Label: BMG / Tape Modern
Release date: October 22, 2021
Production: Erol Alkan, Mark Ronson, Giorgio Moroder & Duran Duran
Album length: 51.05 min
Genre: Pop Rock / New Wave
Rating: 8.0/10
Duran Duran, icons of new wave, synth-pop and the New Romantic scene of the eighties, are back with “Future Past”, their fifteenth studio album, which follows 2015’s “Paper Gods” after six years. This year is packed with reasons to celebrate for the legendary New Romantic crew from Birmingham (yep, the hometown of giants of other genre crafts: Judas Priest and Black Sabbath). It’s been 40 years since their self-titled debut, and the band has proven that their name is still huge after four decades in the business, with this year’s slots at Austin City Limits and Isle of Wight Festival, plus two completely sold-out shows in mid-September in their hometown of Birmingham.
“Future Past” is an album that looks as much to the past as to the present and, as part of the title suggests, the future. While its predecessor “Paper Gods” gave its guests (John Frusciante, Lindsay Lohan, Janelle Monae and Nile Rodgers, among others) so much room to roam that they actually dominated in places, all too often unfortunately masking the band’s own essence, this time around things are turned a bit differently. The band has once again invited a few guests, but they work in a way that, at most, strengthens the group’s distinctive, instantly recognizable character. The album is firmly planted in pop rock territory, but Duran Duran have very cleverly merged two worlds this time: the past and the one that’s constantly staring into the future. Into their modern musical vision, which they’ve always chased with more or less success (while also setting new milestones in pop rock), they’ve deftly worked the principles of their famous retro sound, the one that made them global stars 40 years ago (1982 was definitely their year). That’s why this album will also be interesting to everyone who wrote the band off after they started ignoring guitars at the end of the eighties and gave in to trends (electronic textures) that often pulled them away from their roots
Future Past is a wonderfully successful manifesto with which the band marks 40 years of existence. The story is far from over, but it’s truly lovely to hear a whole palette of Nick Rhodes’ synth pastels again, tugging at those old-school Roland synthesizer sounds of the early eighties that define the band’s classic sound and classic era. The unbelievably distinctive opener Invisible announces that right away. The synth pastels and guitar sound are slipped into the arrangements by the production with real finesse and filigree-like delicacy. They’re scattered across the album like Easter eggs. Some moments jump out immediately, others work from the background as you listen.
The new album confirms that Le Bon has grown over time into a phenomenal vocalist. That’s especially clear on the songs with standout choruses, such as Future Past, the melancholic, yearning, darker yet stately ballad Wing, or the party-ready Anniversary, which by far looks back most to the first half of the eighties, especially when those famous “do-do-do-do-do” vocal harmonies sneak in, instantly evoking the aura of the hits Rio and Hungry Like A Wolf.
Blur guitarist Graham Coxon contributes guitars to the album, and he’s done a really great job. The guitars are punchy and clear in the mix, which is an extra and in fact essential factor that, in places, stirs up and deepens a strong nostalgia for the eighties. That’s down especially to the compressed guitar sound, which the production has cleverly brought close to the sound of the early eighties, noticeable above all in the short solos within the middle-eight passages of Nothing Less, in the title track (leaning toward chanson), and in the interlude of All Of You, the track on the new album that goes hunting for a new ultimate Duran Duran hit. Then there’s More Joy!, where the distinct new wave pastels of Rhodes’ keyboard arrangements take over, adding (especially in the verse) even a veil of the darker, post-punk posture of the eighties.
Well, the album also has two unmistakable dance floor bangers. Beautiful Lies and Tonight United. Both were mixed by the legendary sound guru of disco, Giorgio Moroder, who also co-wrote both songs. Both are firmly tuned to the dance beats of disco from the turn of the seventies into the eighties. The guitar is totally tucked away in the first, and in Tonight United it isn’t there at all. But John Taylor’s fat bass is brought front and center by the production, taking the lead especially in the funky Beautiful Lies. Shame the guy doesn’t ‘slap’ more, like he did on the classic albums. Neither song lacks a thing, but they drift away from the rest of the material, which rings out much more interestingly on the album, being richer and more fully realized in the arrangements themselves.
As is well known, at the start of this January Duran Duran recorded a cover of Bowie’s classic Five Years, released as a single to mark five years since Bowie’s death. And while we’re at it, among the guest performers on the band’s new album, the contribution of Mike Garson, Bowie’s famous keyboardist, is worth singling out. The opening of the closing track Falling, with Garson’s cabaret touch on the piano, fleetingly evokes the first half of the seventies, when Garson co-created some unforgettable moments on “Aladdin Sane” with his piano. Even if the song lacks that final dot on the ‘i’ that would close the album with a highly vibrant flourish, one that would easily make the listener want to spin the record again
“Future Past” is, then, exactly what the title says. A collision of the old New Romantic days with modern-minded production and sonic approaches, courtesy of the old new wave romantics, whose fire and passion clearly haven’t gone out. It’s an album that brings together both the fans who swear only by the first half of the eighties and everyone else who never turned their backs on the band. Strong in expression and hair-splittingly polished in sound, it’s a record with which Duran Duran, as great gentlemen of music and masters of their craft, keep their youthful spirit, accompanied by constant artistic maturing, wisdom and experience. For Duran Duran, the ‘past future’ remains a deep artistic inhale and exhale of a creative present.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Invisible
2. All Of You
3. Give It All Up (ft. Tove Lo)
4. Anniversary
5. Future Past
6. Beautiful Lies
7. Tonight United
8. Wing
9. Nothing Less
10. Hammerhead (ft. Ivorian Doll)
11. More Joy! (ft. Chai)
12. Falling (ft. Mike Garson)
Line-up:
Simon Le Bon – vocals
Nick Rhodes – keyboards
John Taylor – bass guitar
Roger Taylor – drums
Guest musicians:
Barli – backing vocals
Graham Coxon – guitar
Joshua Blair – piano, programming, string arrangements on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8, keyboards on tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, guitar on track 6, additional keyboards and keyboard programming on tracks 9, 10 and 12
Erol Alkan – programming on tracks 1 and 9, synthesizer on tracks 1 and 3, drum programming on tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 and 12, handclaps on tracks 2 and 10, percussion, tambourine on track 2
Tove Lo – vocals on track 3
Giorgio Moroder – additional keyboards on tracks 6 and 7
Saffron Le Bon – backing vocals on tracks 6, 7, 9 and 10
Mark Ronson – guitar on track 8
Ivorian Doll – vocals on track 10
Chai – vocals on track 11
Mike Garson – piano on track 12
