Duran Duran - Notorious (CD)

Duran Duran's Change Of A Comback

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Apr 12, 2006

Pros: Tightly Constructed,Funky And Melodic

Cons: Different then Duran Duran's early music

When 'Notorious' came out I thought Duran Duran was comepletely washed up from it's glory days.Then I heard the title track and was amazed how musically mature and funky they now sound-with heavy rhythm guitars and abig horn section.Well ...it's 20 years later and I just heard the whole album for the first time.And yes they DEFINATELY had matured.Some songs on this album are definately a little weak but the funkiest ones leap right out at you- "Propositions" and especially the excellent "Meet El Presidente" leap right out at me in particular sharing the sharp funky groove of the hit."American Science","Skin Trade" and "So Misled" put a little keyboard into the mix and "Hold Me" is pure vintage Duran Duran and a good follow up hit.Nile Rodgers-T-H-E hot pop producer of the day (Madonna and everyone) can add this to his many classic 80's production credits.But he never turned this into a dance album per se.He let Duran Duran be themselves.One thing is about 'Notorious' is that it almost totally adandones their classic sound in favor of heavier polish and a lot of slick 80's R&B/funk flavors.But they are more then up to the task on these songs and it turned out to be a great comeback for them. Read more Less

A Pretty Good Effort From a Band In Cris

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jun 1, 2004

Pros: Andy was still around for a few songs!

Cons: Two of the three singles released really suck.

After the fact, I really enjoy this album, but when it was released, the title-track single was misleading, because it sounded very Duran Duran-ish and the rest of the album (I thought at the time) did not, being too funky and American. Nowadays, I h...ave to admit that songs like "Hold Me" and "Proposition" hold up very well against the rest of the body of Duran Duran's work, and that this album has an overall maturity to it that no other Duran albums have ever seemed to meet, though I'm not sure that's a good thing. "Skin Trade" is just plain stupid, but "Meet El Presidente" makes "Skin Trade" sound like the most thoughtful song ever written. Why on Earth Duran Duran chose to release BOTH of these songs as singles from an album that contained "Vertigo," I'll never know. Isn't this the point where they gave their managers the heave-ho? No wonder they disagreed with their management! Management wanted to release the GOOD songs! I give this one a 4. It is not a better album than Seven and the Ragged Tiger. As an aside, anyone else notice that John Taylor seemed to forget how to play all but the most rudimentary bass lines starting here? From this point until he quit at Medazzaland, John's bass lines show none of the creativity and punch of the work he did on Rio, and indeed, they could have been played by a monkey. Read more Less

Notorious Duran Duran!

By Yahoo! Shopping User  May 18, 2004

Pros: Love It!

Cons: None!

Duran Duran came up with a dynamite album. Notorious was produced by my favorite producer, Nile Rodgers. Every track rocked for me. Original reasons why I bought this album was because of the vocal prowess of Cindy Mizelle and the production prowe...ss of Nile Rodgers. But as I listened to the tracks, I fell in love with the sounds and the backing vocals of Cindy Mizelle, Curtis King Jr, Brenda White King and Tessa Niles. This is one of their most dark haunting albums that I ever heard. I am a black man that loves dark covers and dark songs. Everything fits the description of this. If you like British rockers getting their rock on, then I suggest you get this! Nile is and still will be one of my favorite producers of all time! Grade: A- Read more Less

what a notorious album!!!!!!!!

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jun 3, 2001

wow!their first album shaking off their pin-up boys image.it approaches more to adults and it sounds like they have grown up. this lads wants to prove to critics that they can make music and they are not giving up without a fight.they deserve more su...ccess and this album STILL ROCKS like their previous albums. Read more Less

duran duran

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Sep 17, 2000

The band have never sounded more funky!