Category: music

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Danse Macabre: Duran Duran delivers a mixed bag of Halloween treats

Imagine showing up to a 1%er’s super big fun Halloween party, then discovering that they managed to hire Duran Duran to be the “house” band for the party. The band was asked to play a set of Halloween-themed music for the party. 

What if the band decided they enjoyed that Halloween set so much that they decided to make a “Halloween-themed” album? Enter Danse Macabre.

That’s not far from the truth, either.

The album was inspired by the band’s Halloween show in Las Vegas last year during their Future Past tour. The band decided to make the most of it, decorating the stage and appearing in costume, including, at one point, Simon LeBon dressed in drag (gasp!). Along with many of their usual set songs, they threw in a few unique covers, like Spellbound and Psycho Killer.

You can find several videos on YouTube of various numbers from the show. 

Anyway, borrowing some of the concepts from that show, their 16th studio album contains 13 tracks: three new songs, three (and a half) reimagined versions of existing songs, and the rest are covers. 

I know, I know. Many fans will cringe at the thought of another Duran cover album after 1995’s Thank You. Fortunately, most of that album has faded away, except for White Lines, which the guys have performed live on tours. 

I feel like this album was just kind of a “why the fuck not” project, aimed to provide a nice holiday treat to their fans. 

Although they can be dark and brooding musically, which would have made sense for a Halloween album, I think the band stuck more with the concept of a Halloween party direction, so the song choices are more things that you can dance to rather than providing a sense of atmosphere. 

It also doesn’t hurt that the guys are riding a new wave of popularity with both the recent new album and their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame giving them some long-overdue respect. 

Overall, it’s not the best Duran album, but it’s certainly not the worst. I would have preferred they leaned more into the “dark” and “moody”, but overall, most of the songs are fine.

Some nice things about the album: Roger is here. I know it seems weird to say that. They have a perfectly great drummer, so why not use him? But, there are times when it’s felt like Roger has been skipped over on parts of the last couple of albums in favor of machines, or just that the percussions were mixed into the background. Here, it feels like Roger is more front and center than he’s been in years. 

Also, the band has reconnected with Warren Cuccurullo and original guitarist Andy Taylor. Warren plays on a couple of tracks, while Andy is on most of the album.

On the new side, Black Moonlight is the catchiest of the bunch. Once again, they’ve partnered up with Nile Rodgers of Chic, and it feels like it’s almost effortless for this combo to crank out a funky dance track that echoes Duran’s past while still sounding fresh. 

Danse Macabre is kind of the Halloween jam of the album. Parts of it will bore into your brain, and again, much like Future Past, fans will pick up on echoes of past Duran Duran sounds mixed into the new. My only complaint is that it almost feels too long, so it starts to feel a little repetitive by the end. 

Confessions of the Afterlife is the most ethereal track that closes the album. It’s one of the slowest songs on the album; almost like it’s that “after-party” wind down. It’s full-on Duran Duran synths with echoes of the Arcadia days. It’s almost like a tradition anymore for the band to have these deep, even spiritual-sounding tracks at the end of the album. It’s a beautiful song, and Simon really pushes his vocals here. 

The covers:

Most of the covers are pretty good, and when Duran Duran stays in their wheelhouse of pop/funk, they sound great. Obviously,, for the most part, they play it safe with the songs, adding just enough to “Duranaize” the song without straying too far from the originals. Psycho Killer is probably the best of the bunch. Ghost Town and Spellbound are also well done.

Supernature is okay, but between its original sound and the Duranization of it, I had to Google to see if it wasn’t a lost Duran Duran song. It’s actually a cover of a 1978 disco hit, and the theme is appropriate because the lyrics talk about a future where mankind’s abuse of the environment causes the “creatures down below” the ground to rise up and seek revenge. 

Things start to go off the rails with Billie Eilish and The Rolling Stones. Musically, Paint It Black is a pretty solid cover, but Simon’s determination to not sound like Mick Jagger really hams it up and ends up sounding kind of lounge-singer-y. This is one where I really wish they’d been more experimental. 

