In the year of our lord, 1982, Duran Duran released their sophomore studio outing.
The album was not received well at all by critics of the day with NME saying it was “a sweet, lumpy pudding of a noise” and Record Mirror chiming in with, “thoroughly competent and yet bereft of the soul, passion and wit that makes a great record”.
The passage of time has proven the teenyboppers right on this one, this album slaps.
Lets talk Duran Duran, Rio!
Pop music is always evolving but this is exactly what it sounded like in 1982. Duran Duran should be commended for flawlessly capturing the sound of the moment and making it memorable and catchy enough to still resonate 40 years later.
This is way better than a lot of the generic 80’s British synth-pop on this list that is a chore to slog through (I’m looking at you Human Leaugue’s Dare and Japan). The cover is iconic, the hits are absolute monsters (with “Save a Prayer” and “The Chauffeur” being standouts for me) and “Last Chance on the Stairway” is a song I had never heard before that kicks ass.
All that being said, having lived through this era, although being too young to really participate in it, pictures of this band and seeing the videos bum me out for reasons I can’t fully articulate. Maybe because Duran Duran, and people who owned Duran Duran albums, were the cool kids living a glamorous life that I could only glimpse from the outside. Duran Duran always feels like really good music made for people who aren’t me, rather than feeling like music made for me.
Still, they were the absolute best at what they were doing, even if they were doing it for people who had way spikier hair and shinier shirts than I did. So, credit where credit is due.
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