What's your favourite Duran Duran album?

Think the first US had an extended version of "Planet Earth" and omitted "To The Shore". The next release omitted "To The Shore" for "Is There Something I Should Know". The US record label really didn't like "To The Shore"

 

That version which is on Harvest is a fantastically mastered album .Heavy disco sounding. I got hip to it on this forum and I believe it can be still picked up relatively cheap.

 

Yeah, I've heard rumors for years but have never actually known someone who has one first hand. I think the fact that there's nothing on Discogs shows that they don't really exist.

 

They did make it the b-side to the Planet Earth 7" at least. Harvest/Capitol really butchered things up with some of those 80s artists though.

 

I can hear why the US/Canada ditched To The Shore (it sucks).
A few years ago I was on a search for the elusive original tracklist on compact disc till I heard it.
Damn happy with my 83 re-press and Capitol JAX compact disc

 

Sacrilege!

 

I grew up with the old cassette re-vision, anything else just seems alien...
It makes a descent b-side, lol

 

W.H.A.T.? An original song "sucks" but a much newer single that totally doesn't fit sonically and conceptually is ok? Come on!

 

Sounds like a Spandau Ballet leftover..

 

Hard to choose between Rio and Tiger, but gave the edge to Rio (as I now see many others did too).

 

I love “To The Shore” and hate “Is There Something...”!

 

It's not the best song on the album but it's how it was made and how I'd like it on CD. "Is There Something I Should Know" is a great single but out of place on the debut.

 

Their first three LPs comprise a great pop trilogy with a wonderful dark path in Arcadia (that LP just gets better over time, like Japan recorded a sequel to "Gentlemen Take Polaroids.")

Their debut is a dance club classic while "Rio" is their peak but SATRT has a great global vibe plus "The Seventh Stranger," my favorite song of all time and the gateway into accepting DD having been a vocal skeptic.

But I LOVE "Pop Trash Movie" for the title song, a perfect and underrated DD track and even "Meddazzleland" has some terrific songs on there, including the very unique final track. I remember when the "Electric Barbarella" clothing store opened briefly on Melrose...

 

This is really tough, wish we could have more than one choice. I was a major Duranie as a teenager. Seven and the Ragged Tiger was their first record that I was able to buy on the day it was released so it holds a special place. "Hungry Like the Wolf" was the first song I heard on the radio by them and "Is There Something I Should Know" was the first time I actually saw them, I saw the video on HBO's music video show. I have to say The Chauffeur is my all time favorite Duran Duran song.

But I don't know, I think it might be Notorious or Big Thing(which isn't to say I don't love plenty of songs on the other albums too). And my favorite "not a Duran Duran album but almost" is So Red The Rose by Arcadia(Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes, a bit of Roger Taylor - what they did when John and Andy Taylor were doing Power Station). I always liked Arcadia better and I think the album has aged better.

I also...oh deary me...very much like Red Carpet Massacre(horrors, gasps,banshee wails) - I think that album has some really great songs on it and it was unfairly maligned because how dare they do a couple songs with Timbaland. As if Duran Duran weren't always, in their own way, into beats - they always had that dance music side of them and it was only a few songs. One thing I've always liked about them is weren't stagnant, they would always try to do new things, change their sound. And every single time there would be fans going "how dare they do that". I just don't get that.

In any case I'll put the vote in Notorious.

 

Top 5:
Big Thing
Rio
So Red The Rose - I'm counting it!
Duran Duran
All You Need Is Now

 

Rio is the best, but the first one set the pace.

Seven is in hindsight half baked and overproduced, but I enjoyed it at the time notably for the atmospherics and very modern at the time synths.

I continue to follow the band but there’s been little since Liberty (which I loved) to grab me the way those did.

 

I wasn’t aware of its existence. How to identify on discogs?

 

Errrrr.... go to the Discogs entry for the first album and look for the US version on Harvest?

 

To me So Red The Rose is a Duran Duran album - as much as later albums minus Roger and Andy were Duran Duran albums.

But I have to wonder. It's already a great album but with the full band could it have rivalled the first two? "A View To A Kill" could also have been included. What could have been..

 

Apologies for frustrating you with my question. I thought there were multiple Harvest releases of the s/t?

 

Love Seven And The Ragged Tiger as well as Rio.

Love Paper Gods.

 

All early US Harvest and Capitol carry the 6:20 Planet Earth, it wasn't until 1983 that the single Is There was added

 

I would of preferred Late Bar Jeff for inclusion, surprised the song didn't make the album. Would of placed well after Anyone Out There

 

I would agree with this. I especially like that DD and Rio have a few dark songs on each but STRT is kind of a dark album overall. Arena was also like this with its single Wild Boys.
So many memories of 4,5 and 6th grade...