Monday, November 22, 2010

new, now, next


Ladies and gentlemen, get the glitter ready! Duran Duran will return on December 21 with their thirteenth longplayer, "All You Need Is Now". Knobs were sufficiently twiddled by man of the moment, Mark Ronson.

The cover art was revealed only minutes ago. That is the power of the interwebs, my children. Looks like Lord Nicholas of Rhodes had a bit of fun with photoshop and a box of fonts.

Actually, the artwork was created by contemporary English multimedia artist Clunie Reid.

You'll be able to download a nine track version of the elpee from iTunes before Crimbo. Then, in February, the Brummie lads will make deluxe editions of the physical configurations available with the tracklisting expanded to include three additional tunes.

The tracklisting for the nine track, digital edition of "All You Need Is Now" will feature the following songs.

1. All You Need Is Now
2. Blame The Machines
3. Being Followed
4. Leave A Light On
5. Safe
6. Girl Panic
7. The Man Who Stole A Leopard
8. Runway Runaway
9. Before the Rain

Next week, Simon, John, Nick and Roger will be shooting a vid for the title track from the album. It will be directed by Nick Egan who's no stranger to pointing a camera at the boys. He committed them to digital celluloid for "Ordinary World" and "White Lines (Don't Do It)" in the early 90s.

Since the album is supposed to be a return to the sound that made Duran Duran a household name in the 80s, I can't help but think Russell Mulcahy would've been the perfect choice for director of the first single from the new longplayer.

6 comments:

  1. God I hope they get it right this time...otherwise I think it might be time to call it a day... I'm worried that they haven't really been caught up by the synth band resurgence of late and that Lord Ronson may dwell on the largess of their middle period rather than the excitement of the first two albums for inspiration.

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  2. Hideous cover, but i am really looking forward to the album. Brum boys are the best you know :P

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  3. Well, the sample of "Being Followed" on the website sounds fabbo. It sounds like a total winner, and doesn't exactly sound like retreaded water to me but it definitely has RIO energy levels.

    I like the notion of a succinct digital album and an enhanced physical recording, since I'm not a digital album guy, but doesn't that mean that die hard fans might wait until the album is deemed a stiff before buying it? That sounds like a risky gambit.

    Yes, the cover looks bad. None of the covers after Malcolm Garrett are hits out of the park. At least it's slightly better than RCM!

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  4. Gotta agree with Postpunkmonk - Duran would have been way better served with a great Malcolm Garrett cover!

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  5. Actually, I do rate Frank Olinsky's work on the Notorious releases. Pretty sharp. But enough graphic design blather! What's more vital is that iTunes has "All You Need Is Now" a week early as a free download as of today! And it's wikked cool! Act now as supplies are limited…

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