Greatest [PA]

Performer: Duran Duran
Producer: Nile Rodgers; Duran Duran; Chris Kimsey; Nigel Reeve (Compilation)
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Duran Duran: Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Andy Taylor, Roger Taylor, John Taylor. Additional personnel: Andy Hamilton, Raphael Dejesus, B.J. Nelson, Charmaine Burch. Recorded live on tour in Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and the United States in 1984. Personnel includes: Duran Duran; Jonathan Elias (samples). Producers include: Duran Duran, Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards, Chris Kimsey, Daniel Abraham. Compilation producer: Nigel Reeve. This release includes a bonus DVD. Duran Duran: Simon LeBon (vocals); Warren Cuccurullo (guitar); Nick Rhodes (keyboards); John Taylor (bass guitar); Roger Taylor (drums). ARENA's high point is its one studio cut, the Nile Rodgers-produced single "The Wild Boys," a minimalist art-funk song that takes its title from William Burroughs, its found sound/cut-up production from Trevor Horn's Art of Noise, and its Spartan funk-pop groove from Prince. A musical Frankenstein creation, it's also an oddly effective single that was perhaps just slightly too weird for the band's teenybopper following; it was a lesser hit than the band's status would have otherwise signified. It's that high public standing which created this live document, a recording made at various dates on the band's 1983-84 tour in support of its third album, SEVEN AND THE RAGGED TIGER. Drawing material from all three albums and focusing on hit singles such as "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Rio," ARENA presents the songs in pristine versions that differ only slightly from the studio cuts. Though '80s nostalgia was an inevitability, the truth is that some of the most influential voices of that era never went away. The members of Duran Duran had their mortgages paid off long before GREATEST was conceived, so their sincerity in releasing a best of album is not to be doubted. One listen is enough to convince the most forgetful fan that every once in a while, the musical taste of teenage girls is right on the mark. GREATEST follows the teen heartthrobs from their inspiring early days (the quintessential new wave anthem "Planet Earth," the stylish, more-than-suggestive "Girls On Film") straight through to their later work ("Electric Barbarella," a whirring, modern dance cut). In between, the classic "Hungry Like The Wolf" and the mournful "Save A Prayer" give evidence of the band's mastery of the pop form, while the Bond theme "View To A Kill" and "Notorious" trace their development during the decade with which they are inextricably linked.

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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