Duran Duran - Red Carpet Massacre (Snys)
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Free Music Notes for Red Carpet Massacre (Snys)
Free Music Review: B- It Could've Been Better (Updated review)
Hit: 4 Stars
Somebody call the Rug Doctor, RCM's guts are all over the place! To anyone who thinks this is called "experimental" or "new" has listen to waaay too much electronic dance music. I found DD's latest work to be a total disappointment, sounding like everyone else, sacraficing good guitars, bass, and even drums. IMO, this kind of music made mostly by a machine just gives me the impression that bands/artists are getting lazy. RCM, I believe, will not be remembered as a classic (after seeing how people turned their backs on it).
Anyway, here's my overview of the album:
1.The Valley- Depeche Mode-like. Ok track.
2.Red Carpet Massacre- A rocker-like song with a "circus" beat popping up in between(??). Lyrics about the paparazzi. I wish this song could've been longer..
3.Nite Runner- Funky, upbeat dance song. Justin and Simon's voice blend beautifully together. Definitely single-worthy. One complaint: did we really need Timba-man? I found his contribution unnecessary.
4.Faling Down- Best song on the album. Reminds me of "Ordinary World." Well done!
5.Box Full of Honey- Ok track.
6.Skin Divers- WORST SONG EVER. It had nothing to do with the music or the words. It was Timba-man's little "whicky,whicky,whicky" in the chorus that got on my nerves. Man, totally not gangsta.
7.Tempted- Sounds like "Sexy Back.."
8.Tricked out- An instrumental piece. To me,it sounded like something pulled off a Tim Burton movie. Honestly, we could've lived w/o it.
9.Zoom in- Forgettable. It's 3 minutes of listening to "noise."
10.She's too much- Slow rock song. Why are we depending on machines to make the music when we have a REAL drummer?? Not a favorite.
11.Dirty Great Monster- Spooky, dark song, the way DD should be, yet has a disappointing end.
12.Last Man Standing- Boring, the hip-hop beats sound like that One Republic song that Timba-man produced, why can't you let Roger play, Mr. Hills? Such a selfish producer! Simon's melody was flawless, just take the music out and I'll be good from here.
Overall- O.K,4 stars-(1)It's Duran Duran,(2)Give them credit for trying,(3)Falling Down,(4)in hopes that may be I'll get my hands on that "Reportage" album. One star deduction due to the rapping and the production. Ick. Somebody thought it was cool to recycle music?! Ticky-drum production also ruined my listening experience. This is an album I'll only listen to once in a while in order to preserve its likeability.
Many of the dance songs sound too Timberlake-ish and nothing like Duran Duran. RCM also sounds rushed, flat, brief, and Simon's voice on "tempted" sounds like he's bored. If the guys only written some guitar parts, (eh hem) let Roger played, and cut the electronics by 80%, it might've been better. SOOO much better.
What was Timba-man thinking on "Skin Divers"?? It's chessy, asinine, and will get on your nerves after awhile. I thought Skin Divers was a joke. It's not single-quality.
By the way, haven't you noticed something odd about this album? From their debut album to Astronaut, everybody in the band contributed to writing the lyrics, so why is it only Simon who wrote the lyrics on RCM?
IF you want my honest opinion- buy the single for "Falling Down" and pass up on RCM, unless you're like me (the fan) who has to have all their albums. It's hit or miss. You like it or you don't. I found that most of RCM is forgettable.
Just such a disappointment after the awesome success of Astronaut. Just because you want to work with the hottest producers today doesn't mean you should.
Come back to the light, Duran Duran! Get Andy back and release "Reportage"! Also, ditch your current label (Epic), they suck.
**I look forward to the next release!**
Free Music Review: Revelation In Desperation.
Hit: 4 Stars
I didn't like Duran Duran as a kid. They were hugely popular, and just for that reason I didn't like them. As the years passed, around 1989, I began to like them. From that point forward I bought all of their albums. I realized what too few people did--they were an underrated band.
