Duran Duran Rankdown - (completed)

[Pale Shelter]

found another Taylor:

Roger Taylor (drums)

[Pale Shelter]

& another Taylor:


Andy Taylor (guitar)

& by the way, none of the Taylors were related (as far as they could tell)

the band was coming along nicely, but they still needed a front man to complete the package

[Pale Shelter]

& then they met:


Simon LeBon (vocals)

[Pale Shelter]

They recorded their eponymous debut album in 1980. With Simon's penchant for fashion and Australian director Russell Mulcahey, they produced high-quality 35mm films for many of their songs. Two years later, the nascent MTV, hungry for material, ate them up & helped propel them to worldwide super-stardom.

And so commences the Pulse Duran Duran Rankdown...

[Pale Shelter]

 Playing With Uranium (160 pts)


Album: Pop Trash
Released: July 2000

There were plans to release this as a single in Italy, but it never happened, it was only released in Germany as a promotional single. It did not chart.

rainie : 9
Doc Indie Party Rock : 28
peacebone : 29
@cagedjuggalo : 33
★Disco★ : 37
Mirago : 39
Blurry : 40
Red : 42
Juanca : 46
mamooshka : 49
Glove Slap : 50
Pale Shelter : 50

watchers:
Billy
Who The Hell Is Leo?✔
@humanshazam

[Pale Shelter]

So, out of the gate we lost a top 10...sorry Fig, this song was so low that even your last minute bid to save it came up just a bit short.

Next, nothing so dramatic, but 6 of us lose a bottom 10.

[Pale Shelter]

 
Violence Of Summer (Love's Taking Over) (162 pts)



Album:  Liberty
Released: August 1990

#64 US Pop
#13 US Alt
#36 US Dance
#4 Italy
#15 Finland
#20 UK
#21 Ireland
#43 Belgium & Netherlands
#59 Australia
#69 Germany
#82 Canada


Glove Slap : 23
Mirago : 26
★Disco★ : 29
Blurry : 32
Juanca : 33
Doc Indie Party Rock : 38
peacebone : 42
Pale Shelter : 43
rainie : 44
Red : 46
mamooshka : 46
@cagedjuggalo : 48


watchers:
Billy
Who The Hell Is Leo?✔
@humanshazam

[Blurry]

I thought the lyrics on this were lackluster, but it was nice sonically.

[Who The Hell Is Leo?✔]

simple but nice presentation!

[Pale Shelter]

Next, we lose a top 20 & 6 more bottom 10s

[Pale Shelter]

 Meet El Presidente (164 pts)


Album: Notorious
Released: April 1987

#70 US Pop
#40 US Dance
#13 Belgium & Ireland
#16 Italy
#24 UK
#31 Netherlands
#54 Germany


Mirago : 20
Red : 28
mamooshka : 34
Doc Indie Party Rock : 36
Glove Slap : 36
★Disco★ : 41
Pale Shelter : 41
Blurry : 43
peacebone : 43
@cagedjuggalo : 46
Juanca : 47
rainie : 49


watchers:
Billy
Who The Hell Is Leo?✔
@humanshazam

[Pale Shelter]

Next we have the song with the 3rd lowest standard deviation. It's also the first song from one of the "BIG THREE" albums. We will lose 3 bottom 10s (someone will get rid of their 1st bottom 10) & one of these is a #50.

What could it be???

[rainie]

Okay no complaints about 49 or 48 but I didn't think I'd lose a top 10 at #50 Ugh, Pop Trash is actually really underrated imo

[Juanca]

I have a soft spot for Violence of Summer, as this was practically the last song of them that was a hit back home, and I remember being excited at the video premiere. It's true that it was a step down from other debut singles, but I still consider it better than several other songs in this RD.

[Pale Shelter]

 Drowning Man (172 pts)


Album: Wedding Album
Released: September 1993

Although released as a single in Italy & UK as well, it failed to chart anywhere except:
#40 US Dance


rainie : 22
Mirago : 31
@cagedjuggalo : 32
peacebone : 32
★Disco★ : 33
Pale Shelter : 35
Juanca : 37
Red : 38
Glove Slap : 39
mamooshka : 44
Doc Indie Party Rock : 47
Blurry : 50


watchers:
Billy
Who The Hell Is Leo?✔
@humanshazam

[rainie]

Aww, can we get to the bad stuff again?

