To this day, the mere mention of Duran Duran in the rock press brings with it much disdain, if not outright dismissal. Classic rock purists sometimes believe their word is gospel, so you won\u2019t find many who dare to stray from the guitar-based genre they hold in such high regard — that is, anything with synthesizers is evil. You\u2019d be very hard pressed to find any Duran Duran album in an American list of top rock albums. <\/p>\n
However, if you were to ask a British <\/i>or pop music journalist about Duran Duran, you\u2019d get a different story. They were, after all, one of the bands involved in the second British invasion of America. Not since The Beatles had a music group ever become so successful so quickly over here, and like the moptops it was the female population that latched on to the band. Over the years, the band has lost members and their standing, but at some point critics will have to show Duran Duran some love — if for no other reason than their endurance in a precarious rock scene. <\/p>\n
This critic, at any rate, thinks Rio <\/i>is quite a sophomore album, brilliantly capturing the original vibe and intangible aura that is Duran Duran. Why the folks at Capitol had such a hard time trying to figure out how to market this group is beyond me. All the elements were literally staring them right in the face: well-dressed pin-up boys, interesting lyrics, tight rhythm section, elaborate videos in foreign locales on MTV, Colin Thurston\u2019s glossy production…I could go on. Duran Duran had it all in spades, you see. They were perfection on wax. <\/i><\/p>\n
Duran Duran was the first stadium band designed squarely for the youth market, an audience that has essentially grown up right along with them. After their understated self-titled debut (primarily known for the X-rated video of the song \u201cGirls On Film\u201d), the band was determined to come up with a formula that would sound amazing coming out of stereos, radios, televisions and arenas all over the world. <\/p>\n
The epic song \u201cNew Religion\u201d is probably the most representative of this new romantic sound. Lead singer Simon LeBon handles a tongue-twisting lyric such as this one like a pro: \u201cArmy majors pull a mean cool truth \/ there lying in a swimming pool \/ searching for the undeniable truth that a man is just a fool.\u201d The song is so rich and complex that it bears the subhead \u201cA dialogue between the ego and the alter ego.\u201d Pretentious, perhaps, but it sure sounds good. <\/p>\n
Things are much more straightforward on the danceable singles \u201cRio,\u201d with its slightly haunting chorus, and the perennially-popular \u201cHungry Like The Wolf,\u201d two songs bolstered by constant radio airplay and heavy rotation on MTV (which was still in its infancy). Also of note is \u201cSave A Prayer,\u201d perhaps Duran Duran\u2019s greatest single, though it was actually released much later in the U.S. in conjunction with their live album Arena<\/i> in 1984. Plus, the fact that it\u2019s an uncharacteristic ballad makes it one of the more forgotten hits. <\/p>\n
Other highlights include the above-average first song recorded for the album, \u201cMy Own Way;\u201d the hypnotic \u201cThe Chauffeur\u201d and my pick for best and most scorching Duran Duran album track ever, \u201cHold Back The Rain.\u201d The only two songs on Rio <\/i>that could be seen as filler are \u201cLonely In Your Nightmare\u201d and \u201cLast Chance On The Stairway.\u201d They are the pair of tunes where things begin to sound a tad repetitive. <\/p>\n
The fact that Duran Duran chose a Nagel painting of a female for its album cover should say everything you need to know about this band. It\u2019s almost as if they were trying to show the rock press they were not just pretty boys but had some musical merits to offer. Rio <\/i>is proof that this was indeed true. You would do well to hear it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":24422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5747],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40135","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-duran-duran","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40135"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}