Duran Duran - Liberty
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Free Music Notes for Liberty
Free Music Review: An album from one of Duran's best periods
Hit: 5 Stars
After seeing three posts on the first page all pointing to a decline for Duran Duran, I have been moved to type. Duran themselves have admitted that the final product didn't reach the standard of the sessions in the studio and having listened to re-recordings of two songs - Can You Deal With It? and Venus Drowning from John Taylor's solo career I would agree. That he felt strongly enough to revisit those two songs seven or so years later shows that this was no quickly thrown together effort. Those are two of the best and among the most underrated on this album; others have already mentioned how good Serious and My Antartica are.
Though not readily evident a lot of this stuff does sound like it came out of extended jam sessions. The keyboard intro's for Can You Deal With It and the excellent but unused demo, My Family, come close to sounding like New Orleans jazz piano. From what I've seen this is typical of the Warren era, from 1987-2001, there was plenty of improvising from the horn section during the Notorious tour to the emphasis on being a great performing band, hits or not. Watch some of the interviews from that period and you'll see what I mean. They knew this wasn't chart topping material, it doesn't even sound like they were writing top 40 singles.
Downtown is a good song too and I would personally say that it has a great guitar riff, guffaw all you want. I like the change that is introduced for the coda, great ending. Simon's voice never fails to induce shivers and the part "sundays refugees from sunday tv shows" along with the eerie keyboards and guitar reminds me of The Damned. All Along the Water at the least has some excellent guitar work from Warren. John said at this point Warren was in the same league as Vai and he wasn't kidding. Sometime in the 90s Steve Vai called up Warren to say how he enjoyed his playing on a DURAN album. Pop throwaways? 80s washouts? Shame on you Q, NME et al, you lot suck and should wish you had never been born.
There are atleast this many good songs on Liberty:
Venus Drowning
My Antartica
Violence of Summer
Serious
Downtown
Can You Deal With It?
My Family (this demo is available at duranduran.no)
Liberty (a simple laid back song, nothing wrong here)
First Impression
Duran are known for reworking songs for the live shows and bringing back old rare, sometimes never played before songs, so I hope they revisit this period to give these songs justice. It may have bombed then but by now many have changed their minds about it. Liberty is awesome.
Free Music Review: THE most overlooked album
Hit: 5 Stars
This a great album! The bass tracks are full and rich, tastefully done by John Taylor. Nick Rhodes keyboard parts are mainly supportive except on the haunting 'Venus Drowning' and the animated 'Can You Deal With It' where his soundscape is more lush, and if you listen carefully, you'll find that Simon's voice has grown a bit more strong. On top of that we hear the guitar and drums like never before since Seven and The Ragged Tiger. Sterling Campbell hits hard, and Warren Cuccurullo is the most inventive guitarist in the genre; you hear this in 'Can You Deal with it', 'Read My lips' and even on the irritatingly Debbie Gibson-esque 'All Along the Water' with his searing squirly answeres to John's bass pulses!The mix does not get any smoother than the title track and in 'My Antartica' in which the piano strikes the downbeat over a PHAT rythm section, and where Warren's guitar is so glossy, that it sets a mood that a keyboard normally would achieve. Take a listen folks, there is nothing shoddy about this album. Listen to the punchiness of 'First Impression' and 'Read My Lips', both rockers with Taylor-ing (pun well intended) ala POWERSTATION.
Duran Duran have always been a band to PERFORM, with live instrumentation, rythms that you can dance to. To expect eight tracks of 'Serious', which I consider to be more bland than the rest of the album, would be expecting them to mimic the current trend of safe-pop, mediocre song writing.
This album makes me miss John Taylors presence in the band. Fortunately, Nick, Warren and Simon, are still artistically inventive and stylish which have always been DuranDuran's strongest qualities. Becuase the mainstream music media had it's attention fixed on the 'alternative/rap' flavor of the month in 1990, it missed out on giving props to one of the best pop albums of that year.
BUY IT.
Neil
Free Music Review: Excellent; (I think I like it MORE than the Wedding Album!!)
