Day 3 of my Duran Duran album review for Paper Gods, so we're up to track 3. This one might contain a bit of a rant (well, actually, it does), so please forgive...there is a method to my madness (at least to me) and sometimes I just got to put it out there!
You Kill Me With Silence is very Seven and the Ragged Tiger with a touch of Rio and The Wedding Album in the mix. Most people would probably say it's not good that a new album has the sound of a thirty-something year-old album, but with Duran, that is a VERY good thing...especially to a Duranie. There is nothing worse to me than a group of 50-something year-old's trying to mimic Justin Timberlake (I really can't let go of that whole Red Carpet Massacre thing, can I?) or whoever young guy is popular nowadays just to please the kids of today's market instead of their loyal followers who have been there since the beginning.
When I was a kid, I thought Madonna was the best female singer ever and had excellent style...nowadays, her constant need to compete with the likes of Miley Cyrus completely baffles me. Do Miley fans really like Madonna anyway or do they find her old and gross? I don't know and I don't really care, but if I was still 14, I would think that (but I'd probably find Miley gross too, so what do I know?). But it proves a point...I don't even know who is popular right now because I prefer Duran Duran and am attuned to a particular sound. A good band to me doesn't just meld to the masses and change for the sake of popularity, but retains their soul that made me love them in the first place and still manages to grow enough to be ever so slightly relevant...a bit like people should do. That's why I love Duran so much because they always strive to do just that (although they don't always succeed).
Besides, kids might "get" Duran because their parents were fans, but honestly, how many kids would hear a Duran song these days and go, "I love it!" and become diehard Duranies without that inherited parent-love gene? What is a parent-love gene you ask? Well, let me just illuminate you! My mother was a Barry Manilow fan and she played his music all the time when I was little, so I can't help but like him, just not like she does. I gained her love for him, but at a reduced, "inherited" level (like all things inherited). The parent-love gene is very particular and isn't always present in multiples...my mother also loved Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, but I literally can't stand to hear either one of them, even to this day (although I can at least tolerate Barbra whereas Neil is like nails on a chalkboard for me).
Most kids only have a few IP-L genes (as I will now refer to it) that cross over through the umbilical cord, but some have inherited their parent's entire musical library's worth. I'd say the only other one I inherited would be Olivia Newton-John, but ONJ crossed over a bit into my time too (ONJ was actually a country singer in my mother's day anyway, a form of music I can't stand, so she could only go up the ladder).
IP-L genes aren't the only ones we inherit from our parents, oh no. By nature, most kids inherit an Anti-IP-L gene (hereafter named A-IP-L) and hate most of their parent's music in general on principle alone, but you can have both a regular IP-L and an A-IP-L and be a functioning music listener. Most kids don't even discover they have regular IP-L genes until they are older and the A-IP-L's have died down somewhat...A-IP-L's are always more powerful in the youth and slack with age. I have no idea what kind of music my father listened to, so I don't know what, if any, IP-L's or A-IP-L's I got from him.
Every kid today has probably heard of Duran, maybe even likes a song or two, but without that IP-L gene, you will rarely find a diehard Duranie under the age of 35 or so (although they do exist...they are the modern version of how I was a kid, a self-professed weirdo). Most Duranie's come in waves, the original diehards like me, and The Wedding Album era second gen'ers, actually, it's very similar to Disney fandom, but geez, sorry! Getting off track again (it's a really bad habit of mine).
Don't you just love the ideas I pull out of my butt sometimes? I'm probably just completely full of crap, but it makes perfect sense in my head, so I run with it! But seriously, time to get back to the important stuff (although I've probably lost most of you already), so how about we FINALLY get to the song, shall we?
Tomorrow is Top 10 Tuesday day, so we'll resume the review on Wednesday. Just to give a frame of reference though, here is a Red Carpet Massacre example (which I do actually like but isn't very Duran sounding), Skin Divers produced by Timbaland:
And, since I mentioned him specifically, the Justin Timberlake produced Falling Down (which is Duran, especially when it comes to the music video):
Can you hear Justin beneath the layers of Simon's voice? Not much really, but he is definitely there. I have to give Justin credit, at least on this song he let Duran be Duran and didn't try to change them.
