Album Retrospective 1.5

Duran Duran (1981 album) Side B

Okay so even though this album only has nine songs on the original recording, I had to divide it up because the two sides are so different. I think this first album explored a lot of potential places where these men could have gone as a band and the majority of what that opted for were more songs like you find on the first side and less like what you find on the second side. That isn't to say you never get weirdy, more experimental songs from them past this. You certainly do. It's just not what they're mostly known for. And actually, I say that in ignorance because I don't know their full catalog. I will though before I am finished with this. So maybe I should revisit that statement later.

Night Boat:

Okay I can't really talk about this song without talking about the video. It starts with Simon being all spacey and quoting Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet. Then it builds into an all-out mini horror film with zombies! The video also has some of the earmarks of what the band will later be known for when it comes to videos, namely, islands, boats, and plotlines that don't quite make sense. The song itself opens up the second side of the album into a nice bit of creepiness. The keyboards are all-out horror movie, as is the bass. The guitar is often plucked in a nervous repeat and Simon is clearly having some kind of meltdown in the lyrics. To me, this song has hints of what could have happened if the band had gone goth instead of pop. I think it could have been a nice place.

The Sound of Thunder:
This is probably the weakest song on the second side, but I still like it. It has the same kind of dread of the song it follows, but the tempo is faster. The keyboards are more wistful than scary. The bassline has a nice bob to it. The guitar is more jaunty. All of this seems to spin around the lyrics. Simon has said the song is about what it would be like if you're the last person left alive after the next war. Personally, I think it works well as a song about someone having a pretty bad drug trip.

Friends of Mine:
I'm not sure what this song is supposed to be about and I'm not going to look it up. I know that Georgie Davis was a criminal who had a pretty big "free him" campaign. To me, this song always felt loosely influenced by Bowie's "Bewlay Brothers" though I can't quite put my finger on why. Simon sings it very accented. There seems to be a sense of the general angst and anxiety a lot of young Brits were feeling mixed into this song. In the video, they all wear black rather uniformish outfits with white and red accents. The video is probably boring for most people, as it's just concert footage plus  the band sitting around a table playing cards, but I loved it because it's a slightly rare find PLUS Simon looks so hot.

Tel Aviv:

Did your childhood favorite band have a sophisticated instrumental song on THEIR debut album? To be fair, this song didn't start out as an instrumental. Simon wrote "On my Way to Tel Aviv" as a poem and said poem started out as the lyrics for the song. But over time, the song evolved into something without the lyrics and including strings. The song always fascinated me because little tween me felt like it was the sign of how deep and amazing Simon was. Plus! STRINGS!!