Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Arcadia
Label: Parlophone Records
Released: 1985
Length: 43:36
Rating: 5/5
Arcadia was a side project formed in 1985 by three members of the New Romantic heroes Duran Duran: singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and drummer Roger Taylor. While Andy and John Taylor, the other two members of the classic Duran Duran lineup, were busy with the supergroup Power Station, which mostly swore by hard rock and funk sounds, the aforementioned trio of buddies were determined to explore the wider horizons of the New Romantic sound and add a bit of something more experimental, with some art rock charm. So in many ways Arcadia was an upgrade of the traditional Duran Duran sound, which by no means suggests that, by digging deeper into new musical territory, this slightly different direction became any less interesting to the broader masses who otherwise swore by pop rock.
On most of the “So Red the Rose” material, it’s clear the band members were venturing into territory they wouldn’t have dared to enter under the Duran Duran name, since they could have risked a major commercial flop. Even though the album has a distinctly art rock charge, with a wide range of elements from electropop, ambient, jazz and even world music, it went platinum and gave them four hit singles with “Election Day”, “The Promise”, “The Flame”, “El Diablo” and “Goodbye Is Forever”. The only Arcadia single that failed to crack the charts was “Say the Word”, which came out as part of the soundtrack to the film “Playing for Keeps”.
The album clearly benefits from the contributions of numerous brilliant and mostly legendary guests, such as guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), vocalist/bassist Sting (ex-The Police), keyboardist Herbie Hancock (ex-Miles Davis), guitarist Carlos Alomar (best known for his work with David Bowie), singer Grace Jones, saxophonist Andy Mackay (Roxy Music) and bassist Mark Egan (best known for his work with the Pat Metheny Group). Egan, with his delicate fretless bass playing, especially shines on “The Promise”, “El Diablo” and “Lady Ice”, the album’s closing three tracks. They’re all “to blame” for the album’s incredibly rich, full sound, since each of them adds their own signature musical influences to the New Romantic sound.
The opening hit “Election Day”, the best-known track on the album and one that still enjoys wide radio support today, is an amalgam of many different sonic spices added to the new wave romanticism that Simon, Nick and Roger thrilled people with in the eighties as members of Duran Duran. That goes especially for the saxophone parts courtesy of Andy Mackay, which bring a hefty dose of Roxy Music pomp to the song. The arrogant-sounding narration from the then-popular and provocative Grace Jones adds an even bigger layer of glamour. The chorus slides into your ears with ease, in keeping with the Duran Duran tradition of the golden years, while Rhodes’ wide palette of synth textures is key to conjuring up that New Romantic sound that brought their music armies of listeners.
“Keep Me in the Dark” also shamelessly flirts with art rock elements that wouldn’t embarrass the likes of Japan, especially in the experimentation with intricate electronic patterns that carry Le Bon’s vocal, which turns a little paranoid this time. A notch more playful overall, yet just as distinctly melancholic in the chorus, “Goodbye Is Forever” is infused with funk and dance elements. Majestic synth-based ambient curtains flow nicely in the background, pushing the sheer melodrama of this excellent track even higher.
The mysterious “The Flame” is another example of new wave sophistication with dance elements, where a mighty chorus keeps cleverly breaking through to the front via sly percussive wordplay. “Missing” is an enigmatic ballad with laid-back saxophone parts in the background, a kind of lull, if not a prelude to the closing stretch of the album. It’s hard to believe when we’re talking about such all-around quality in the individual tracks, but all of this was only the warm-up before the best song on the album.
After the short instrumental “Rose Arcana”, where ambient-electronic sounds rule, the ultra-romantic masterpiece “The Promise” arrives over an unbelievably tight and juicy fretless bass line, and it’s a first-class example of art rock-ambient perfection. This evergreen gem is so polished in every sonic respect that even a claim as bold as this one can’t be refuted: it’s simply the best track of their career. That holds true even if it had been released under the Duran Duran name. Everything about it, from the first second to the last, is pure perfection, while the ambient balance between the central melody and the experimental touches is so top-notch that even after more than two decades it still floors even the most demanding music gourmets. Up front is a grooving yet delicate fretless bass line that ties together the sprawling ambient curtains and the cunning electronic patterns flowing melancholically in the background. It all peaks in the epic chorus, when Mr. Sting joins Le Bon in the backing vocal harmony. Add to that the weeping tones of Gilmour’s slide guitar, which, with the help of the saxophone, push the stunning romance and melancholy even higher, with a more than obvious Celtic flavor. The end result is one of the best rock songs of all time, which sadly still remains criminally overlooked today. After that peak come two more excellent and completely unique tracks.
The first of them is the Latin-flavored hit “El Diablo”, which plays with world music elements, best evidenced by the mischievous violin and the sweet sound of Andean pipes. Here too the members of Arcadia win you over with a seductive, hypnotic chorus, planted over the Latin flavor of acoustic guitar and Peruvian pipes. This is a lovely example of innovation and one of the first cases of successfully merging pop rock with world music. The closing “Lady Ice”, like “The Promise”, runs over seven minutes and is yet another art rock peak of the album. A long ambient intro built on the metallic-electronic sound of synthesizers gradually morphs into a melancholic, incredibly fragile melody with an inconsolable chorus. The best way to describe this excellent hybrid of art rock and new wave is that it sounds like what you’d get if you locked Duran Duran, Japan and Roxy Music in the same room together.
“So Red the Rose” is a one-of-a-kind specimen of New Romantic polish and a thrilling step up from the usual Duran Duran vocabulary, where new wave and art rock walk hand in hand, but sadly it’s a masterpiece that’s all too often forgotten when the best albums of the eighties come up. On one occasion Simon Le Bon said that Arcadia was the most pompous project he’d ever worked on, which was merely an expression of his distrust in his own abilities, proof of stunted horizons, and one of the main reasons they only put out one album as Arcadia. Either way, this is the best album Duran Duran never made, and it deserves the attention of those who swear more by art rock than by new wave and pop rock. As for a pop rock band today that would release albums teenagers drool over en masse, top the charts at the same time, and in its “spare time” also put out top-notch art rock albums that music gourmets of all generations would lick their lips over, well, that’s something you can only dream of.
Lineup
Simon Le Bon – vocals
Nick Rhodes – keyboards
Roger Taylor – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Sting – vocals
Grace Jones – vocals
David Gilmour – guitar
Carlos Alomar – guitar
Herbie Hancock – keyboards
Andy Mackay – saxophone
Mark Egan – bass guitar
David Van Tieghem – drums and percussion
Rafael DeJesus – drums and percussion
Steve Jordan – drums and percussion
Wendel Jr. – drum programming
Jean-Claude Dubois – harp
Masami Tsuchiya – violin
Pierre Defay – violin
Production
Alex Sadkin and Arcadia
Tracklist
1. Election Day
2. Keep Me in the Dark
3. Goodbye Is Forever
4. The Flame
5. Missing
6. Rose Arcana
7. The Promise
8. El Diablo
9. Lady Ice