Hit: 5 Stars
I actually have a FAVORABLE review!!! ("Big Thing" really sucked in comparison.) To start off, "Violence of Summer" is really, really catchy, about meeting some girl on the beach. Then, the title track, which is really nice, and sweet. "Hothead" sounds too heavy-metal-like, but if you like that stuff, all right. "Serious" is a very dreamy fast ballad. "All Along the Water" is fast, though I still can't quite find the meaning of the lyrics. "My Antarctica" is quickly becoming my favorite, which is such a tender love song, about building a home in the infamous cold area. "First Impression" is another hard-rock song, which I don't care for. "Read My Lips" is hated by everyone else who reviews this album. I happen to think it's great. It has a sort of Robert Palmer-ish sound, (big surprise: John Taylor was in Power Station with him.) "Can You Deal with It?" isn't one of their better, let me just put it that way. Then, "Venice Drowning" is a sexy song, with lyrics like, "Come swim into my love; come swim into my life." Everyone hates this song, I love it. And everyone hates the ending track, "Downtown". Yet another sexy beating song, but, again I can't quite figure out the lyrics. The album, I think, is one of their more tender ones, with so many songs about love/sex. But, altogether, I'm saying that, yeah, maybe if you are a hard-core Duran Duran fan, you should buy it. If you're just a listener, think about it, hard. Some of the songs take a few listens to get used to, but once you get past that, the songs are wonderful.Free Music Review: A GREAT ALBUM
Hit: 5 Stars
DURAN DURAN'S LIBERTY IS GREAT. THEY ENTERED THE 1990'S WITH THIS GREAT MASTERPIECE, THAT BELONGS IN EVERY DURAN DURAN'S FANS COLLECTION. THIS ALBUM IS SO GREAT THAT YOU DONT HAVE TO BE A DURAN DURAN FAN TO ENJOY IT, EVERYONE OUT THERE WOULD LOVE THIS CD ONCE THEY HEAR IT. THIS ALBUM WAS WAY AHEAD OF ITS TIME, THE SAME STYLE MUSIC WAS DONE BY LOTS OF ALTERNATIVE GROUPS LATER IN THE 1990'S PROVING WHAT VISIONARIES THEY ARE. THERE SOULFUL SOUNDS OF THE SONG SERIOUS IS SIMILAR TO THE SOUNDS OF THE 1990'S MUSIC GROUP BOYS TO MEN THAT CAME OUT LATER IN THE DECADE. AND THEIR OTHER GREAT SINGLE VIOLENCE OF SUMMER WAS ALSO SIMILAR TO STYLES THAT CAME LATER ON IN THAT SAME DECADE, SIMILAR TO MATHBOX TWENTY, OR SMASH MOUTH. DURAN DURAN WERE DEFFINATELY AHEAD OF THEIR TIME WITH THIS GREAT ALBUM, AND IF IT WAS RELEASED A FEW YEARS LATER IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT MORE SUCCESSFUL, BECAUSE IT WOULD BE COMPLETELY IN STYLE. THE ONLY FAULT OF THIS ALBUM WAS THAT THEY WERE SO FAR AHEAD OF THERE TIME, THAT THE WORLD WASNT READY FOR IT YET, BUT THE SAME STYLES WOULD BE MADE POPULAR BY OTHER BANDS A FEW YEARS LATER, INCREDIBLE. THIS PROVES HOW IMAGINATIVE, AND ORIGINAL THEY ARE. THIS PROVES THERE REPUTATION OF BEING FUTURIST TO BE ACURATE. THIS CD IS GREAT AND I HIGHLY RECOMEND THIS GREAT MASTERPIECE.Free Music Review: A Great Album
Hit: 5 Stars
Probably the most least known of all the Duran albums and one that is either a love-it or hate-it, but in my humble opinion is quite good.It can be dark at times and true does lack direction in certain areas, but it felt lyrically & musically more honest and pioneering than any of their other albums until that time. This was also the album that Warren was considered a full member (along with Sterling Campbell) and had put another element into the mix.
If you are looking for the Duran you know it is reachable in such tracks as "Violence of Summer" and "Serious". If you are willing to keep a open mind: "First Impression" & "Downtown" are musts (and my personal favs from this album).
Overall I give this album 4 1/2 stars. I know I have five (the four makes it look like you should pass it up).
It is not a perfect album such as "Rio" due a lack of a true flow from one song to the next (or a true theme) but it is a great listening experience.