I thought about kicking it old school and writing as serious a review as I would have when I was getting paid to listen to music I got for free, but I am too lazy to do it just now, and I will forget later. I’ll just give you the rundown as I hear it.
Much has been made of All You Need Is Now being Duran Duran’s comeback album. Quite honestly, I didn’t think the album could live up to the hype. Mark Ronson. Kelis. Ana Matronic. It sounded like it was going to be overkill to me. After the disappointingly average (thought not bad at all) collaboration with Timbaland, I was hoping the Durans would scrap producers altogether and just let John Taylor play the fooking bass. And, after hearing a couple of leaked tracks, I was less than underwhelmed. But…
Once the album dropped on iTunes, I found myself grooving along to several of the tracks on first listen. Without even a second go, I had a couple of them stuck in pleasant head-loops. I started to get excited. I hadn’t felt this way about their music in, well, decades. I liked it well enough to go see them live, something I hadn’t done in 22 years, and then I watched their live stream, David Lynch produced concert from The Mayan. And I loved every second of it.
Today, I went out and bought the Deluxe Edition CD for the extra tracks. I didn’t want to stop my car! I’ve been listening to this on my computer, and there was a huge difference in sound in my car. I was excited. I was elated. I was fourteen again. The Man Who Stole a Leopard came on, and it was the same feeling I used to get in my chest when I would listen to The Chauffer or Secret Oktober.
Look, I am an old school, diehard Duran Duran fan. I will argue the merits of their music against any hall of famers, any day. With the exception of the execrable Pop Trash, I have found something to enjoy on every album. My favorites of theirs are from the very lean years, Big Thing and Liberty, with their first album and the Wedding Album tying for third. So, you see, it isn’t like I’m someone who loved Rio and hasn’t looked back since Andy left the band. I haven’t been wondering where Duran Duran has been all these years. I know exactly where they’ve been, and I’ve been right there to listen, hoping to love what I heard.
This album…this…this is the album I’ve been waiting for all this time. This is the album that makes me feel something when I listen to it, and there are precious few of those: Molly’s Yes (Wonderland), Fiona Apple (When the Pawn), Arcadia (So Red the Rose), Erasure (The Innocents), Loreena Mckennit (Book of Secrets…!!!!), Duran Duran (The Wedding Album). This is the album I will be listening to for a long, long time.
Yeah, they were quite right. All I needed was now.
The Outside Lane 