You Kill Me With Silence is very Seven and the Ragged Tiger with a touch of Rio and The Wedding Album in the mix. Most people would probably say it's not good that a new album has the sound of a thirty-something year-old album, but with Duran, that is a VERY good thing...especially to a Duranie. There is nothing worse to me than a group of 50-something year-old's trying to mimic Justin Timberlake (I really can't let go of that whole Red Carpet Massacre thing, can I?) or whoever young guy is popular nowadays just to please the kids of today's market instead of their loyal followers who have been there since the beginning.
When I was a kid, I thought Madonna was the best female singer ever and had excellent style...nowadays, her constant need to compete with the likes of Miley Cyrus completely baffles me. Do Miley fans really like Madonna anyway or do they find her old and gross? I don't know and I don't really care, but if I was still 14, I would think that (but I'd probably find Miley gross too, so what do I know?). But it proves a point...I don't even know who is popular right now because I prefer Duran Duran and am attuned to a particular sound. A good band to me doesn't just meld to the masses and change for the sake of popularity, but retains their soul that made me love them in the first place and still manages to grow enough to be ever so slightly relevant...a bit like people should do. That's why I love Duran so much because they always strive to do just that (although they don't always succeed).
Besides, kids might "get" Duran because their parents were fans, but honestly, how many kids would hear a Duran song these days and go, "I love it!" and become diehard Duranies without that inherited parent-love gene? What is a parent-love gene you ask? Well, let me just illuminate you! My mother was a Barry Manilow fan and she played his music all the time when I was little, so I can't help but like him, just not like she does. I gained her love for him, but at a reduced, "inherited" level (like all things inherited). The parent-love gene is very particular and isn't always present in multiples...my mother also loved Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, but I literally can't stand to hear either one of them, even to this day (although I can at least tolerate Barbra whereas Neil is like nails on a chalkboard for me).
Most kids only have a few IP-L genes (as I will now refer to it) that cross over through the umbilical cord, but some have inherited their parent's entire musical library's worth. I'd say the only other one I inherited would be Olivia Newton-John, but ONJ crossed over a bit into my time too (ONJ was actually a country singer in my mother's day anyway, a form of music I can't stand, so she could only go up the ladder).
IP-L genes aren't the only ones we inherit from our parents, oh no. By nature, most kids inherit an Anti-IP-L gene (hereafter named A-IP-L) and hate most of their parent's music in general on principle alone, but you can have both a regular IP-L and an A-IP-L and be a functioning music listener. Most kids don't even discover they have regular IP-L genes until they are older and the A-IP-L's have died down somewhat...A-IP-L's are always more powerful in the youth and slack with age. I have no idea what kind of music my father listened to, so I don't know what, if any, IP-L's or A-IP-L's I got from him.
Every kid today has probably heard of Duran, maybe even likes a song or two, but without that IP-L gene, you will rarely find a diehard Duranie under the age of 35 or so (although they do exist...they are the modern version of how I was a kid, a self-professed weirdo). Most Duranie's come in waves, the original diehards like me, and The Wedding Album era second gen'ers, actually, it's very similar to Disney fandom, but geez, sorry! Getting off track again (it's a really bad habit of mine).
Don't you just love the ideas I pull out of my butt sometimes? I'm probably just completely full of crap, but it makes perfect sense in my head, so I run with it! But seriously, time to get back to the important stuff (although I've probably lost most of you already), so how about we FINALLY get to the song, shall we?
Tomorrow is Top 10 Tuesday day, so we'll resume the review on Wednesday. Just to give a frame of reference though, here is a Red Carpet Massacre example (which I do actually like but isn't very Duran sounding), Skin Divers produced by Timbaland:
And, since I mentioned him specifically, the Justin Timberlake produced Falling Down (which is Duran, especially when it comes to the music video):
Can you hear Justin beneath the layers of Simon's voice? Not much really, but he is definitely there. I have to give Justin credit, at least on this song he let Duran be Duran and didn't try to change them.
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