Duran Duran is the debut studio album by the English pop rock band Duran Duran, released on 15June 1981 through EMI. Produced by Colin Thurston, it was recorded in London and Oxfordshire between December 1980 and January 1981. The instrumental tracks were recorded quickly, but vocalist Simon Le Bon initially struggled to sing in the studio, leading to discussions about replacing him before EMI employee Dave Ambrose intervened.
Influenced by artists such as David Bowie, the Human League, Japan and Chic, Duran Duran features a mixture of new wave, synth-pop and dance-punk tunes with more atmospheric tracks, as well as elements of disco and punk rock. Le Bon's cryptic lyrics cover topics from youthful torment and confusion to the band's goals and ambitions. The cover artwork for the album and singles were designed by Malcolm Garrett.
Three singles appeared for the album, each promoted with music videos, which helped the album reach number three in the UK and remain in the top 100 for 118 weeks. The sexually-provocative video for "Girls on Film" was controversial, and generated publicity for the new MTV channel in the United States. Its initial US release on Capitol subsidiary Harvest Records was unsuccessful; a reissue there during the height of the band's fame in 1983 reached the top ten of the Billboard chart.
Duran Duran initially received mixed reviews. Critics felt the band did not stand out from their contemporaries, although some praised the singles. Retrospective reviews have been more positive, with critics complimenting the band for creating a modern sound that spearheaded the New Romantic movement. It was remastered and re-released in a 2010 special edition, with bonus demos and live tracks.
Background
Childhood friends John Taylor and Nick Rhodes formed Duran Duran in Birmingham, England, in 1978 with John's art-school friend Stephen Duffy. The trio were influenced by David Bowie, the Human League, Ultravox, Lou Reed and Kraftwerk. The band performed live throughout 1979, going through numerous lineup changes before securing the lineup of John Taylor, Rhodes, drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Andy Taylor by early 1980. Around this time, they were hired as the resident band of the Birmingham nightclub Rum Runner; the club's owners Paul and Michael Berrow became their managers.
Drama student Simon Le Bon was hired as Duran Duran's lead singer in May 1980. Le Bon struggled to sing at first and did not fit the band's desire for a singer who, according to Rhodes, was a mix between Reed, Bowie and Iggy Pop. Having written poems and stories during his childhood, the band were impressed with Le Bon's skill with melodies; he composed the lyrics and vocal line for "Sound of Thunder" during his first audition. Andy Taylor told a journalist, "Simon came in with this book of poetry and kept coming up with these ideas and melodies. We were like, 'This guy doesn't even know what his potential is.' There was an innocence to it all". Duran Duran's first performance with the lineup of Le Bon, Rhodes and the three Taylors was on 16July 1980 at the Rum Runner.
Development
Duran Duran spent two months writing songs and developing their sound. According to the biographer Steve Malins, John Taylor was an integral part of the group during this period: "The sensitive, charming, ad-libbing pop star to Rhodes's more controlled Pop Art alter ego". Rhodes worked creatively with Andy, playing around the keyboardist's patterns and solidifying the melodies. Malins writes that Andy's skill as an arranger assisted in forming the band's "rough, undisciplined mixture[s]" of punk, disco and electronic styles into tight, cohesive structures; Roger Taylor's "compact, unshakable drumming" provided a backbone for the group.
According to John Taylor, grooves, chord progressions and melodies were primarily derived from jam sessions. They further developed tracks they had debuted live, such as "Night Boat", "Late Bar", "Girls on Film", "Sound of Thunder" and an early version of "Tel Aviv". Andy Taylor later said, "In the beginning that worked because as we wrote the songs we'd all be pitching in and experimenting". John Taylor recalls that "Night Boat", in particular, arose from a "drifting keyboard sample" by Rhodes with Andy's Roland guitar synthesiser. Le Bon was a quick writer, coming up with lyrics to "Girls on Film" after receiving the first version. During the writing period, Duran Duran agreed to credit all songs to the band and split all earnings evenly.
By September 1980, Duran Duran had written all of what would become their first studio album. They continued performing live and demoing tracks at Bob Lamb's Birmingham studio and London's 24-track AIR Studios while Paul Berrow worked on attracting record-label attention. Throughout the rest of the year, they opened for Pauline Murray and Hazel O'Connor, and secured an article with Sounds magazine, whose writer Betty Page aligned them with the rising New Romantic movement and drew comparisons with the London-based new wave band Spandau Ballet. With their live performances attracting attention, Duran Duran signed with EMI following a bidding war with Phonogram Records.
