Duran Duran Album: “Rio”

Duran Duran's "Rio" is unequivocally the perfect pop album, perhaps the band's best effort ever. It's largely defined by its atmospheric keyboard sound, which provides an aura of mysteriousness and sometimes foreboding. As was typical with pop music from its era, "Rio" contains pristine '80s production and mixing by producer Colin Thurston, but it's important to note that every song here is a potential hit, radio-friendly to the max, with lyrics that go from lightweight to soul searching. Often, Simon LeBon portrays himself in an almost sympathetically light, despite his outward vanity. He has a way of getting down about himself, acting tired and pleading, while his voice ranges from low and droning to piercingly high-pitched. LeBon is a good singer, but when his voice is double-tracked on some tunes the results are positively awesome. Lyrically, "Rio" is more astute and mature than one might expect from five English pretty boys plastered all over MTV and in their 20s. There's defiance ("My Own Way," "Hold Back the Rain"), romance ("Lonely in Your Nightmare"), a questioning of personal faith ("New Religion") and elegance and gloomy mysteriousness ("The Chauffer").

Oh, and we can't forget about the mega hits like "Rio" and "Hungry Like the Wolf," both of which still get played on modern-rock radio stations across the country today. Overall, this album is splattered with big, arena-ready choruses, ambient and mysterious synth sounds by Nick Rhodes, chunky bass lines by rocker-at-heart John Taylor, and precision percussion throughout.

The one-night-stand love song is surprisingly tender ("Save a Prayer"), while other songs are filled with bravado and gusto, sounding distressed in the the grand choruses. Most interesting is the dark and foreboding "The Chauffer," which demonstrates Duran Duran's tendancy to go from heroic to tragic from song to song, always remaing ready for big-time radio airplay. No one should miss this early-'80s classic.

This is one album that each song is amazing- a "Perfect" Album.

It contains the dance greats of "Rio", "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Hold Back the Rain", to the darkly romantic "The Chauffeur", and "Save A Prayer"

Yes, I know it is considered an "80's" album with lots of flashy "James Bond" videos to back it up, but those videos could not exsist without the excellent writing and performing that went into these songs enabling this great piece of work to endure into the new millennium. It is still all that and a bag of chips.

**Side note: When this album was released it contained a longer version of "Hungry Like the Wolf" and a different mix of "Hold Back the Rain". If you want the true "Rio" you can find these original mixes on the "Essential Duran Duran Night Versions" album.

What are you waiting for? Buy it!

I was fortunate to interview Simon LeBon while DD was on the road in America for a tour of club dates after the surprise success of "Girls On Film" in US dance emporiums. He mentioned that he was thrilled to be in New York city and had been writing songs non-stop since the band had arrived. Those inspirations must have been the seeds for the songs that evolved into their second album, "Rio." There is an amazing amount of youthful exuberance to be found throughout this disc's nine songs, and the band plays with confidence that belied "Rio's" sophomore album status.

On this album, Duran Duran hit their stated ambition of mixing the do-it-yourself energy of punk with the dance grooves of Chic. DD's concept of punk may have been rooted more in Bowie and Roxy Music than the MC5, but they were the earliest to transcend the New Wave/New Romantic label and have massive pop hits. "Hungry Like The Wolf" beat like nobody's business, undoubtedly helped by the orgasmic moans of an uncredited female. The video for that song was embraced by MTV and "Rio" became a smash.

Take away that hit, and the rest of "Rio" still comes away as imaginative, melodic and brash. The musicianship was greater than the sum of its parts, as each member locked in flawlessly with the others (and Nick Rhodes keyboards a standout), while Simon LeBon shoots for earnest passion and hits his mark, even when the lyrics are fluffy ("Hold Back The Rain"). The manic dual vocals of "New Religion" were also a highlight, something most bands wouldn't have the maturity to pull off on a second record.

More than 20 years later, "Rio" maintains its vitality, better than many of the "important" bands of the period have. Rio maybe have been dancing across the sand, but for Duran Duran, this solid album was sugar sweet and remains their best work.

If the song RIO doesn't make you feel good, nothing will. This album is my all-time favorite. The sounds and flair this album possesses is incredible. Hearing "Hungry Like the Wolf" for the first time in my used-1975 Firebird is something I will not forget.

The album is electric with varying feels from "RIO", to "Hold Back the Rain", to "New Religion". This album is solid... I highly recommend this album.