Duran Duran really envelopes you with a wall of sound in their music, and Eilish’s minimalist style is the furthest thing from it. Bury A Friend sounds like someone trying really hard to transform the song into a dance track. The result is, well, different. For a Halloween-themed album, though, the original was much spookier, and the guys really suck the life out of it. I’m curious what other fans will think of it.

Then, there’s the Frankenstein track: Super Lonely Freak. The song starts out as a refreshed version of Lonely in Your Nightmare from the band’s Rio album. Perfectly fine, until… it makes a hard right turn into a partial cover of Rick James’ Super Freak. I’m pretty sure that the guys play this as part of their live set. They can definitely cover Rick James, it’s just a weird juxtaposition of the two. I’d really wish they just went full versions of both songs. 

The updated tracks:

Nightboat, an update to (Waiting for the) Nightboat from their debut album, is by far the best of the bunch. The band is using the song as their opening number for their live shows. The synths Nick brings into this track really give it a movie soundtrack vibe, even a James Bond-like sound. But, the new version sounds great while maintaining much of the original vibe of the track. 

Voudou is an uptempo version of Love Voodoo from the “Wedding Album” in the early 90s. It’s actually pretty good, but to me, the uptempo version takes away some of the spirit of the original. They’ve also covered this one live on occasion, and I really prefer either of them. Again, the other versions were “spookier.”

Secret Oktober 31st is a fan-favorite song. It was originally a B-side from the 1983 single for Union of the Snake. This is one where, although it sounds pretty good, it’s so overproduced that it really strays away from the original. Again, the original was “darker” and “moodier”. There’s a YouTube video of a slower, moodier live version that’s closer to 8 minutes long. The one change I like in this version is the beginning, where it sounds like someone winding a music box, and the melody starts off with those music box chimes.

Duran Duran can certainly do dark and moody, and I really thought that they’d lean into that for a “Halloween-themed” album. That’s probably where I’d say the album misses the most. Sure, the song subjects may be directly or indirectly related to the season, but really the overall mix feels more dance-like than anything. 

I say, why not both? They’re more than capable of creating “dark” sounding music while still being something you can tap your feet to. 

Overall, is it a bad album? It’s no Thank You, for sure. If anything, it demonstrates that Duran Duran is a perfectly great band that has found a consistent groove over the last several years, and in many ways, 40 years later, they’re at the top of their game. 

Most of the songs are fine, and a few are pretty great. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, and I don’t think that was ever the band’s intent. It’s meant to be a treat for their fans, and it’s up to the fans whether they love all of it, some of it, or none of it. If nothing else, it’s some newish Duran Duran content to enjoy until they eventually wander back into the studio for the next album.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

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The Last Beatles Song — Now And Then

For the last couple of years, there’s been a bit of a minor panic about the possibilities of what AI can do, specifically in creative fields, like music, art and film. 

The fear is that corporations, being the completely money-hungry entities that they are, would eventually leverage AI to generate all new content “in the style” of artists, musicians or film stars who have long since passed. 

It’s certainly possible. If you search around on YouTube now, you can already find cases where people have produced cover songs sung by AI versions of artists, like the Beatles singing Beach Boys songs. I found one of Johnny Cash singing “I’m a Barbie Girl” to the tune of “Folsom Prison Blues.”

Today, though, the world is being introduced to a song that’s not meant to be a cash grab (well, maybe just a bit of a self-promoting cash grab), but an example of where AI can actually help save a song that would have otherwise never been completed. 

Now And Then, released today by the Beatles, is promoted as the “last” new Beatles song, with contributions from all four members of the band. 

Considering two of them have been gone for decades (John in 1980, George in 2001), that’s pretty remarkable.

They’ve even produced a video explaining how this happened. 

Short Film about Now And Then

Basically, in the 90s, while the surviving three members of the bad were working on their Anthology collections, Yoko provided them with 3-4 audio recordings of songs that John had never released. The band liked them enough that they decided to actually produce new Beatles songs, using John’s demos as the core.

So, with the Anthology albums, they produced two new songs: Free as a Bird, and Real Love. Now and Then was meant to be the third song, but at the time, technology wouldn’t allow them to extract John’s vocals from the original cassette recording. The band did some initial work on the song, even recording parts (including George on guitar), but they ultimately scrapped it. 

