this on an album that was already too long? (Ironically Bowie did a similar thing that very same year with "I Feel Free" on "Black Tie White Noise"). Putting this very decent cover in the midst of an album that was just about to hit it's stride is 0/5. And easily so.

So.... let's get the pocket calculator out:
4 + 0 ÷ 2 = 2

2/5

 

Femme Fatale- I suppressed this track from my mind. It starts bad and then when it gets to the section where Simon talks and onward it hits Liza Minnelli status.

There something about this tune that brings out bad covers. REM and Big Star come to mind.

Their version of Perfect Day , IMO, is also god awful. It's buoyancy in complete contrast to the meaning of the song. It's not a happy tune folks. I know Lou Reed called it one of the best VU covers, but .... I mean this with respect... Lou did a lot of drugs ... I believe for most if not all of his life.

 

Femme Fatale

it's not a great song to begin with; Duran Duran took a turd and turned it into something listenable.

2/5

 

"Breath After Breath" - 2/5. I don't hate the song, but whenever it comes up on the album I always thing "Ugh, this is going to be a slog to get through."

"UMF" - 2/5. Dated sounding "funk."

"Femme Fatale" - 3/5. Listenable, I guess. But kind of a pointless cover.

 

Femme Fatale

I've always had mixed feelings on this. I don't have a trouble with this. After all it was originally sung by Nico. So Simon singing it puts a different spin on the original. I actually think the first half of the track is rather decent with Nick's synths, John's bass, & Warren's guitars tastefully done and sounding like a Duran Duran track, I don't even mind Simon's talking bridge bit. Plus the video is great too (echoing back to their The Chauffeur video). But the last 100 seconds when Simon vocally lets rip he goes all too much to drink Judy Garland / Liza Minnelli overwrought on us.

3.0/5

 

104 None of the Above



"None of the Above" is a song by Duran Duran, released as a single in Japan (& a US Promo single) from The Wedding Album by Toshiba-EMI in 1994.

Going from "Femme Fatale" to "None of the Above" on The Wedding Album is interesting, because these two songs are nothing alike.

"None of the Above" has the funky dance beats and rhythm of a club jam with very confident lyrics from Simon giving God (or whoever s/he maybe a ticking off). The hook proclaims "I am, I myself alone/Realize I never need to use no-one/Money, power, holy roads/Freedom puts my faith in none above."

It features Fergus Gerrand on drums.

 

None of the Above
When Justin Timberlake said he was inspired by Duran Duran, I suspect he was referring to this song. It sounds like a Backstreet Boys reject. I can't hear it without imagining the band members standing in line doing synchronized dance moves. If my wife caught me listening to this, she'd divorce me.
1/5

 

None of the Above 1/5. Whilst I revisited the album for this evaluation earlier this week, this song stood out as a Michael Jackson song to me, circa Bad. This song starts the series of songs that blend into each other in a bad way. I think of the last four songs as one, long prog nightmare. It's clear at this stage they are missing a songwriter such as Andy Taylor to add to the mix. These songs are also why I prefer Liberty to this album. From UMF to Sin of the City, this album is colossal bag of hot air that goes nowhere. After this, I didn't actively buy an album until 1999 when I found Meddazaland in the US upon my return from being abroad, though I wound up with a cassette of Thank You somehow in 1995, probably left behind by a friend on purpose.

 

None of the Above

One of the finest songs in the catalog. Certainly top 10 or maybe even 5...the pounding beat, the thumping bass and Warren wailing away underneath. Plus another stunning vocal from Simon and some of his best lyrics. The middle breakdown is breathtaking too.

5/5

 

FYI Timberlake was in NSYNC, not Backstreet Boys. And while I'd never consider myself a fan, they do have a few good tunes.