Duran Duran - #1 Paper Gods

I've never been one to actually achieve a short post, especially about something I'm passionate about. I chalk it up to my lack of vocality in "real life", but it's really just that I'm extremely opinionated and passionate about only a couple of things or people (one of the best Asperger traits, IMO). I know I've been a bit blog-absent lately as well...it's too close to Disney for me. I don't usually stitch during this time anyway because of planning and my Disney Movie watching challenge really wore me out (I've been pretty much watching nothing but horror movies on Netflix ever since).

Friday, Duran Duran's new album Paper Gods came out, so what better reason to dip my toes back into Blog World than some good ol'D2! I originally started this post as a single album review, but by the time I was only halfway done and it was literally over 2000 words, I figured I might want to break it up a bit, so I restarted and I'm going to do a post per song and, excluding this first one (of course), most of them might actually turn out fairly short, so good news all around!

I also know I just did a very Duran-centric blog post on Duran Duran Appreciation Day, but it's been almost four years since I've had new Duran material and this stuff is REALLY good, which is why I want to do a song-by-song review of the entire album in the first place. Plus, I got the Deluxe Edition, so there are three bonus songs on it as well I need to cover, for a total of 15 (yeah, I made the right decision splitting this up)

The good thing about Duran is that they don't just do remixes of the same songs and call them bonuses, but actually put on completely new ones, so you really get 15 new songs. In the old days, we used to call them B-sides, because they were on the B-side of the 45 (if you don't know what a 45 is, you should probably either completely skip this series or maybe not...you might learn something!). Some of Duran's B-sides are actually more famous than their album songs and it was a powerful medium, back in my day (boy, I'm sounding old lately, is it because I'm about to turn 45 myself?).

I did get an actual CD of the album instead of the download, I really only do this with my most favorite of bands, but always with Duran and I often get it in various other forms as well like LP's (they still release them too), but the LP will have to wait until after Disney expense is over with. I maybe a techie, but I'm also old school and like to "hold" my music...word! And, no matter how good digital files get, they will never beat the sound of an actual LP and I don't really know why, that's just the way it is.

Let me get stop rambling though and get into the meat of this album! The very first song, Paper Gods, threw me for a loop at first. It's already been "previewed" on YouTube (I think of it more as "leaked", but I guess it's a matter of opinion nowadays, especially since it's actually Duran Duran doing the "leaking"-I made a funny!). But seriously, the song Paper Gods is my Wild Boys.

I know I've told this story before, but the very first time I heard Wild Boys on the radio, I bawled (not cried, but full-on bawled) like a baby..."my band was ruined", "the song was horrible", yada yada yada. I probably went on for a couple of days whining before I really LISTENED to the song and then I started to "get" it although I never really loved WB like I do this song and Duran Duran got a LOT of radio airplay back in the Wild Boy days, but I digress.

The beginning of Paper Gods reminded me of one of the songs off one of the Twilight soundtracks and, at first, I was all like "what the hell?" (no Wild Boys type bawling occurred, just a cuss word or two). As the song progressed though, I started to see what a beautiful song it really is and about the fifth time I listened, it started to absorb into my psyche and I now feel it in my blood every single time I play it (oh, and FYI, that's the sign of a true Duranie...we keep playing songs over and over even when we hate them). It's a bit more political than Duran usually does, but I don't mind them going dark every once in a while...I like to refer to this song as Dark Girls On Film.


Oh, and I'm not sure if I need to do this, but I'm going to for reference sake...here's Wild Boys in it's full music video format (do you guys remember those?):


Tomorrow, I'll do song #2 and so on. I will skip Tuesday because of the Top 10 Tuesday's post, but I'll resume with song #4 on Wednesday. Hopefully, by the end of this series, I will have either created some new Duranies or re-awakened some old ones but, if you do like these songs, please go and download the album from iTunes (or buy it in touchable form) and give the band their credit. I'm giving the YouTube links to the songs released by the band themselves, but only to show them off (probably the same reason the band put them there in the first place). Anyway, the audio quality of a YouTube file is horrible compared to the "real thing", especially if you listen with headphones, so why would anyone really judge music seriously based on a YouTube audio file? And, as much as I hate Taylor Swift, she's right in that artists deserve to be paid for their work and my boys still have kids to feed! The more albums bought means the higher up the charts they go (or so it used to be, I wonder nowadays), and I'd really see Duran kick one out of the park!

Comments

Justine said…
Well I am eagerly awaiting a-ha's new album so I might just treat myself in the meantime! I wasn't a massive Duranie like you but I do like a lot of their hits, Ordinary World has just jumped into my head while I'm typing this!
I'm with you on the vinyl too - we were sold a lie with CDs. Not indestructible and poorer quality!
kate n said…
I agree re. LPs i just dont have enough of them but the sound is far superior! lol and also Ms Keebs...go check your inbox!!!! SURPRISE!!!
Tiffstitch said…
I've listened to the first 3 songs so far on the way to work. I use Google Play, so I'm not sure how that affects the band exactly, but hopefully it helps. Paper Gods did strike me a little odd at first, but as I was driving to work it started to feel like it was the theme to me driving somehow, and I liked it. I'll see how it goes after a few more listens.