I have been a Duran Duran fan since I got the cassingle of "Ordinary World" when I was twelve. I have come to expect great melodies, synth, bass heavy songs, and of course those distinctive vocals and harmonies. Duran Duran are one of my favorite New Wave eighties acts that defined the British boy-band aesthetic. They are also prolific hit makers: giving music some of the best hooks, such as "Notorious" which rapper Biggie Smalls infamously took as his moniker and sampled in "Notorious B.I.G". Dance floor favorites "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Rio", "The Reflex" and "Girls on Film" are examples of their lasting impact on music. Their last release Paper Gods in 2015, featuring an amazing track with Janelle Monáe and Nile Rodgers entitled "Pressure Off".
First, let me get the petty annoyances out of the way, all the tracks and title are in ALL CAPS! In this age of internet sub context, my first thought is "why is this album screaming at me?". The next issue I have is repetitiveness: just starting off with the title of the song immediately introduced at the beginning, not once but several times, for a song that is entitled INVISIBLE, the title is: visible, audible, memorable. The vocals and the mix are impeccable, and maybe I just hadn't noticed before that Duran Duran is repetitive but this song could have been better with a little restraint.
Now to my favorite parts of this album, it is that there is no mistake that you are listening to Duran Duran, their sound is unquestionable. Simon Le Bon has an uncanny voice, whose passionate tone you can pick out anywhere, the songs are of course heavy on the John Taylor bass-lines and backup vox as featured in ALL OF YOU (see what I mean, it is off putting, but I will omit the quotation marks), Roger Taylor's drums are a bit more subdued and tend to stick to traditional beat patterns and tones. At the helm were producers and co-writers Erol Alkan, and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, keeping the sound and production fresh and not like a regurgitation of early Duran Duran.
The title track "FUTURE PAST" is a slow building ballad that at times reminds me of mid-eighties rom-com climax songs like Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" in Say Anything but the lyrics are for anyone in the middle of an existential crisis, as represented in a metaphysically abstract chorus:
"So don't you cry
For what will never last
Each moment created in time
It's all a future past
That we are living now"
The gooey center of the album are the two Giorgio Moroder produced tracks. BEAUTIFUL LIES, which a classic Moroder chord progression right from the intro, the inimitable sound that gives the track it's epic disco ambience that makes it hard to accept that it is 2021 while listening to this BOP! In TONIGHT UNITED the influence is a bit more subtle right away, the song is a bright feel good song, but the chorus intro "na na na" is outdated and overdone, even for a pop melody.
One of my favorite things about this album are the featured artists, which is a great way to be introduced to different acts and also for the band gain a different following who might not be as familiar with Duran Duran as I am. My guess that the "single" on this album has to be GIVE IT ALL UP featuring Swedish vocalist, Tove Lo; her vocals add a beautiful and contemporary tone to the song, background vocals are arranged through out the song, and I love good fills and harmonies, but her solo is magnificient. The best bass groove is in HAMMERHEAD which features English rapper, Ivorian Doll, it is the biggest throwback of the tracks but stays current with this addition. This track is immediately followed by a quick harmony that definitely has me dancing in my chair which is appropriately named MORE JOY! the chorus has J-pop style chants and unintelligeble talking at the end of the song featuring the Japanese band CHAI, who released their third album Wink earlier this year. The album is finalized by a beautiful piano ballad, FALLING, featuring Michael Garson, David Bowie's longest and most frequent musical contributor, my biggest gripe is that this should have been the first song on the album. FALLING is a better track than INVISIBLE and had I given up after the first track in disappointment, I would have missed out! INVISIBLE was nowhere near as good at foreshadowing the mood of the album as FALLING, so please stick around and listen until the end.
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