Hm... interesting...
... but I don't *love* it yet.
The new Duran Duran album leaked today. I'm listening now.
I've seen press that says it's supposed to be "the follow-up to Rio that 7 and the Ragged Tiger never was." I'm not there at all yet.
That could be because I actually love 7atRT just as it is. But then again, I'm not anything like your typical Duran Duran fan. I can't stand "Hungry Like the Wolf". It's skeevy.
Anyway... The siren thing at the beginning and end of "All You Need Is Now" gets on my nerves really, really fast. However I can totally see how they think that'll open a show well. I'm listening to the song for the second time now and it's growing on me. I still dislike the siren, but the rest of the song - the music, the lyrics... they don't suck. There's something about it (possibly including the siren) that's speaking to where my life is right now. I'm not sure I *want* that to be the connection I make to this song three years from now, though. I totally do want to sing "All you need is love" though whenever the title line comes up.
"Blame the Machine" doesn't sound like something from Rio, it makes me think of "Friends of Mine" or "Sound of Thunder" from the first album. And, really, neither FoM nor SoT is anyone's definition of brilliant. It's just not. I like it fine, but it's not brilliant song writing or lyric work.
"Being Followed" I actually like a lot. But there's an element of the lyrics that screams, "Okay, so "Undergoing Treatment" sucked pretty bad - let me try that again!"
Bwhahaha "Leave a Light On" has a typo in the track title. Aces. I like this one quite a bit. Mostly because I really like Simon's voice when he's singing in his lower register. Also, this one leaked a while back and I remember listening to it and thinking *this* sounds like it could have come after Rio. There's something kind of "Last Chance on the Stairway"/"Lonely in Your Nightmare" in the sentiment of both the lyrics and the music. There's something just a bit bipolar in me that wants to make a mix where "Still Breathing" is followed by this. They'd sound good together musically speaking, but the lyrics are polar opposites.
"Safe" is freaking me out pretty hard. It seriously sounds like something Lady Gaga should be singing. It's probably the first thing on the album that sounds like it's by the same band that did Red Carpet Massacre in 2008, but at the same time it sounds like "Take You Higher/Again" from the 90s. I like it okay, now that we're past the bizarre intro, but bizarre intro is bizarre. There's that weird chick rapping again... OH THAT'S WHAT IT IS! It sounds like Blondie's "Rapture". And that's just... weird on so many levels.
Wow, "Girl Panic" needs to mash up with that song from Evita that starts with "Watch out Buenos Aires, look out because you don't know what your gonna get in me..." because they have the EXACT same intro. Over all it's very "Electric Barbarella". Still not getting that Rio follow-up vibe.
Okay, I like "Man Who Stole a Leopard", but it's... odd. I *swear* I hear this as, "Yeah, Hungry Like the Wolf is skeevy... here's the same idea, slightly less obnoxiously presented." I love the orchestral bits. Oh man, the fake news blurb over the end SUCKS. Don't do that to a perfectly good song! It was pretty lame in "Hothead". But then again "Hothead" is just pretty lame in general.
"Runaway Runaway"'s intro sounds like the intro to Katy Perry's "Fireworks". But it's upbeat and chipper, which the album needs. It's along the lines of "Reach up for the Sunshine" in it's poptasticness. Also, I think it's supposed to be "Runway Runaway"... I think there's another typo in the title of the track. Though they lyric seems to be "... runway runaway, runaway" so who knows.
Okay I think I have my favorite track on this album. "Before the Rain." First of all it's in a minor key. I love the stuff they do in minor keys and the ones that are just generally kind of mellow and creepy. "Chains" and "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World" and like that. I want sheet music of this. I want to learn to play it on the piano. :) It's very "The Chauffeur"! That's what it reminds me of. And also, just for giggles, I want to pair this on a mix CD with their "Hold Back the Rain".
"Mediterrania" totally sounds like it could be from the Rio era. Though it has a bit of that odd spaceman element they hit in a few songs like "Astronaut" and "Last Day on Earth" later on.
"Boys Keep Swinging" sounds like it belongs in the background of Velvet Goldmine or QAF. Okay nevermind. I thought "Boys Keep Swinging" sounded like a cover... and sure enough. It was too authentically 80's for it to not be actual 80's - not "we're trying to recapture the 80's" For some odd reason they tacked a David Bowie cover on the end of the album. Very strange.
Overall, this album will need more time to grow on me than "Red Carpet Massacre" did, but it will. There's nothing on here I just balls-out hate. I still skip over "Nite Runner" from RCM when it comes up on iTunes. The songs on this one are *long*. Only "Being Followed" comes in at under 4 minutes (3:48) and Leopard is over 6 and Mediterannia is 5:48. There's no instrumental on this one, which I'm fine with. I do like most of their instrumentals (especially the one from RCM), but I don't miss there not being one. I think they decided to put the cover on instead... which I still find odd.
Also, I need someone to leak the lyric sheets. I haven't had this many problems decyphering some of the lyrics since I seriously thought the line in "Palomino" was "There'll be rice in Spain" in stead of "Help me rise again." Seriously, it took me ten years and THE INVENTION OF THE INTERNET to realize what the line really was.
