Friday, September 8, 2017

Duran Duran - Astronaut - 2005


I had high hopes when I heard that all five of the guys were getting back together for the first time since 1985.  Ecstatic to be more precise.  Finally, a return to greatness!!!!

Then I heard Sunrise, and I grew a little worried.  Oh, no.  This better not be how they're returning to the scene after all this time.  Some mixes came out, and I grew a little less concerned, but still very cautious.  Then, they released the album.....

As a grand return to the music scene, the album was okay, pretty good, but far from perfect.  It has some really good songs on it, but then also some songs that make you think "what the hell is that?!"  After repeated listens, I grew more comfortable with it, and I settled into the fact that this was the new "them", and to accept it for what it was worth.

Then, over the course of the next year, some great things happened.  The remixes came first, then some b-sides and unreleased tracks.  Lastly, the demos.  It would appear that the best songs recorded during the sessions were left off of the actual album.  Beautiful Colours, Salt In the Rainbow, Silent Icy River...  All favorites of mine.  And there are a lot of fantastic remixes as well.  Really great stuff.

SO, I compiled it into three discs.  All of the mixes are official, all of the demos are top quality.  And, there is also one track in there that does not belong in there, but I included it anyway because this was the era I found it in, and I didn't learn until much later that it didn't belong in the set.  Too bad, so sad, in my collection, that is where it's going to stay.

Anyway, I will be gone ALL next week, but I will schedule out my posts so you won't miss a beat.  Enjoy your weekend!




10 comments:

  1. NICE! I actually thought this was their best since the days of mass hysteria (LOL). Return to form? Maybe, maybe not, but certainly a great bunch of tunes. They're not ALL winners but the good overwhelmingly outweighs the bad. Never hears any of the extra stuff so this is gonna be fun. Thanks, bud...cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for these! It's been a crappy day for me, but this certainly helps bring back the twinkle to my 20/20's!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for this. Was so excited by the return of the fab five and for the most part loved the album. Although i utterly LOATE Bedroom Toys. Thanks for all remixes in one place!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with Richard -- I like most of the tracks on "Astronaut," and there are some that are right up there with the best of Duran Duran's work. But "Bedroom Toys" is just an effing AWFUL song. That's bottom of the barrel for them. Fortunately, this album has a lot of terrific songs to make up for it!

    LOVING the demos. I think "Beautiful Colours" and "Silent Icy River" should have been on the album itself. It's a shame those songs were left off of the final cut. Thank you so much for including them!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The link for the Astronaut-Album + Demos is dead. Can you please post again? Thank you so much in advance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's been updated. I changed the file name a bit, so it couldn't be found again.

      Delete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have to admit that I don't know what 'Bedroom Toys' is about, nor do I get why it's loathed (one reviewer described it as "pull off your own ears awful". Someone enlighten this dimwit, please.

    ReplyDelete