Astronaut [Slipcase]

Performer: Duran Duran
Producer: Don Gilmore; Dallas Austin; Nile Rodgers
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: This is a DualDisc, which contains a CD on one side of the disc and a DVD on the other. Duran Duran: Simon LeBon (vocals); Andy Taylor (guitar); Nick Rhodes (keyboards); John Taylor (bass guitar); Roger Taylor (drums). "It's like the Mamas & the Papas meets Kraftwerk." This line, more baffling than a lyric like "Shake up the picture, the lizard mixture, with your dance on the eventide," is how Simon LeBon described Astronaut to Rolling Stone. If it was meant to lower expectations of the first Duran Duran album to feature the Fab Five (meaning LeBon, Nick Rhodes, and the trio of unrelated Taylors) since Seven and the Ragged Tiger, it worked. Astronaut, rest assured, sounds nothing like that match made in hell. Instead, it resembles what the average lapsed Durannie might expect or even hope for -- a modern-sounding mixture of extroverted dance-pop and rock, with a couple of relatively subdued and introverted moments. No sound seems forced, and you can tell that the members are thrilled to be in the same studio with one another. Despite a disparate lineup of producers, including Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne) and Dallas Austin (Boyz II Men, Janet Jackson, Pink), the songs slide into one another as well as they do on any of the group's early albums. The big, glossy, buoyant songs work best, containing punching choruses and sleekly raucous motifs that manage to trigger faint memories without sounding recycled. The lighthearted mid-tempo funk of "Bedroom Toys," however, is a randy nightmare that's almost as awkward as any of the covers on Thank You. Even with a handful of forgettable songs beyond that, the album is easily the best one credited to the Duran Duran name since 1993's Wedding Album. That's not saying much, but the fact that these five fortysomethings have made something fresh and contemporary -- without acknowledging the '80s revival(s) -- is a feat of some kind. (Note: Short-fused Roxy Music fans are advised to avoid looking inside the accompanying booklet.) ~ Andy Kellman As the premier ambassadors of the image-conscious, party-loving British New Romantic set in the early 1980s, Duran Duran duly conquered the pop world, with millions of teenage girls in their hook-filled thrall. After three albums, however, the original lineup splintered, and the band's profile began to fade. Two decades down the line, all five members of DD's vintage lineup finally reunited for ASTRONAUT. Unlike the group's more "mature" '90s offerings, 2004's ASTRONAUT eschews "adult alternative" trappings in favor of a return to their earlier bold, fun-loving sound, a move that couldn't have been better timed, considering the concurrent '80s-revival craze. Accordingly, Nick Rhodes's synthesizers buzz and zoom with reckless abandon, providing bright color and underlining the dance-rock beat. Guitarist Andy Taylor largely tones down the frantic fretboard exercises of his post-Duran days, opting for a chunkier, riff-oriented approach reminiscent of the glory days, and Simon LeBon comes off as every inch the rock star, his swagger, insouciance, and signature vocal style utterly undiminished by time. ASTRONAUT appeared on the horizon as an alert to '80s-worshipping young bands that the men who wrote the book were back in action.

Rolling Stone (p.103) - 3 stars out of 5 - "ASTRONAUT revitalizes Duran's early synth-pop magic....Duran always had a knack for radiant melodies." Entertainment Weekly (p.72) - "Glistening zero-gravity synth-funk....This is so '80s you can almost taste the freebase." - Grade: B

At the dawn of the 1980s, Duran Duran was part of Britain's "futurist" or "new romantic" scene, which merged glam-rock attitude with disco beats and synthesizers to form an intensely fashion-conscious variant on new wave. With their good looks and pop hooks, the group ruled the music world for the first half of the decade. After that, there were numerous side projects (Arcadia, Power Station) and personnel changes, but the original band reunited to much ado in 2003.

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