Recording
Duran Duran recorded their debut album over a six week period starting in December 1980. Colin Thurston was chosen as producer, having previously worked with Bowie, Pop, the Human League and Magazine; Thurston was happy to work with Duran Duran after hearing the demo of "Girls on Film". synth-pop and dance-punk tunes, with more atmospheric tracks. Andy Taylor later said, "We wrote the first album to kind of make up what we were going to be, what this futuristic sound was". Writer Annie Zaleski describes this sound as "space-age keyboards, post-punk guitars, disco-inspired bass lines and Le Bon's vocal croon". According to John, the band disliked the chosen cover photograph by Fin Costello but approved of Garrett's design. The band began a short 11-date Faster than Light tour on 29June. To their surprise, they were greeted by screaming fans. Although the shows did not sell out, Le Bon said that their headbands inspired a short-lived "national fashion". On 13July, "Girls on Film" was released as the third single, backed with "Faster than Light". Reaching the UK top five and receiving substantial airplay on Radio 1, the single made Duran Duran one of the biggest new bands of 1981. According to Andy, the band knew that "Girls on Film" would be a bigger hit than "Planet Earth" but wanted to wait until they were established to release it.
thumb|upright=0.9|alt=Individual photos of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme on stage|[[Godley & Creme directed the music video for "Girls on Film".]]
The single helped Duran Duran peak at number three in the UK and spend 118 weeks on the chart, going platinum by December 1982 and selling 1.6 million copies worldwide.
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Duran Duran initially received mixed reviews. NME Chris Bohn and Trouser Press<nowiki/>'s Ira Robbins felt the band lacked the skills needed to separate themselves from other New Romantic artists. Smash Hits Beverly Hillier was also unimpressed, finding "Simon Le Bon's dull and lifeless vocals, together with lots of synth noises and rock guitar combine to make this album sound like one long drawn out single." More positively, Sounds magazine's Betty Page called Duran Duran an "incredible, mature debut bristling with prospective hit singles". Ira Robbins said the album "contains more creative and diverse noises and thoughts than all the real and would-be Spandau Ballets put together" in Trouser Press. The band were viewed in a mixed light by their musical peers. Gary Numan voiced his support, but Ultravox's Midge Ure was an outspoken critic. Human League and Heaven 17's founder Martyn Ware saw Duran Duran as a "glamour puss band" who had "no sense of originality or art about them".
Retrospective reviews of Duran Duran have been more positive. Twenty years after its release, Courtney Taylor-Taylor of the Dandy Warhols said: "If you go back to the first record, they smoked everybody. It's incredible! Disco bass-lines, Japan textures and mixed by the guy who did the Iggy Pop records". For AllMusic, Eduardo Rivadavia argued the album "artfully coalesced the sonic and stylistic elements of the burgeoning new romantic movement they were soon to spearhead". He called the band's choice of singles "ultra-smart" and, combined with their "groundbreaking" music videos, Duran Duran secured them as frontrunners of the MTV generation"cementing their status as one of the decade's most successful pop music icons".
Reissues
US 1983 Capitol reissue
During the height of the band's fame after the release of their second album Rio, Capitol reissued Duran Duran in the US in late April 1983 and added the band's then-current single "Is There Something I Should Know?" to the track listing. This release made the top ten of Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in August 1983, with remastered audio engineered by Andrew Walter at Abbey Road Studios. It contained the original album and a number of bonus tracks, including the band's AIR and Manchester Square studio demos recorded on 29July and 8December 1980, respectively. The special edition also included a BBC radio session, recorded on 19June 1981, and a DVD with BBC footage and the band's music videos from the era. Fans criticised the remaster as containing audio "level-bouncing", loss of dynamic range and other defects, particularly on "Girls on Film".
Track listing
1981 original release
Notes
- On the original US release, "Girls on Film" and "Planet Earth" switch places (and the "night version" of the latter is used instead). "To the Shore" was not on the original US release, and the 1983 US reissue added the previously unreleased "Is There Something I Should Know?" at the end of side one. The original 1983 US CD used the reissue version, however the 1993 UK Parlophone CD adds "To the Shore" to the end of the disc.
1983 Capitol reissue
2010 limited edition
2010 limited edition DVD
Personnel
Album credits adapted from AllMusic:
Duran Duran
- Simon Le Bon – vocals
- Andy Taylor – guitar, vocals
- John Taylor – bass guitar, vocals
- Roger Taylor – drums
- Nick Rhodes – keyboards, synthesisers
Production
- Colin Thurston – production, engineering
- Ian Little – production ("Is There Something I Should Know?")
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+1981–93 weekly chart performance for Duran Duran
! scope="col"| Chart (1981–93)
! scope="col"| Peak<br/>position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
| 9
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Portuguese Albums (AFP)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"|US Billboard Top LPs & Tape
| 10
|-
! scope="row"| US Rock Albums (Billboard)
| 24
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+2024 weekly chart performance for Duran Duran
! scope="col"| Chart (2024)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
! scope="row"| Croatian International Albums (HDU)
| 7
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+1981 year-end chart performance for Duran Duran
! scope="col"| Chart (1981)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| UK Albums (BMRB)
| 27
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+1982 year-end chart performance for Duran Duran
! scope="col"| Chart (1982)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
| 10
|-
! scope="row"| UK Albums (BMRB)
| 60
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 1983 year-end chart performance for Duran Duran
! scope="col"| Chart (1983)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| UK Albums (Gallup)
| 89
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard Top LPs & Tape
| 26
|}