Duran Duran

[fange]

I didn't realise Le Bon's voice was so horrible to so many people. Compared to others in the punk and post-punk period it doesn't seem to awful to me.

[Reactionary Rage]

They're just jel of his slightly chubby good looks and his very hot wife.

[toomanyhatz]

Jan 26, 2023 16:44:50 GMT "BING E BONG" said:

All of those UK acts that were big around 1983 were rotten - Spandau Ballet, Eurythmics, Wham, Howard Jones, Thompson Twins, this lot.

When we talk about how great pop music was in the 80s I think it's the brighter one-offs that peep through that made it gold. 'The Safety Dance', 'Whip It', 'Hey You (The Rocksteady Crew)', 'Pass The Dutchie', 'Bette Davis Eyes' etc etc and not careerist shouters like these clowns

I'd pick different one-offs, but otherwise, spot on. 

It's an aesthetic that I just don't buy into. There has to be unusually good songwriting behind it for me to be at all interested. (Though the synths and gated drums and generally sterile production is more likely to be a deal-breaker than the vocals for me, generally.)

[fange]

There is nothing wrong with the songwriting behind Girls On Film, Hungry..., Planet Earth, etc. Perfectly strong pop songs; you just don't like the packaging they come in

[Half Machine Lipschitz]

I remember my sister had a copy of this issue of RS. I thought they were a bunch of twats. Was the guy in the middle wearing his clothes backwards?!? [/14year old me]

["BING E BONG"]

Jan 26, 2023 21:02:35 GMT fange said:

There is nothing wrong with the songwriting behind Girls On Film, Hungry..., Planet Earth, etc. Perfectly strong pop songs; you just don't like the packaging they come in

They're not strong pop songs to me. That's my point. There's actually an absence of melody in the big hits. They're not big on tunes.

[toomanyhatz]

Jan 26, 2023 21:02:35 GMT fange said:

There is nothing wrong with the songwriting behind Girls On Film, Hungry..., Planet Earth, etc. Perfectly strong pop songs; you just don't like the packaging they come in

There's nothing wrong with it I suppose for what it is, but there's nothing right with it enough to get me to pay attention to it. A great song is undeniable. A 'strong' song won't impress me unless it comes in a pretty package with a nice little bow...

["BING E BONG"]

an absolute cock-end

[loveless]

Jan 26, 2023 0:07:39 GMT fange said:

Let's talk about the famous Brummie New Romantics, one of the biggest bands of the '80s world-wide.

Did you like any of their songs or albums at the time?

Have they made any good music during the post-heyday career?

Do you still enjoy listening to them now?

These are the questions!

I was 13-15 during their biggest successes in America, and...anything as undeniably catchy as Duran Duran's big run of early/mid 80s hits was going to sound pretty great to me. First one I heard was "Hungry Like the Wolf" which I quite liked, and "Is There Something I Should Know" sounded even better to me. There was a time when I bought all the 12" singles and B sides and what have you. And, yes, the girls were positively nuts about them (the North American tour ca. Seven and the Ragged Tiger is still remembered as warmly and epochally for many of my friends the way that the following year's Purple Rain tour was, or...I dunno, people who saw the Beatles when THEY were teenagers). I imagine I'd have seen that tour if I'd been a few years older (at that age, I really had to be positively NUTS about something to get the parental ticket getting apparatus moving).

As to the extent of their appeal to me personally (chronologically speaking), I sort of knew in real time that "Notorious:" (and, indeed, Notorious) wasn't as good as what had come before it (and that "Wild Boys" wasn't as good as "The Reflex"), and so on. I think the last thing I really liked was "A View to a Kill" ("Ordinary World" is undeniable, but maybe in more of a "admired vs. enjoyed" kind of way - I was happy for them that they had something of a comeback, even though that lead to a fairly dreadful covers album that made me less happy for them). I saw them when Big Thing (I mean, that title, right?) came out, and it already felt a bit like seeing a three legged dog (who was gone then? Roger and Andy? That I'm not quite certain seems damning enough). I'd missed them in their prime, and then by the time the original band reunited, I didn't really care horribly anymore. I wouldn't know if their latterday records are anything special, and that lack of curiosity - on my part - probably speaks for itself.

Do I enjoy listening to them now? I'm not an active listener, no. We have the first three LPs and I NEVER play them. Wouldn't think to. In terms of the songs I liked 40 years ago? I think if something catches me at the right moment ("The Reflex" was used really effectively during a flashback in Better Call Saul...), I'm warmly sentimental, but...maybe I've changed. I see/hear them from a different angle - all those album tracks I knew from the first two records (and, yeah, "The Chauffer" is diamond!) mostly seem pretty thin now (I always thought that the album tracks on Seven... were...less than what had gone before). My oldest son (17) loves them - went to see them with his cousins and aunt last year, so...they are still part of my environment. But...maybe like a wallpaper that I never need to actively look at. 

There's a bit of "cotton candy" there - that is to say, I know it's catchy and well made big pop music (and Simon's voice absolutely cuts through), but it does feel like a really sweet indulgence that may lack some necessary carbs and proteins (like sugary candy - Nerds or Jelly Babies? - vs. chocolate or cake or ice cream or something). I don't want to sound like "Give me Leonard Cohen...proper music", cause...that's not my thing EITHER, but...I do perceive a tinselly hollowness that I didn't see in them (or much else) 30 years ago. And some of that may be down to the technology of the time.

I think, whatever their failings, there WAS an alchemy and a uniqueness - I'm aware of their influences, and...don't really care (Japan may be a bit too abstract, comparatively speaking). But, yeah - Nick, Andy, Simon, and John (for better or worse - mostly better...Roger's contribution isn't as striking) each brought a rather definable ingredient that blended pretty nicely with the others. And, yeah, big choruses.

[loveless]

Mar 3, 2023 19:57:05 GMT "BING E BONG" said:

an absolute cock-end

Yes.

I watched a Classic Albums doc on Rio maybe 10-15 years back and to hear and see him self narrate how impressed he was with one of his own lyrics was...truthfully, I live for that kid of shit.

And, Dear God, he gets going right out of the gate with the way he goes on the Princess Di business.

[cousinlou]

A great anecdote is how Le Bon got Lydon into a party he was not invited for.

Some record company do I guess.

Le Bon told the bouncer, who clearly didn't know or had even heard of Lydon, that none
of the other guests would have ever been there if it wasn't for Lydon.

["BING E BONG"]

Their new single - yet to be dropped (as the kids say) - is a COVER of an ELO song

[Stacy Heydon]

Oct 8, 2024 8:33:31 GMT "BING E BONG" said:

COVER of an ELO song

Th original is great.

[adamcoan]

Every single member is a bell end. Cosmopolitan magazines house band, a Peugeot 106 convertible ,sliders with white socks or Trumps hair.

About as easy as a nuclear war.

[rayge]

Oct 8, 2024 12:55:40 GMT adamcoan said:

Every single member is a bell end. Cosmopolitan magazines house band, a Peugeot 106 convertible ,sliders with white socks or Trumps hair.

About as easy as a nuclear war.

Three pages in and sense at last.

Coke-addled Brummie TWATS.