Arena

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And as far as the American charts went, that was mostly that (although I will always maintain that “Electric Barbarella” from Medazzaland may just be their finest song ever, and for a fleeting moment recaptured that early 80s magic in a way no band has since). Do I really care that wild boys never lose it, never chose this way, never close your eyes but always shine?

I get a similar feeling from a late song like All You Need Is Now – the section where Le Bon sings ‘And you sway in the moon the way you did when you were younger’ still takes me to a rare place of bittersweet emotion, even if the overall production already feels dated. Personally, I like the track list far better than the greatest hits compilation Decade they released, well, at the end of the decade. Hungry Like the Wolf” would be laughable if it didn’t have the hookiest chorus 1982 had to offer, one that made it undeniably iconic. There are few things as quintessentially American as thinking you are better than most of your fellow Americans, most of whom are thinking the same thing about you. Popular though they may have been in their prime, but they were pretty formulaic in the early 80s, and hearing any random Duran Duran song was hardly different than hearing any other.By the way I think you’re spot on about Le Bon’s extraordinary ability to pour such intense feeling into a line or phrase. And – other than the hit James Bond theme “A View to a Kill” – Arena was our last glimpse of Duran Duran at the top. to the frantic “Careless Memories”, this is an album chock full of strong melodies, strong enough to carry the frankly ridiculous lyrics they are saddled with. So when I see a link for an article on “ The 50 Greatest Live Albums Ever”, do I really have time to read about 50 live albums that may or may not be deserving of the appellation of “greatest ever”?

I bet even he couldn’t tell you what a single song on the album is about, none of them are about anything really, they are just a bunch of random lines the band thought sounded cool.Then one day many years later I looked up the All Music Guide review by that busy guy Mr Erlewine and was surprised to find he had awarded a mere two stars out of five. It was meant to be a teaser for a full-length feature film of the same name, based on the 1971 novel The Wild Boys: A Book Of The Dead by William S. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The Arena video also featured the extended video for " The Wild Boys", as directed by Russell Mulcahy. By that time Duran Duran’s star was on the wane – side projects were going on by that time, three of the members had already released the greatest album Duran Duran never recorded with Arcadia’s So Red the Rose, a personal favorite of mine I plan on reviewing someday.

There’s more kick to the instrumental parts too, and you still have all the assorted sounds that pop in and out (I have no doubt were prerecorded). Duran Duran was always a triumph of style over substance really, a whole lot of nothing wrapped up in spectacular packaging with a giant glittering bow. Simon Le Not Bono’s vocals were a lot less stilted and staid on this release compared to his vocals on the studio versions – his vocals have more life, they feel more natural and organic, I can actually hardly stand to hear the studio versions in comparison as far as the vocals go. Sure, some of it was sequencers rather than live musicianship, but all the same they were masters of musical atmosphere in their idiom. He almost has me caring that “the union of the snake is on the climb” with the amount of passion he puts into singing about it.Two further live cuts from the 1984 world tour were released as B-sides to singles in 1984: " New Religion (Live in LA)" on the North American single for " The Reflex" and the live " Cracks in the Pavement (1984)" on " The Wild Boys". And there’s the spooky “Chauffeur”, I get chills whenever I hear those lines “And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind the front of your dress all shadowy lines/The droning engine throbs in time with your breathing heart” – I mean just read those words, they don’t mean jack, but the melody is so compelling and evocative he could be singing about the wonders of Wisconsin cheese for all I care, I’m hooked. Although I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by this one, any list of “The 50 Greatest Live Albums Ever” that is thoughtful enough to include Wings Over America and Pulse and The Song Remains the Same along with a couple of live Queen albums is all right by me, even if for some inexplicable reason it has not only Kiss Not-Very-Live but also Kiss Not-Very-Live II. The Wild Boys" single was issued with six separate covers in the UK - one featuring each individual band member and one of the band collectively. I can live without “The Reflex”, I can live without “New Moon on Monday”, but the few Duran Duran songs I can’t live without are all here (except “Rio”, but the 2004 remastered version with the bonus tracks fixed that): “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Save a Prayer” and “The Seventh Stranger” and “The Chauffeur”, and then a bunch of the kind of interchangeable songs where it hardly matters which songs they picked.