Duran Duran: As Easy As A Nuclear War

DURAN DURAN (1981)
Were you Spandau or Duran Duran? Of course for me, being then, as now, of the male persuasion, the question is academic, both bands were to be sneered at for being a bunch of effete poseurs. However, would I consider doing a trawl through Spandau Ballet's back catalogue? No I would not. Duran Duran could be a lot less interesting than I am hoping but they seem to encapsulate that period in British music most accurately. Duran Duran were more popular with the girls at my school I think, but that may have been in part due to proximity to Birmingham. I remember Mandy Plant did a rather good pencil drawing of the band in Mr Stubbs' art class (or was it Mrs Dodds?). Anyway, first up is 'Girls On Film', famous for having a rude and sexist video that would put Robin Thicke to shame. It starts with the sound of camera shutters and gives us our first taste of Le Bon's rather one-note delivery. His vocal style WILL be a problem for me throughout, I think he's a rotten singer and hasn't improved with age. 'Planet Earth' was the first single (I think) and is possibly notable for the line "Like some new romantic looking for the TV sound". DD didn't coin the phrase did they? The interweb is not helpful on the origin of the 'New Romantic' label. It was HUGE when it came out, nowadays is seems like a fairly workmanlike pop song. 'Anyone Out There' was a forgotten pleasure. Catchy (or repetitive - depending on your point of view) and with some superb twangy bass-work. Bass lines are a bit of a Duran Duran strength. Since all of the members were called Taylor apart from Le Bon and Rhodes, I've had to look at Wikipedia to work out who did what, so the bassman was John of that ilk. 'To The Shore' is a bit dull (well very dull actually) and Le Bon drones it out. 'Careless Memories' has the exact same synth backing to Ultravox's 'All Stood Still' which according to my research was released 1 month before this album. It's OK though, upbeat and with a nice chaotic ending of cascading synth and screaming guitar. 'Night Boat' is not to Cairo, but at least it reminds me of the excellent lyric "It's just gone noon, half past monsoon". It features sugary synths and more bass thunks. 'Friends of Mine' borrows heavily from 'Love Is The Drug'. Lyrically it's quite interesting though "Georgie Davies is coming out, no more heroes we twist and shout". Did 'coming out' have the same meaning in 1981? - somehow I doubt it, but I could be wrong. 'Tel Aviv' is an instrumental, just about, Le Bon makes some noises in the background. Not sure what they are trying to achieve, but let's not forget, this is a debut album, so any band would be trying to find their way at this point. 'Late Bar' seems to be what you would expect, all about spending time in a grotty bar. The middle eight wanders about listlessy before it returns to the "la la la late bar la la la la la la" bits. More of the same in 'Khanada' but with even more impenetrable lyrics. Le Bon tries to do a David Sylvian I think. Some sitar noodlings near the end. Next, an extremely ill-advised cover of Bowie's 'Fame'. Le Bon's delivery is too clipped and, frankly they're not up to the job. Nasty. Finally 'Faster Than Light'. Fairly standard DD fare but Le Bon goes very high at the end of some lines. What to say about the cover art? A bunch of effete poseurs. Le Bon is wearing an ascot for God's sake.

RIO (1982)
On their much missed (by me) BBC 6 Music Radio Show, Adam and Joe, who like Vic and Bob are touchstones for these posts, used to run a feature called 'A-pop-riation' in which listeners told of songs that they adapt with their own words. I think it was kicked off by someone who felt compelled to sing "Lock the taskbar" whenever they heard the Clash's 'Rock The Casbah'. My own entry would have been inspired by Rio. "His name is Rio and his surname's Ferdinand". I have no particular affection for the lanky, razor-lipped centre-half , in fact I think he's a bit of a prat, but it just fits.  The song itself is like one of those magic eye pictures, where you had to look at it boss-eyed until a kind of 3-D shape emerged that you couldn't quite work out what it was. The instrumentation, especially at the beginning almost sounds like a complete jumble, but somehow it resolves itself into something coherent. It actually quite impressive. Of course the image of SleB in a pastel suit on the prow of a catamaran is forwever linked to the song. I think it has an interesting structure too, having about 3 different middle eight/bridges, including the "Hey now, Wooo!" bit. Even Le Bon's singing is bearable. 'My Own Way' is much less adventurous, but it's OK, some nice guitar chops, but it is repetitive. They go back to Roxy Music for inspiration on "Lonely in Your Nightmare" with a guitar intro the same as 'Over You'. Obviously we all know 'Hungry Like The Wolf'. SleB sings from the back of his throat and delivers some abominable lines "Smell like I sound, I'm lost and I'm found", "Strut on the line, it's discord and rhyme". However, you can't deny that it is memorable. The most notable thing about 'Hold Back The Rain' is some Adam and The Ants drum noises. 'New Religion' is supposedly 'a dialog between an ego and an alter-ego'. It starts with some sparse synth stuff before a John T bass lick kicks in. There's this kind of layered two part vocal, which doesn't really work. The most interesting thing abut 'Last Chance on the Stairway' is the title (well it DOES have a little xylophone section I suppose).  The last Big Hit on the album is 'Save A Prayer'. Very nice, distinctive intro. Imemdiately recognizable. It doesn't require Le Bon to strain too much either, which is always a good thing. This and 'Rio' confirms that DD were good at arrangements. Finally 'The Chauffeur' I had a feeling that this had some kind of significance so I toddled off to Wikipedia. The entry on the song is written in a slightly breathless fashion, obviously by a fan. Apparently it's part of the Duran Duran 'legend' Huh? Le Bon wrote it before the band was formed and brought it to his audition. I think it's a bit boring. So there. The cover pretty much defines 1982.