Sunday, December 26, 2010

New Duran Duran: Lucky 13?

I still remember seeing Duran Duran open for David Bowie and being underwhelmed; The Georgia Satellites came on before DD and blew them away. But the boys are still plugging away, original drummer Roger Taylor is back in the fold, Andy Taylor came back but has left again, and Kelis and Owen Pallett played a role on the new one, All You Need is Now. Album number 13 is out now on iTunes, while the hard copy disc will be out in February. Producer Mark Ronson has indicated that they've returned to the early 80's sound that won kids over. I haven't heard the whole thing yet, but there are certainly echoes of the early years, from the whiny balladry of Leave a Light On, to the shiny vocals and bubbling keyboards of Being Followed, and the popping bass of The Man Who Stole a Leopard (shouldn't that be a ragged tiger or something?). According to the band's website, the album became the number one pop download in countries such as the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, so somebody's interested. Yet the first official video for All You Need is Now seems dull visually and the vocals a little too Auto-tuned. The live version below sounds better to me.





The earlier teasers Mark Ronson shared clips of on his radio show sounded much more like the 80's hit monsters. Blame the Machine has the most old-school top pop sound, at least from the short clip Ronson has shared.





Here's a clip of the band playing Planet Earth live.



Duran Duran by Duran Duran

Duran Duran - Instant Karma by radiosamana

Duran Duran by AndyTaylor

An interesting remix.

ThC - xx on film (The XX vs. Duran Duran) by ThE hOmOgnIc ChAoS

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