The new Duran Duran album leaked today. I'm listening now.
I've seen press that says it's supposed to be "the follow-up to Rio that 7 and the Ragged Tiger never was." I'm not there at all yet.
That could be because I actually love 7atRT just as it is. But then again, I'm not anything like your typical Duran Duran fan. I can't stand "Hungry Like the Wolf". It's skeevy.
Anyway... The siren thing at the beginning and end of "All You Need Is Now" gets on my nerves really, really fast. However I can totally see how they think that'll open a show well. I'm listening to the song for the second time now and it's growing on me. I still dislike the siren, but the rest of the song - the music, the lyrics... they don't suck. There's something about it (possibly including the siren) that's speaking to where my life is right now. I'm not sure I *want* that to be the connection I make to this song three years from now, though. I totally do want to sing "All you need is love" though whenever the title line comes up.
"Blame the Machine" doesn't sound like something from Rio, it makes me think of "Friends of Mine" or "Sound of Thunder" from the first album. And, really, neither FoM nor SoT is anyone's definition of brilliant. It's just not. I like it fine, but it's not brilliant song writing or lyric work.
"Being Followed" I actually like a lot. But there's an element of the lyrics that screams, "Okay, so "Undergoing Treatment" sucked pretty bad - let me try that again!"
Bwhahaha "Leave a Light On" has a typo in the track title. Aces. I like this one quite a bit. Mostly because I really like Simon's voice when he's singing in his lower register. Also, this one leaked a while back and I remember listening to it and thinking *this* sounds like it could have come after Rio. There's something kind of "Last Chance on the Stairway"/"Lonely in Your Nightmare" in the sentiment of both the lyrics and the music. There's something just a bit bipolar in me that wants to make a mix where "Still Breathing" is followed by this. They'd sound good together musically speaking, but the lyrics are polar opposites.
"Safe" is freaking me out pretty hard. It seriously sounds like something Lady Gaga should be singing. It's probably the first thing on the album that sounds like it's by the same band that did Red Carpet Massacre in 2008, but at the same time it sounds like "Take You Higher/Again" from the 90s. I like it okay, now that we're past the bizarre intro, but bizarre intro is bizarre. There's that weird chick rapping again... OH THAT'S WHAT IT IS! It sounds like Blondie's "Rapture". And that's just... weird on so many levels.
Wow, "Girl Panic" needs to mash up with that song from Evita that starts with "Watch out Buenos Aires, look out because you don't know what your gonna get in me..." because they have the EXACT same intro. Over all it's very "Electric Barbarella". Still not getting that Rio follow-up vibe.
Okay, I like "Man Who Stole a Leopard", but it's... odd. I *swear* I hear this as, "Yeah, Hungry Like the Wolf is skeevy... here's the same idea, slightly less obnoxiously presented." I love the orchestral bits. Oh man, the fake news blurb over the end SUCKS. Don't do that to a perfectly good song! It was pretty lame in "Hothead". But then again "Hothead" is just pretty lame in general.
"Runaway Runaway"'s intro sounds like the intro to Katy Perry's "Fireworks". But it's upbeat and chipper, which the album needs. It's along the lines of "Reach up for the Sunshine" in it's poptasticness. Also, I think it's supposed to be "Runway Runaway"... I think there's another typo in the title of the track. Though they lyric seems to be "... runway runaway, runaway" so who knows.
Okay I think I have my favorite track on this album. "Before the Rain." First of all it's in a minor key. I love the stuff they do in minor keys and the ones that are just generally kind of mellow and creepy. "Chains" and "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World" and like that. I want sheet music of this. I want to learn to play it on the piano. :) It's very "The Chauffeur"! That's what it reminds me of. And also, just for giggles, I want to pair this on a mix CD with their "Hold Back the Rain".
"Mediterrania" totally sounds like it could be from the Rio era. Though it has a bit of that odd spaceman element they hit in a few songs like "Astronaut" and "Last Day on Earth" later on.
"Boys Keep Swinging" sounds like it belongs in the background of Velvet Goldmine or QAF. Okay nevermind. I thought "Boys Keep Swinging" sounded like a cover... and sure enough. It was too authentically 80's for it to not be actual 80's - not "we're trying to recapture the 80's" For some odd reason they tacked a David Bowie cover on the end of the album. Very strange.
Overall, this album will need more time to grow on me than "Red Carpet Massacre" did, but it will. There's nothing on here I just balls-out hate. I still skip over "Nite Runner" from RCM when it comes up on iTunes. The songs on this one are *long*. Only "Being Followed" comes in at under 4 minutes (3:48) and Leopard is over 6 and Mediterannia is 5:48. There's no instrumental on this one, which I'm fine with. I do like most of their instrumentals (especially the one from RCM), but I don't miss there not being one. I think they decided to put the cover on instead... which I still find odd.
Also, I need someone to leak the lyric sheets. I haven't had this many problems decyphering some of the lyrics since I seriously thought the line in "Palomino" was "There'll be rice in Spain" in stead of "Help me rise again." Seriously, it took me ten years and THE INVENTION OF THE INTERNET to realize what the line really was.