Now, they've certainly had their highs, "Duran Duran '81", "Rio", "Duran Duran '93" and "Astronaut". They've certainly had their lows, "Seven And The Ragged Tiger", "Big Thing", "Liberty" and "Medazzaland". They've also had their in-betweens "Notorious", "Thank You" and "Pop Trash". No matter what period of Duran Duran, you can't say that haven't experimented and tried new things. It's this very reason that I've liked Duran Duran all these years.
26 years into their career they borrow Timbaland and Timberlake for "Red Carpet Massacre", minus Andy Taylor. I've read the reviews here and see hypocrisy. Everything the band is employing here is exactly what they employed to get them popular and famous in the early 1980's--synths, dance beats, trendy arrangements--back then they didn't get to work with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson, instead they get to work with Timbaland and Timberlake--two of the hottest people in popular music right now. Why the harsh criticism?
I like Timbaland and Timberlake. Sure, you can tell what their touches are, and in five years time we'll look back and go, "That era sounded like Timbaland and Timberlake". That said, does Duran Duran have some definitive moments here? Yes. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that "The Valley", "Red Carpet Massacre", "Nite-Runner", "Falling Down", "Box Full O' Honey", "Skin Divers", "Tempted" and "Last Man Standing" all could be potential hits, and I'd certainly add them to my own personal Duran Duran mix. The weak tracks are definitely the instrumental "Tricked Out", "Zoom In", "She's Too Much" and "Dirty Great Monster". Still, compared to "Astronaut", "Red Carpet Massacre" above average Duran Duran. I wouldn't put it down there with "Liberty", "Big Thing" or "Medazzaland". For a band that's been around for 26 years, this is pretty good stuff. Most bands have already packed it in or are afraid to take musical risks. Duran Duran are still proving that they are valid and viable. I think they have several more successful albums in them and at least one more comeback. I don't think "Red Carpet Massacre" is going to get them noticed. I think "Astronaut" was better, but it was mainly snubbed my the mainstream. Until people realize that old doesn't equal boring or irrelevance, and that youth must be counterbalanced by wisdom and age, Duran Duran will continue to languish with poor sales and exposure. I also saw Duran Duran perform "Falling Down" and "Hungry Like The Wolf" on the AMA's a few weeks ago. They didn't bring the house down. I was disappointed and felt that they didn't do a good job of recruiting new listeners. Millions watched that show and "Red Carpet Massacre" and the first single "Falling Down" still haven't caught on.
All popularity aside, four stars for an above average Duran Duran album.
Free Music Review: Credit Due
Hit: 4 Stars
Of course the lead story for "Red Carpet Massacre" has to be the involvement of "hot" "current" outside producers, but the real story is the full engagement of Mr. LeBon. No (self-contained) act can sell a reported 85 million records or last three decades without solid songwriting, yet the music press has bestowed precious few compliments historically upon the band's memorable melodies. As lead vocalist performing group-penned material, Mr. LeBon deserves credit for creating pop melodies that have, in many cases, stood the test of time. In the band's career valleys, his contributions have felt disengaged, seemingly contented with (life)style over substance, but "RCM" finds the musician, certainly scratching the half-century mark, in peak form. "Falling Down" is a near-perfect example of the pop song art form- lyrics emotive and vulnerable while retaining a modicum of intrigue, gift-wrapped in sing-along melody. (This often-obtuse lyricist discovered the vulnerability goldmine with the band's second-best composition, 1992's "Ordinary World," not coincidentally an enormous success.) Though nowhere else on the new release do the pieces fit together so magically, there are many other moments to be witnessed: a millenial Dylan-esque liner about "Google-dirty fingers;" delivering Hitchcock-ian tension in "Dirty Great Monster," a song about addiction...or perhaps even incest; and a father sweetly promising to be "fighting in" his daughter's "corner," so much more real and responsible than offering to take her pain away. And this limited vocalist is extremely confident throughout, even when, as in some of the band's best moments over the years, his melodies threaten to breach the ceiling of his range. It is in this service of melody- refusing to compromise the soaring promise for fear of cracked notes (say, at Live Aid)- that Mr. LeBon is at his best, and why "Red Carpet Massacre" succeeds. While J. Taylor seems energized, his bass work sounding as close to the work that influenced a generation as we have heard in awhile, Mr. Rhodes' producer's ear (and eye) keenly focused on quality assurance, and, oh yeah, some guys named Timbaland and Timberlake heavily influencing a few rhythm tracks, the project works ultimately on the strength of it's melodic conviction, as it should.Free Music Review: Ok, I'm a believer...an unabashed believer!
