Duran Duran's Holiday Album!

December 21, 2023 4:47 PM

It's not a Christmas album, but Duran Duran's sudden, surprise, entirely fun album release this year Danse Macabre came out just in time for Halloween. Inspired by an Oct 31 concert they held in 2022, they churned this out out in under a year, with three new songs, several covers, and some reworking of their own songs. The recordings included working with every member of the band official or otherwise, including Andy, Nile, and Warren. The opening track is a remake of a track from their 1981 debut, NIGHTBOAT, which fittingly includes Andy Taylor on guitar.

Next is BLACK MOONLIGHT, a new song which features Nile Rodgers and Andy Taylor, with a video directed by Jonas Åkerlund. Followed by LOVE VOUDOU, a 1993 self-cover which brings in former bandmate Warren Cuccurullo.

Surprisingly, Billie Eilish song BURY A FRIEND gets covered next, with Andy Taylor once again. Followed by another cover with Andy and Nile on guitars, SUPERNATURE, a disco classic with a lot of legs.

An original track comes next, title track DANSE MACABRE, which includes Mr. Hudson and Warren in the mix, and also John Taylor playing some guitar along with bass. The video was directed by Linc Gasking with a lot of AI animation assistance. The B-side for Union Of The Snake, SECRET OKTOBER 31ST is another self-cover dating back to 1983. Andy once again, appropriately, joins them for this track, and also for GHOST TOWN, a 1981 cover from The Specials and a cover of The Rolling Stones' PAINT IT BLACK.

SUPER LONELY FREAK is a mashup between Rick James' Superfreak and DD's own Lonely In Your Nightmare. This is followed by Siouxsie and the Banshees cover SPELLBOUND, that band's debut single from 1981, and then comes PSYCHO KILLER, a cover from Talking Heads, a song dating back to 1974, with Victoria De Angelis coming in for vocals and bass support. Mildly amusing visualizer by Steven Mertens. The album wraps up with CONFESSION IN THE AFTERLIFE, the final original song, once again bringing in Mr. Hudson.

The whole project exudes fun and joy, working at a breakneck speed. Duran Duran - The Making of DANSE MACABRE [15m] has the band telling the story themselves. Easily my favorite holiday album release of 2023.

If you're still with me this far, here's a YouTube playlist of the album, although it's available everywhere you already get your music I'm sure.

posted by hippybear (20 comments total)

So maybe there's still hope for the album of my dreams, The Smiths - "Horrid Little Christmas."
posted by Naberius at 5:37 PM on December 21, 2023 [5 favorites]

I think my new aspirational life goal is Nick's aesthetic in the Black Moonlight video.
posted by mittens at 5:38 PM on December 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Huh, I saw a few people talking about Danse Macabre a month or so ago but assumed it had something to do the The Faint's album, Danse Macabre (short video promo for the album re-release in 2012). Now I know better.

So far I like "Supernature" the best.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:56 PM on December 21, 2023

I guess it's been open season since Spinal Tap released Christmas With The Devil, huh?
posted by evilDoug at 6:40 PM on December 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Black Moonlight is a banger.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:01 PM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

The drums on the OG version of Nightboat make the song...don't get me wrong, the new version is cool, but I still put Nightboat on playlists because of that intro.
posted by Chuffy at 7:08 PM on December 21, 2023 [3 favorites]

Nick says there's a little bit of Arcadia in the spirit of the album but I really wish they would have covered a track. Maybe it was too moody for a party album.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:37 PM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think Nick saying that is Nick saying "this is way more of a synth-centric album than anything DD has done since Arcadia".

And I completely love how Nick is ALL OVER this album! Keyboards front and center on so many tracks, not just adding "shimmer" or whatever.
posted by hippybear at 7:41 PM on December 21, 2023

And because why should YT share all the pertinent things with me before I make a post? So I can share them in the comments I guess!

New Duran Duran Interview . Nick Rhodes and John Kearns chat all things Danse Macabre! [16m] "Nick Rhodes and John Kearns have a chat about Duran Duran's new album 'Danse Macabre' . Plus they talk deep cuts and Arcadia!"
posted by hippybear at 8:14 PM on December 21, 2023

Just because I want this memorialized for eternity: my first concert was Duran Duran in 1984 at the Worcester Centrum.