But, then, a few years ago, Peter Jackson started working on the Get Back documentary, pouring through the old Beatles video recordings of the Let It Be sessions. While working on that project, Jackson hired sound engineers to develop an AI that would help them isolate the Beatles’ vocals and music from the videos so they could remix them in high definition. 

As a result, the band now had an AI programmed to recognize all of the Beatles voices. So, Paul, who has always wanted to finish Now and Then, had them run the demo of Now and Then through their system. 

Finally, they had a clean vocal of John. Luckily, they had also kept the sessions from the 90s, so they still had George’s guitar tracks. With Paul and Ringo, they put together what is effectively the last Beatles song with all four members contributing to the song. 

And, so, we now have a new Beatles song that’s, depending on where you count, at least 28 years in the making? (If you count from John’s demo in 1978, we’re talking over 40 years)


The Beatles: Now And Then Audio

So, how is it? 

It’s good. It’s scary good. With Free as a Bird, I think they weren’t able to get a truly clean version of John’s vocal from the original. So, they tweaked it and made it a bit ethereal. The net effect, intentionally or not, adds a wispy quality to his voice on the song, almost feeling like John is providing his voice from the afterlife. Which, technically, he kind of was. 

But, in Now and Then, John’s vocals are front and center. They fade in a couple of places, but there’s no ghostly feel like on the Anthology tracks. It almost sounds like John was in the room singing with his bandmates, which is scary and trippy in its own right. 

Interestingly, Paul’s backing vocals are mixed back a bit, which makes sense considering you have the 81-year-old McCartney singing alongside the 38-year-old voice of John. It sucks, but age is catching up with the “forever young” Beatle. Still, Paul’s allowing his old friend to have the spotlight.

Ringo adds the perfect drum parts, as always, and Paul contributes a lot: re-styling John’s piano track, adding bass, and playing a slide guitar solo in George’s style. 


I think the only disappointing aspect of the song is that George’s lead guitar bits get washed out in favor of the strings. I really wish they had swapped those two, or at least kept the strings to the chorus and the middle sections of the song. 

Still, it’s unmistakably Beatles. 

As much as Paul has wanted to finish the song, there is a bit of shameless self-promotion here. The group is re-releasing a new version of the “Red” and “Blue” albums – popular collections of their greatest hits. Although Now and Then can be purchased separately, it’s also on one of the collections. 

Still, as the last Beatles song, it’s a nice way to finish. 

At least, until, years from now, our AI overlords start generating completely “new” music  from the band. 

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Happy 30th MTV!!!

Now that’s a scary thought…

MTV is older than the last girl I dated… :  )

It’s hard to imagine the 80s without Music Television – you know, back in the days when the station played music videos.

We had heard about MTV, but growing up in West Texas meant we were at least a year or so late to the game. We had to beg our parents to add the channel to our cable subscription (and probably had to beg our parents to even get cable).

But, once we had it, especially during the summer, when we were home and anywhere in the proximity of the living room television, MTV was on. That was assuming, of course, Dad wasn’t watching anything else.

Instead fo just heairng the bands, we could see them. Before long, everyone was trying to do something different with their videos. Some would just be weird, some were artistic. Others would wisk us off to exotic locals or simply push the limits of sexuality on television. A few would push the limits of technology (remember Money For Nothing?)

I was trying to think of a list of things that were so cool about MTV:

1) The videos, obviously. How many 80s bands kicked off their careers or were propelled to superstardom through MTV? Duran Duran, Madonna, U2, Howard Jones, Def Leppard, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Dire Straits, The Fixx, Billy Idol, Men at Work, etc etc. How big would Michael Jackson be without his videos on MTV?

2) The original VJs. They all had distinct personalities, and every guy had a crush on Martha Quinn.

3) The crazy contests where if you were lucky you might appear in a video or have your favorite band play at your house.

4) World premiere videos. Depending on the artist, you had to be there to catch the “premiere” of the latest and greatest video. Of course, if you missed it, chances were pretty good you could catch it again in a couple of hours. How many people remember catching the 20 minute premiere of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”?

