Duran Duran Album: “Medazzaland”

Medazzaland did not get anywhere near the attention it deserves. This is clearly one of the best Duran Duran album and there are many excellent ones. Every track on this CD shines. For me the standouts were: "Out Of My Mind", "Buried in The Sand", "Midnight Sun", and "So Long Suicide". I would recommend any Duran Duran album, but this is one of my favorites. Buy a copy and give it a listen and you'll see why.

I wanted to like this album more than I did. I had avoided buying it for some reason when it came out (I did Pop Trash too). I bought "Astronaut" and fell in love with Duran Duran again, and thus was inspired to purchase "Medazzaland" and "Pop Trash". This album has many great reviews here at Amazon so I had high hopes. Not a total let down, "Big Bang Generation", "Electric Barbarella", "Out of My Mind" and "Midnight Sun" are excellent tracks and worth the 10 or 15 dollars, but it just wasn't the dark expirimental masterpeice that I had heard it was. Buy it for those tracks though for sure. ANd don't forget to buy "Astronaut"!!!!

That's the best description I can give this. Brilliant. The great follow-up, Pop Trash, continues in this dark style, though may be slightly more accessible. Medazzaland took some getting used to but now I love it.

Many regarded Duran Duran as a guilty pleasure. The singles sound great but you are not "allowed" to like them since they are supposed to be superficial. Let me help you out of this dream. Duran Duran is perhaps not as much rock & roll as Iggy Pop or The Ramones but these guys come much closer than you think. They sure know how to play their instruments and put on an excellent show. It is no surprise to me at all that their newest album Astronaut is a tremendous success and a darling of most critcs. Duran Duran finally gets the credit they deserve. Medazzaland? An excellent piece of work with great hooks. "electric barbarella" sounds as good as any Duran Duran number 1 song from the 80's but then with the updated sound. A signature uptempo Duran Duran cut. This should have been a top 10 hit. It actually reminds me of "Sunrise". Same for "Big Bang generation". This is a masterpiece. The Saint's soundtrack song "Out of my mind" sounds fresh and really grows on you. The styles sometimes differ on this album. "Who do you think you are" is more of a guitar driven ballad and "Michael, you got..." is touching. All in all, I rate this album 4 stars since most songs are catchy, well written and produced. The album also has the tendency to grow on you. You may not like it the first time you hear it but after a few spins, you quickly realize it rocks!

Duran Duran does what their critics don't expect them to do but anyone who listens to them knows they are anything but predictable, playing different styles of music, being anything but the new wave idols tabloids state them to be.

On Notorious they turned their hand to making some funk inspired music and Big Thing was part house/part slow synth landscapes. On Medazzaland they turn to experimenting with electronic music, but with a more traditional rock base producing some of their most interesting music ever. And there's no quickly thrown together drum n bass like some bands resorted to at the time.

Midnight Sun is one the most beautiful songs they've done topping even Ordinary world and Come undone. Michael is a slow ballad also. Both songs comes with layers of Nick's sweeping electronica which might take some getting used to. Out of my mind is a haunting tune, it does what Come Undone does on The Wedding album and somethings about it reminds me of that song too.(Interestingly it also has that short break after the chorus like Come Undone). It could have easily been a big hit if they had been promoted at all by EMI.

So long suicide is one of the best Duran songs to rock out to, when Simon uses his raucous rock voice (like on Wild boys) not even many rock singers can beat him. Buried in the Sand is a cool song with Nick's lyrics about John Taylor's departure, it sounds a bit Smashing Pumpkins while also featuring Indian sounding solo and percussion. I like how Simon's voice sounds dark and ominous here. Silva Halo is quite short and doesn't really sound too good here but live it really turns into something awesome.

Big bang generation, Who do you think you are and Be my icon are not favourites of mine but I can't really find anything wrong with them, they all have strong hooks and melodies going. I suppose it's just not my kind of music. Undergoing treatment and Medazzaland are cool for its weirdness factor I can't say much more. So that's one star less from me.

Overall the album is essential and it blows away other bands attempts at electronic music around that same time (e.g U2, David Bowie). It's a shame that innovative music gets overlooked because of a band's image.