I wore a heather grey sweatshirt upon which I had placed neon painters tape in the shape of a 7, apparently to lure members of the band (???) to love me?!? (The name of the tour I think was “7 and the ragged tiger )
posted by tristeza at 10:26 PM on December 21, 2023 [8 favorites]

Super Lonely Freak is maybe my second favorite Superfreak mashup behind Neil Cicierega's
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:11 PM on December 21, 2023

tristeza, I saw them in 1985-- the Arena Tour; 7 and the Ragged Tiger was deffo the one you saw, as that album came out in 83! When you saw the show, did they have the neon hotel light and the dark audience for Save a Prayer? That was my favorite part of that show, man.

On topic, I am so excited about this album, but like Chuffy, I do miss the ghost drums on Night Boat. Thank you so much for these posts, hippybear. They always make me so happy!
posted by headspace at 10:10 AM on December 22, 2023

Seven and the Ragged Tiger was their third studio album (Duran Duran and Rio, previously). I bought a copy on cassette tape...I think it was the last tape I bought before I switched to vinyl. The next big thing they did was The Wild Boys, and later, the main song on the Bond film, A View to a Kill. That was, IMO, not a good turning point for the band. Seven and the Ragged Tiger had some popular songs, but mostly it was a terrible follow to their first two records.
posted by Chuffy at 11:23 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

There is a lot to like about this. But Secret October...this version is over-ornamented and removes the eerie, echoing-through-deserted-halls feeling I liked in the original. On the other hand, Ghost Town is one hell of a lot of fun. And that cover of Paint it Black would have been perfect on Lucifer.
posted by rednikki at 12:24 PM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

(Context: I was a gigantic Durannie in the 80s and early 90s.) Seven and the Ragged Tiger had press at the time for nearly being a "breakup album," where members of the band were already tired of each other's shit and were entertaining other projects. Legend has it that these creative tensions led to the Arcadia and Power Station projects a couple years later, letting bandmates get the kinks out of their system after an exhausting tour and live album release. Roger retired for like 15 years after So Red the Rose released and Andy went on to make a a few singles and solo albums and had a featured soundtrack song on a now forgotten gymnastics movie, American Anthem.

Listening to the tracks in the OP, I am pretty impressed by how the band never gave up on their sound. It would have been so easy to background Nick for a more modern sound but they're pretty dedicated to their core musical aesthetic.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 12:34 PM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Listening to the tracks in the OP, I am pretty impressed by how the band never gave up on their sound. It would have been so easy to background Nick for a more modern sound but they're pretty dedicated to their core musical aesthetic.

I'm guessing by your comment you haven't been following the band across the years, but you might want to check out their two albums before this release, Paper Gods from 2015 and Future Past from 2021. They've literally never gone longer than those 6 years between releases since 1981, but I think Paper Gods is particularly strong.
posted by hippybear at 3:16 PM on December 22, 2023

they churned this out out in under a year

I should bloody well hope so. The Beatles began Rubber Soul's sessions on October 12, 1965 - 14 original songs there, by the way - and had the finished album on sale in the first week of December. The Clash began sessions for London Calling - 17 original tracks and three covers - in August 1979 and had it on sale in time for Christmas.
posted by Paul Slade at 4:59 AM on December 23, 2023

And how quickly did the Beatles produce albums when all their members were in their 60s?
posted by mittens at 5:55 AM on December 23, 2023

No-one's asking a sixty-something to compete in the Olympics here, just to toddle into the studio and play some music.

Willie Nelson (now 90) has averaged two albums a year since 2020. Not all his own compositions by any means, but then that's not true of the Duran Duran offering either. Muddy Waters, then 63, signed with Blue Sky in October 1976, recorded the magnificent Hard Again album (including eight of his own songs) for them in just three days, and had the finished record on sale in January 1977.

I've nothing against Duran Duran, and I'm well aware that successful bands (young or old) often take months to complete an album these days - something their predecessors of the 50s, 60s and 70s would have found utterly incomprehensible. With the examples I've given in mind, calling nearly a year "breakneck speed" just doesn't seem justified to me.

I'd also argue that the increased focus produced by a tight deadline - even a self-imposed one - often produces a better album in the end, but that's a more general point and a discussion for another day.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:19 AM on December 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

That is such a better answer than my drive-by snark deserved.
posted by mittens at 9:04 AM on December 24, 2023