5) The impact of adding pop/rock songs to movie soundtracks. I think “Footloose” had a major impact on this as well, but think about how many 80s movies had a pop/rock soundrack (and of course, related music videos) to go with it? Imagine “Top Gun” without the corresponding “Highway to the Dangerzone,” or “Ghostbusters” without its themesong. Hell, imagine any John Hughes movie without the soundrack. How many proms in the 80s just had to play “If You Leave” by OMD? Would Prince have made “Purple Rain”? Would Madonna be an actress?

(ok, forget about that last one)

It wasn’t all good – after all, MTV helped advocate the concept that “image is everything” where the music/talent eventually didn’t matter as much so long as the video worked (see – Brittney Spears)

Plus, MTV somewhat pioneered “reallity television” that now dominates most of the channels today.

Of course, these days, with the internet and access to video software, it’s easy for just about anyone, not just the bands, to come up with their own interpretations of videos for their favorite songs. It’s not MTV, it’s YouTube.

One of the other cool things is that XM satellite radio has brought the original MTV VJ’s back, and they can be heard on the 80s channel (and a couple of others).

So, MTV may not be what it used to be, but there are still ways to get a taste of MTV back in the “good ol’ days”

“I want my, I want my, I want my M… T… V…”

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Amazing Little Voice

Sara Bareilles - Little VoiceIn spite of my large music collection, I’m always on the lookout for something new. As part of this quest for new music, about once a month I check the iTunes top 100 albums just to see if there’s anything there that catches my ear.
This week, I stumbled across this little gem of an album: Sara Bareilles – Little Voice. You owe it to yourself to run, not walk, to uhm, the nearest computer and download this record from iTunes. It’s the best $7 you’ll spend this week.
She’s a singer/songwriter from California, and this is her debut record. She’s got an amazing sound. Her songwriting channels a bit of Joni Mitchell. She’s got a soulful voice that reminds me a lot of Fiona Apple and a bit of Natasha Bedingfield. Most of the songs have great hooks, and several are very radio friendly. You can listen to the single “Love Song” on her website: www.sarabmusic.com.
She’s on the verge of making it big, in my opinion. It’s a shame the record industry spends so much time on trying to manufacture new artists via shows like American Idol when there are plenty of talented people like Sara out there looking for their chance. I’d much rather see young artists like these have the opportunity to make it in the music biz over any of the Idol winners.
How big of a difference is a great singer versus a singer/songwriter? Well – let’s put it this way. Almost forty years after they broke up, the Beatles still have a major impact on musicians today. The Monkees? Not so much.
So, give her record a listen and if you like it, spread the word!

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live 8 — so what’s the big?

UPDATE 07/06/2005:
AOL has posted a page with links to videos from some of the performances:
http://music.channel.aol.com/live_8_concert/highlights
Why was this show important?
Twenty years ago yesterday, another huge concert event called live aid occurred. Two concerts in London and Philadelphia ran most of the day with a large number of bands that were big in the mid 80s. They were trying to raise awareness and money to help aid poverty in african countries.
Although live aid and other efforts like it have raised millions of dollars in aid and have done a great deal to help this part of the world, the effort has simply been a band aid for the problem, not the cure.
The organizers of live 8 realize this, and they are shooting for a bigger, more important goal. End poverty in these countries. Period. But, in order to do that, things have to happen on a much larger scale than they have ever done in the past. So, live 8 is focusing on the G8 summit, where 8 of the wealthiest nations get together and talk. They already have Tony Blair, the british Prime Minister, on board, and he will present their idea to the other nations.
So, if they’re talking to world leaders, why should we care? Well, do you really think President Bush is going to listen to the likes of Bob Geldolf and Bono? Probably not. That’s where the concerts come in. The concerts are meant to attract attention of us, the people, in order to raise awareness of the situation. The president may not listen to a couple of rock stars, but he will pay attention to the concerns of millions of his constituents. I read somewhere that he appears to be on board with this and may double the amount of relief effort to africa. He’s a president on his second term, and like most presidents, he’s thinking about the legacy he will leave behind.
It’s an intriguing idea. Wouldn’t it be nice for the United States to make a difference in part of the world without sacrificing a single soldier, or firing a single shot?
Go here to find out more: www.live8live.com.
Now, about the shows themselves…
Continue reading “live 8 — so what’s the big?”