Quick post to let you know that Ian Little's long-awaited book 'Baptism Of Fire: A Year Living & Working With Duran Duran' is now up for pre-orders. https://www.ian-little.com/baptism-of-fire It concentrates on Is There Something I Should Know? and Seven And The Ragged Tiger; but features an extensive chapter on recording the Avalon album and Jealous Guy with Roxy Music as well. Ian had a dramatic fall from grace in the second half of the 1980s, following his work on Belouis Some's debut album and Sparks 'Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat'. He is now clean, sober and determined to see his Music Outreach Project get up and running to help promote music to disadvantaged young adults. Although the very limited Deluxe slipcase version (signed) is quite expensive, the standard hardback is also available & more affordable at £22
Future Past is out in stores now. I note with some dismay that the vinyl edition is only 10 tracks, whereas the CD has 12 and the deluxe CD has 15. That said, I'm only through part of it but the advance release songs were representative. The entire album sounds effortless, unlike the belabored Paper Gods. It's a good mix of funk and synth-pop, with the occasionally rock guitar solo from Graham Coxon. In fact I'd go so far as to say parts of it are almost post-punk, as they were in the beginning. I think it's easily the least embarrassing album they've ever done without giving into mid-tempo blandness or deliberately aping themselves.
Ordinary World was just on Dutch radio. What an absolutely genius gem of a song! Can't believe it came out almost 30 years ago... IMO proof that popmusic has come a long way in the three decades since Love Me Do by the Beatles, and since 1992 hasn't exactly... Food for thought.
The digital version and cassette versions are both 12 tracks as well. To me since most formats have 12 tracks I feel the 12 track version is the official version of FUTURE PAST. Though the way they mixed the bonus tracks into the album for the 15 track version sort of confuses things. I highly recommend the 15 track version btw. All 3 tracks are very old school Dark Wave similar to the very first DD album.
Unfortunately it was mastered to death and sounds like crap. ================================================================================ DR Peak RMS Duration Track -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR5 -0.10 dB -7.54 dB 3:39 14-More Joy! DR4 -0.10 dB -6.43 dB 3:34 12-Hammerhead DR4 -0.10 dB -7.45 dB 5:49 16-Falling DR4 -0.15 dB -6.92 dB 5:07 03-Give It All Up DR4 -0.10 dB -6.14 dB 3:11 01-Invisible DR5 -0.10 dB -6.53 dB 4:05 02-All Of You DR5 -0.10 dB -6.21 dB 5:18 04-Anniversary DR5 -0.14 dB -6.43 dB 3:53 05-Future Past DR4 -0.10 dB -5.81 dB 2:40 06-Velvet Newton DR4 -0.20 dB -4.72 dB 3:36 07-Beautiful Lies DR5 -0.05 dB -6.54 dB 3:08 08-Tonight United DR4 -0.10 dB -5.93 dB 5:19 09-Wing DR5 -0.10 dB -6.43 dB 4:26 10-Nothing Less DR5 -0.09 dB -7.19 dB 4:55 11-Laughing Boy DR3 -0.10 dB -5.39 dB 2:08 13-Invocation DR7 -0.01 dB -8.85 dB 4:46 15-Five Years (Japan Bonus Track) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of tracks: 16 Official DR value: DR5 Samplerate: 44100 Hz Channels: 2 Bits per sample: 16 Bitrate: 905 kbps Codec: FLAC ================================================================================
A couple of days ago - 13th November 2007 - marked the anniversary of "Red Carpet Massacre". Streamed it twice and have to say I like it. Even tracks like "Nite Runner" or "Skin Divers". "Zoom In" I always thought was great. ... still I'd like to hear "Reportage". John: "We delivered an album to Sony that was a natural-sounding, almost rock album, and they were like: 'We need something a bit pop, do you fancy doing a couple of tracks with Timbaland?'" Amazing. Record company interference that late in the game?
One of their best for sure, shame the album wasn't that good except for the other classic Come Undone
I agree. It's old-fashioned in the sense that it feels like an album of fillers around maybe four good tracks, two of them standout. Like they used to in the 60's.
I think we're finally going to get Reportage as part of the upcoming Anthology that the band is working on. Regardless of "DuranDuranTime" I think we'll see that in 2022.
What else is new when comes to Duran Duran mastering of the last 20 years? I've given up as they must have tin ears.
Songs I heard by them and their videos were very good. Lead singer has an excellent voice. Yeah, a very nice looking bunch of young fellows as well, which I noticed, lol.
On Showtime documentary a couple years ago, there was a feature on Simon returning to visit the church he used to sing in the choir for growing up. He even held some prestigious position (lead soprano chair?) before hitting puberty.
Anybody here going to the "Touch The Sunrise" Ibiza event - 29 April - 2 May? The "Party Pass" alone is £189. No idea how much hotels in and flights to Ibiza are. Obviously I never considered it. Even though I'd love to see a DD concert. I just don't really like going to Ibiza to meet the more wealthy part of DD Fandom.
A friend sent me Tiger Tiger EP from Japan with four dance mixes from 1983 singles plus the instrumental title track!