Hit: 4 Stars
I'm an old straight guy who has loved DD from adolesence in the early 80's to his burgeoning 40's in the '00's. I've purchased albums (33s that is), tapes, CDs. The technology has changed but my anticipation, joy and disappointment hasn't. I first listened to RCM online from a 'major music site'. I didn't have liner notes or anything physical to guide me through the journey - just my laptop and some decent noise-cancelling headphones. I'll be honest, I've been yearning for a DD release to harken back to those halcyon days of 1981-1984. At first I was I disappointed. "Where's Roger? Where's Andy??? Where's John's bass?? My godness, what have they done to my band!??" I asked myself.
It's been about a month now, and I haven't stopped listening to RCM! I've let go of some of my hostility towards heavily produced beats, synth bass, highly sequenced percussion and I'm listening and more importantly ENJOYING! The melodies are strong and infectious! The songwriting and lyrics are probably the strongest they've been in years. I've not hummed more tracks from a Duran Duran album since maybe Medazzaland - a forgotten classic in my opinion. As a another reviewer put it, 'I don't know how or why but it works!'
The guys have put away the frilly shirts and jodhpurs from '81 a long time ago and moved on stylistically. They've embraced technology and the zeitgeist of music and pop culture and filtered it honestly and successfully through the essence of who Duran Duran are...a band. There are definitely musicians, band members, with influence and ideas at the core of this release, it's slick, it's polished, and to the casual listener it may seem like yet another amorphous, overproduced pop offering of the 21st century but that would be a wholly inaccurate pronouncement.
Yes, I want the band, the sound, the times I knew in my youth and when I do I'll go back to Rio, Duran Duran etc. However, when faced with an onslaught of just plain awful pop music of today, I've got Duran Duran and RCM.
Free Music Review: Where's Roger?
Hit: 4 Stars
In spite of Timbaland/Timberlake's meddling, Red Carpet Massacre is Duran Duran's strongest outing since 1986's Notorious. Lyrically and vocally, Simon has never sounded better and Nick's soundscapes provide the perfect backdrop to these tales of 21st century New Romanticism. From the haunting arpeggios in the opening verse of The Valley to the chilling synth stabs of Last Man Standing, RCM flows with musical and vocal melodies only hinted at on 2004's satisfying, if not stellar, Astronaut. The former, which is slightly reminiscient of Planet Earth, and the latter, which brings to mind Rio's The Chauffeur, are separated by ten near-masterpieces, each a standout in its own right. The best of the lot (the title track, Falling Down, Box Full O' Honey, Zoom In and the aforementioned Last Man Standing) are the ones that seem to downplay the heavy Depeche Mode-esque rhythm loops and are allowed to breathe. Even so, they merely hint at what might have been had the Timber-twins not seen fit to exile one Mr. Taylor...and no, I'm not talking about Andy. While the long-haired Taylor's heavy metal crunch is sorely missed here, it's the apparent absence of Roger that leaves the biggest void...which is surprising since he is supposedly still in the band. However, with nary a sixteenth note hi-hat to be found, one wonders how he might have kept the tempo while pounding on horrific-sounding snares and kicking bass drum beats that sound far less human than anything the Warren Cuccurullo-era Duran ever did...and repeated listens only serve to spark a doubt as to whether the other Mr. Taylor (John) is actually playing a real bass guitar. It's a shame, really. Had the rhythm section been allowed to, oh, I don't know, play rhythm, RCM might have been a Rio for this millenium. As it is, the former fab 5 might at least be able to ride the Timber-wagon back into the top 40. Guess if you look hard enough you can always find a (blue) silver lining.