Duran Duran - #15 Northern Lights and Final Thoughts
My Birthday's over, so here we are at the end of my Duran Duran album review of Paper Gods with the final bonus song, Northern Lights. Well, hello there Liberty album, it's nice to see you got a production upgrade! This song is pure Liberty to me (of course, with the modern Duran twist that this album is filled with). As much as some of these songs pull me back to specific Duran albums, it is all still quite a new Duran vibe, so I probably shouldn't reference old albums, but I tend to think in terms of what I know.
This might be my least favorite of the three bonus tracks, but it's not my least favorite of the album (I've already covered those). This one is probably at the lower end of my favorites or the upper end of my mid-lands. This is yet another reason why the Deluxe version is always a good purchase when it comes to Duran. You really get your money's worth all across the album instead of one or two good songs and a bunch of fluff like 90% of the other albums bands put out (and I'm not going to name names, but I'm sure thinking of some).
More than likely, as singles start to get released, there will be other B-sides, demos or new tracks that find their way on the circuit, that always happens and most of them are the gems of my Duran collection, so Duranies keep a lookout (but, if you are a Duranie, you already know that, don't you?).
And that's the end! I've gone over every single song on Duran Duran's new album (including the bonus tracks) and, overall, I absolutely LOVE it (well, except for Danceophobia, but not everyone's perfect, not even Simon Le Bon!). It is a rather dark album, but because the melodies all pretty much tend to be upbeat, you don't feel like you're being brought down and it is pure Duran, so the kids might not get it, but us older folks will...I guess you'd call it a mature thinking person's dance music? Yep, I'll go with that.
In almost every single Duran album, there is always at least one instrumental or an interlude type song, but this entire album is back-to-back full-on. I've always kind of complained about the lack of Simon on that one instrumental too, especially being a tiny bit partial (OK, blatant lie, you caught me) to The Good one himself (inside joke for those who can speak French), but honestly, I kind of missed it on this album. Be careful what you complain about, I guess.
Granted, this review is very personal and opinionated...I'm no Jane Austen by any means, but I think that it's fair to admit that I'm "a partial, prejudiced, and ignorant historian" when it comes to Duran Duran. I tend to see things from very rose-colored glasses when it comes to them and I'm OK with that. I mean, seriously (no pun intended), one of my favorite D2 albums is Liberty, so that already says something might be off with me in the first place. Or is is? I actually ran across this article the other day on the Duran Duran site. Apparently, I'm not the only fan of the album or Serious! HA! Take that (again, no pun intended) Liberty naysayers!
I just wanted to go over every song for myself and see where they took me (I do always say I blog for myself because who else would care about this stuff anyway). I don't know about you, but I'm rockin' a serious (again, no pun intended) happy face about this album! DURAN DURAN RULZ FOREVER (so said my 6th grade school notebook and so say I now, 34 years later).
As I was digging up clips for yesterday's Birthday post, I found this interview with Simon and John, which is barely a week old, and it surprisingly sums up a lot of the points I made through this whole mess, so obviously I do know my stuff a bit because Simon and John both say (in a lot less time) that I have throughout this whole series. So I'm going to leave you with the interview...enjoy!
Oh, and go out and buy the album (see, I am old, I probably should have said download it!), or hell, do both! It is honestly one of Duran Duran's best albums in years and that is an unbiased, unprejudiced, and rather smartly summed up opinion, if I do say so myself!
My posts will probably be pretty sparse between now and after Disneyland (or not, I may have panic-attack postings every five minutes), we'll see.
Oh, and I missed my Blogoversary in here somewhere (again), so a big THANK YOU to all those who follow me (for whatever reason) and here's to many more years of Stitching, Disney, and Duran Duran (with a puppy pic or two in the mix for good measure) as I try to let my Asper-flame burn bright! I'm off to watch old Duran videos now and bask in the glory of my favorite band ever.
This might be my least favorite of the three bonus tracks, but it's not my least favorite of the album (I've already covered those). This one is probably at the lower end of my favorites or the upper end of my mid-lands. This is yet another reason why the Deluxe version is always a good purchase when it comes to Duran. You really get your money's worth all across the album instead of one or two good songs and a bunch of fluff like 90% of the other albums bands put out (and I'm not going to name names, but I'm sure thinking of some).
More than likely, as singles start to get released, there will be other B-sides, demos or new tracks that find their way on the circuit, that always happens and most of them are the gems of my Duran collection, so Duranies keep a lookout (but, if you are a Duranie, you already know that, don't you?).
And that's the end! I've gone over every single song on Duran Duran's new album (including the bonus tracks) and, overall, I absolutely LOVE it (well, except for Danceophobia, but not everyone's perfect, not even Simon Le Bon!). It is a rather dark album, but because the melodies all pretty much tend to be upbeat, you don't feel like you're being brought down and it is pure Duran, so the kids might not get it, but us older folks will...I guess you'd call it a mature thinking person's dance music? Yep, I'll go with that.
In almost every single Duran album, there is always at least one instrumental or an interlude type song, but this entire album is back-to-back full-on. I've always kind of complained about the lack of Simon on that one instrumental too, especially being a tiny bit partial (OK, blatant lie, you caught me) to The Good one himself (inside joke for those who can speak French), but honestly, I kind of missed it on this album. Be careful what you complain about, I guess.
Granted, this review is very personal and opinionated...I'm no Jane Austen by any means, but I think that it's fair to admit that I'm "a partial, prejudiced, and ignorant historian" when it comes to Duran Duran. I tend to see things from very rose-colored glasses when it comes to them and I'm OK with that. I mean, seriously (no pun intended), one of my favorite D2 albums is Liberty, so that already says something might be off with me in the first place. Or is is? I actually ran across this article the other day on the Duran Duran site. Apparently, I'm not the only fan of the album or Serious! HA! Take that (again, no pun intended) Liberty naysayers!
I just wanted to go over every song for myself and see where they took me (I do always say I blog for myself because who else would care about this stuff anyway). I don't know about you, but I'm rockin' a serious (again, no pun intended) happy face about this album! DURAN DURAN RULZ FOREVER (so said my 6th grade school notebook and so say I now, 34 years later).
As I was digging up clips for yesterday's Birthday post, I found this interview with Simon and John, which is barely a week old, and it surprisingly sums up a lot of the points I made through this whole mess, so obviously I do know my stuff a bit because Simon and John both say (in a lot less time) that I have throughout this whole series. So I'm going to leave you with the interview...enjoy!
Oh, and go out and buy the album (see, I am old, I probably should have said download it!), or hell, do both! It is honestly one of Duran Duran's best albums in years and that is an unbiased, unprejudiced, and rather smartly summed up opinion, if I do say so myself!
My posts will probably be pretty sparse between now and after Disneyland (or not, I may have panic-attack postings every five minutes), we'll see.
Oh, and I missed my Blogoversary in here somewhere (again), so a big THANK YOU to all those who follow me (for whatever reason) and here's to many more years of Stitching, Disney, and Duran Duran (with a puppy pic or two in the mix for good measure) as I try to let my Asper-flame burn bright! I'm off to watch old Duran videos now and bask in the glory of my favorite band ever.
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