Since April 2017, Cherry Lipstick has been completing a significant retrospective review of each Duran Duran album.
The 5* rating for each track is subjective to that reviewer and it is up to them to justify that rating!
From the debut album to Future Past...
Reviews completed as at October 2023: 17/17
(Here are the all important rules for what can be included in the album review)
September 14, 2019
"It is now time to see beyond what did happen, and back to what was seen and heard by the eyes and ears of 1981. The curse of hindsight tells us John and Nick were able to astonishingly predict their path to 1984, but the future really wasn’t already written."
Album Review (September 2020) by
Baranduin Briggs,
Ruth Galvin,
Fliss,
Elisa Lorello,
J.R. Kiss,
C.K. Shortell
ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE CHERRY LIPSTICK FANZINE VOLUME 3 ISSUE 7
"1983 would find Duran dazzled by the fame they had courted and created. Seven and the Ragged Tiger is Duran’s ‘dark album’ both figuratively and literally. Simon endlessly tells us he’s not happy with various references to light/shade and escape/danger"
"Thanks to the heavy-handed production, on Arena we are offered crunching stadium rock and Simon’s worst performance on a record. Stripped of the visuals, the music is horribly exposed."
"Now, here they were, blinking into the light, looking all grown up and deciding to appear in glorious monochrome. Gone were the roaring lion-haired peacocks of 1984, or even the black-haired Euro-artistes of 1985. Instead came their new record in solid black."
"Duran ’88 was a slash-and-burn at the past. Nothing had been done to prepare us for the bizarre horror of the Big Thing front cover. Splattered in hard-to-read fluorescent gaudiness, it looks utterly unappealing."
Album review by Ruth Galvin and Adam Wilson
November 13, 2018
"The absolution of a new decade dawned. Here was another opportunity to draw a line between the Fab Five era and a brash, reinvented Duran. Having attempted renewal as an independent force, Simon, John and Nick intended to remain relevant in a recreated 5-piece union."
"The ghosts of Ordinary World are echoed in the band's last great album cover. These gorgeous photos rightly gave the album its popular name and perfectly captured the album's mood and the times. Nostalgia never came this poignant."
Album review by J.R. Kiss and Adam Wilson
May 5, 2018
"Cover versions had been a key feature of Duran's career. So, what the hell was wrong with Duran doing an album of covers? Nothing, right?"
"The album artwork (unwittingly?) reinforces the new band dynamic. Images of the three remaining members adorn the graffiti strewn cover, with three pictures of Nick, two of Warren, and one of a sombre LeBon in the corner, as if he is wondering what the f*** happened to his band."
Album review by C.K. Shortell and Adam Wilson
July 5, 2018
"As the name ‘Pop Will Eat Itself’ had been taken, ‘Pop Trash’ would have to do. This is Duran’s Death Album – most of the tracks summon up end-days imagery. One of the final words on the album is ‘goodbye’."
"Astronaut is an experiment gone horribly wrong; a collection of songs mostly inferior to some amazing work left on the cutting room floor."
"The reactionary Duran kick against a poorly-received album has consigned RCM to the doghouse for several years. But now it is time for some re-evaluation and appreciation."
Album review by C.K. Shortell and Adam Wilson
March 4, 2019
"The momentum of the reunion had quickly run aground on the familiar rocks of commercial indifference and creative mahem, Duran needed a solid album that restored the faith of the fan base, and maybe even within the band itself. The result? The closest they have bothered to come to deliberately recreating their pop glory. "
"The Rio pink telephone, the Come Undone shoe, the Wild Boys mouth illustrate our futile attempt to immortalise our lives through materialism and souvenir; the spiritual value of experience is only felt retrospectively, as a sense of loss channelled through nostalgia."
Album review by Ruth Galvin
November 2021
Only available in the Cherry Lipstick print fanzine Volume 3 Issue 11
Album review by Ben Rawson-Jones
October 27, 2023
"All these many months of mounting excitement, intense speculation and an underlying dread have come down to this. Once it’s played, it’s over. It’s not new anymore."
ALSO!
So Red The Rose by Ruth Galvin
June 1, 2018
A special additional review:
"To worship Arcadia as a project is to lend some credibility to fandom. It has become the yardstick by which their creativity has been measured ever since and the go-to in defending the musicianship within Duran Duran."
AND!
as a special bonus...
The Cherry Lipstick view on a possible Simon Le Bon solo album, by Adam Wilson
PLUS!
REPORTAGE - THE LOST ALBUM. FOUND!
a 5-star review by C.K. Shortell, published on 1 April 2018
THE POWER STATION
Album reviews only available in the print fanzine
Vol 3 Issue 15, Nov 2022
'33 1/3' by Ruth Galvin
and
Living in Fear by C.K. Shortell
RECORD STORE DAY!
It's the most wonderful time of the year - here are the Cherry Lipstick reviews of these albums:
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