Most popular and most critically acclaimed. If you stream, you might be better off listening to Greatest to get an overview through '98 of their singles.
The most interesting thing about Violence of Summer is that ten second keyboard coda. They could have built a really interesting song around that.
I wish I enjoyed 'Ordinary World' and 'Come Undone' like most other Duran fans seem to. I've never really understood their appeal. Maybe I'm overly-attached to their 1981-1985 output?
I’m curious, how do you rate Astronaut? You might be a much bigger fan of band’s original lineup and/or Andy Taylor’s work with band.
It's... alright. I love 'Point of No Return' and 'Finest Hour' and '(Reach Up For The) Sunrise' is fun. 'Nice' at least sounds like a Duran Duran song, without being a very good one. What's missing for me is a sense of atmosphere — Duran were always catchy, but their best songs also had a mysterious and sometimes haunting quality to them. That seemed to disappear from their work after Notorious.
Maybe a double vinyl edition could improve the flow? I guess that this is probably the wrong thread to ask a question like this. Somebody might bring up "Medazzaland". But: If we take a non-biased look, do some historically correct contextualisation then I'd even go as far as to admit that "Rio" is probably the Duran Duran album that 97,67% might agree on. I wasn't asked but I could answer anyway After struggling with it for years I now reached a point in my life where I enjoy it. It never lives up to what we where secretly all hoping but it's a solid album. It's also one of two DD albums I don't own on vinyl.... and I had it in my hands for 20€ multiple times. Fok!
This was exceptionally well argued, and brings up some cogent points. In the live timeline of DD, "Liberty" was indeed shocking in its multiplicity of failures. Which are well cited above. I especially like the mention of inauthenticity. Inauthenticity comes naturally to this band because I feel they have a fatal attraction to being "relevant" greater than being musically good. They seemingly throw their artistic strengths under the bus if it could bring a chart position. For sheer inauthenticity, just look at that cover! It speaks volumes. “Hothead” on side one was merely a lunkheaded attempt at rock music. When I see the effete Nick Rhodes on the cover of this record, making a fist and adopting a scowl, all I can imagine is his nasally posh voice saying “yes, well, now Duran Duran are a proper ‘rock’ band!” “Hothead” posts powerful evidence to the contrary. But it’s fine art next to “Read My Lips.” I never would have imagined that New Wave survivors would ever turn an unfortunate George H.W. Bush sound bite into a song, but the attempt was made here. When I first heard “Liberty” I ranked it for years as Duran Duran’s worst album. Future events have robbed it of that distinction and subsequently, I’ve ranked it sliiiiightly higher than my initial assessment. The first single was a shameless rip of Roxy Music’s jaunty single “Trash,” from their “Manifesto” album. That said, I admired their nerve and thought that “The Violence Of Summer” was an laudable example of stealing from the best. The other single, “Serious” was a melodic and almost laid-back concoction that offered subtle pleasures that one would have never imagined coming from the band. It’s the LP cuts that had me [strongly] disliking this album for years. This album features The Worst Song Duran Duran Ever Wrote®. Actually, the hapless band can hardly be blamed for the wretched excesses of “Venice Drowning.” Those are solely the handiwork of lyricist Simon LeBon. I can describe how vile this song is to my ears, but the lyrics will cut straight to the chase. “Venice breeding / Shy chimeras of sex and violence / In the purple evening silence / Venice dreaming of a partner Fill your arms with breasts of marble / From the cradle to the table / Coax this naked treasure / From your saviour Come swim into my love / Come swim into my life Divine blasphemer / Tempting holy beads of jism / With the scarlet catechism / Her lips will answer (Oh, her lips will answer)” Even thinking about these lyrics provokes nausea. Know ye this: there’s a very dark and deep circle of Hell awaiting LeBon for rhyming “jism” with “catechism!” Never before have such heights of pretension come cheek by jowel with such a repulsive attempt at eroticism as in this track. As my mood darkens if I listen to this album, this is truly a track that I make an effort to skip in playback if at all possible. Next to this nadir, the relatively decent title cut, “First Impression” and “My Antarctica” were solid Duran Duran songs that stand with the group’s middling best. It’s for the best that “My Antarctica” was given a wider airing as the B-side of “Ordinary World” a few years later as the song deserved better than this album to be paired with.
I've come to the conclusion there isn't. I have all known Mastering's/Level shifts. Except for the Canadian Disque Americ. (Waiting for a response from a seller for this one) -Probably another level shift. Go with either of the old West German's or the US Capitol JAX/EMI Swindon, they share the same mastering. The Japan gives a different presentation. I can't say if it's better or not. All the US Clubs including the DADC are bright/tin can like.
I really like Venice Drowning And Downtown. The rest of Liberty not so much. I always thought VOS was their answer to Love Shack.
I would expect DD to be more in line with with aping Roxy Music, but I see what you're saying. Especially since "Love Shack" was a contemporary smash hit.
Please, anybody, explain to me what merit this song has... because I think it's really awful. Yes, in 1981. But this has always been my problem with Liberty - none of the band's oft-touted influences are evident at this point... because they abandoned them in order to reach this "new" sound. I'm very happy for you that you can hear Roxy Music in "Violence of Summer." Must be nice. But what the song genuinely needs is funk (even "Love Shack" has that), and it doesn't have it, despite the fact that Duran were highly capable of it all along.
Kimsey deserves some of the blame, but Duran didn’t exactly come up with 11 great songs either. Shame they never worked with Stephen Hague or Daniel Lanois.
So this is a very interesting interview with the producer about the debacle of it all. Liberty at 30: In Conversation with Duran Duran producer Chris Kimsey – SuperDeluxeEdition Sounds like: - they had no songs to begin with and nothing had been workshopped on the road - Simon had no lyrics and for most of the songs had to read as he recorded - Nick had no sounds set aside to use and had to go find his textures after they started putting down the songs - John was mostly absent - other than 3-4 songs that people commonly point to (title track, "My Antarctica," "Serious"), the rest of the material was essentially filler banged out in the studio - Chris seems most damning of "Violence of Summer" and "First Impression" - he would work with the band again, but only if they had the songs first.
Liberty -- tend to like it better than the Wedding Album on some days. It all comes down that dreadful artwork. The kamikaze artwork spiral from Rio to Liberty is head scratching to me...
Did someone say "Dreadful Artwork?!" "Liberty" is a terrible cover design, but there would be worse. These, specifically.
and even more.. (NO) thank you, ughh. don't forget pop trash, which is self-referential, i wonder if it was joking or literal: i wonder if that was a callback to their terrible cover for their first album too: here in the US, we got the better looking more relevant cover: later -1