[Doc Indie Party Rock]

50. Playing With Uranium
Really surprised this came in so low. For me it was one of the highlights off that particular album.

49. Violence Of Summer (Love's Taking Over)
This was Duran Duran trying to sound like the pop sound of the moment. It even had some Wham vibes here and there. Charming, but didn't really work for Simon LeBon's vocal style. Come to think of it the song's style was all wrong for the band.

48. Meet El Presidente
Right about this time ,the New Wave synthpop of the 80's was starting to go through a metamorphis, and it wasn't a very good one either.

47. Drowing Man
I'm not a big 90's fan in general, but even less for 90's Duran Duran. Why? because the songs needed more synths.

[Pale Shelter]

Nov 27, 2017 23:58:08 GMT -5 rainie said:

Aww, can we get to the bad stuff again?

ahem, but there was no "bad stuff" included in this rankdown 

[Pale Shelter]

And for tonight's final reveal, another top 10 is about to bite the dust...and as expected several bottom 10s...make that bottom TWOs (4 of them to be exact) with one of those being a #50. And as has been true all evening, we get a taste of an album that hasn't appeared on the rankdown yet.

Any thoughts as to what it could be?

[peacebone]

Not sure, but I'm hoping that it's my #50 and not my #8...

[Doc Indie Party Rock]

make it a 90's Duran Duran song.

[Pale Shelter]

Nov 28, 2017 0:11:03 GMT -5 peacebone said:

Not sure, but I'm hoping that it's my #50 and not my #8...

no such luck (I admit that I ranked this a smidge too low)


 Skin Divers (189 pts)


Album: Red Carpet Massacre
Released: January 2008

Timbaland is feaured as producer & a backing vocalist here.  It was released as a promotional single in UK & Hong Kong and as a bootleg in Belgium.  It did not chart.

peacebone : 8
★Disco★ : 17
mamooshka : 24
@cagedjuggalo : 31
rainie : 34
Juanca : 34
Glove Slap : 38
Mirago : 40
Blurry : 49
Pale Shelter : 49
Red : 49
Doc Indie Party Rock : 50

watchers:
Billy
Who The Hell Is Leo?✔
@humanshazam

[Blurry]

Nov 28, 2017 0:11:03 GMT -5 peacebone said:

Not sure, but I'm hoping that it's my #50 and not my #8...

rip

[rainie]

Kinda surprised they couldn't even achieve a minor come back with this and Falling Down. Neither is that good, but they both sound very of the time.

[Blurry]

I liked "Falling Down".

"Skin Divers" just didn't sit all that well with me.

[Juanca]

Out of this first bunch I had only heard Violence. All others were first listens. Uranium and Presidente were just meh to me so they went to my bottom 5.

However both Drowning Man and Skin Divers grabbed my attention. Yes, they don't sound like typical Duran Duran but that was part of the appeal to me as well. They had just enough of a Duran touch while being adventurous exercises for the band. Both had catchy melodies and production that added value to me. I can foresee one of my favorites from their last ten years having a low ranking too then

[Doc Indie Party Rock]

46. Skin Divers
This song was all wrong for Duran Duran. Timbalake was all wrong for Duran Duran. I wasn't a fan of Red Carpet Massacre, except for "Falling Down".

[Red]

I'm kind of surprised that "El Presidente" went out in the bottom five, but only kind of. The others don't surprise me at all.

And now, I wait for my #50.

[Pale Shelter]

As you know, in the mid 80s, at the height of their career, Duran Duran split into separate factions for side projects & it would take nearly 20 years before the "Fab Five" were to reunite in the studio & on stage.  In the meantime Warren Cuccurullo came aboard & was a major contributor to the band playing guitar (& occasionally bass) with the band for decades to come.  Warren had worked with Frank Zappa, was a founding member of Missing Persons and put out solo material.  He has worked with Blondie & believe it or not even Frank Sinatra!

[Pale Shelter]

EXTRA
Power Station - Communication


Album: Power Station
Released: 1985

#34 US Pop
#75 UK 
#95 Australia
 
One of those side projects included John, Andy & Roger joining with Robert Palmer along with Tony Thompson & Bernard Edwards (of Chic) to form Power Station.  In 1985 they had two huge US top ten singles (we'll get to those on another day) from their debut self-titled album & this was their 3rd & last top 40 hit from said album.  11 years later they released a follow-up album called Living In Fear.