An excellent hits compilation

These days, the Duran Duran hits compilation that tends to be the most well known is "Greatest." However, late in the eighties, the band released this, their first compilation of hits. Is this bettwe than the more well-known compilation or is it worse? Read on and find out.

PROS:
-If you want all of Duran Duran's big eighties hits, with no nineties filler like Ordinary World, you've come to the right place! EVERYTHING HERE IS FROM THE EIGHTIES, THE BAND'S PRIME.
-In addition to the big hits, there are many underrated masterpieces here, such as the band's first single, Planet Earth.

CONS:
-The compilation focuses too much on the singles and not enough on album tracks. That means Careless Memories, My Own Way, The Chauffeur, and many other excellent album cuts aren't on here.
-No B-sides or rarities! Believe it or not, some of the tracks that fall into this category were among the band's best.
-Why isn't New Moon On Monday on here?

OVERALL:
Overall this compilation is better than Greatest since it doesn't have any filler material. However, Greatest is more readily available, and therefore, it's the compilation I must recommend to the casual fan of Duran Duran.

Dated Collection, Covers 80s Very Well, Terrible Liner Notes

There was a time when Duran Duran was as big a band as any band of the 80s. During the early and mid 80s, the quintet from England were the complete darlings of MTV and Top 40 "Hit Radio". As the late 80s occurred and there was a more of a trend away from synth-pop and more toward hard rock and rap - Duran Duran would start to struggle to find themselves. This collection "Decade" basically is a dated greatest hits collection that was released at the end of the 1980s that chronicles the band during the decade.



The reason why "Decade" is dated is because Duran Duran has still gone on in the 1990s and have released several other albums. The band released "Greatest Hits" in 1998 and that particular collection has every song that "Decade" has, plus some of the major songs from the 1990s. "Decade" still does a decent job at providing a collection of Duran Duran's works from its peak period - the 1980s. In fact, the song that I would have expected to have on this collection, but isn't is "New Moon On Mondays".



Duran Duran would release six albums in the 1980s and there is representation from each of the albums, plus the title song from the James Bond movie "A View To A Kill" (which was their only U.S. #1 period). I normally like to see a greatest hits collection presented in chronological album order. "Decade" comes close, but doesn't do this exactly. For example, "Is There Something I Should Know" is from the self titled "Duran Duran" album, but this follows "Save A Prayer" from the Rio album. I think they may have followed the order when the singles are released, but I'm not really sure. Of the six albums, you do get a view for how Duran Duran evolved as a group - so this is a good thing.



"Planet Earth", "Girls on Film" and "Is there Something I Should Know" come from the debut album "Duran Duran". These are songs when Duran Duran first hit the music scene. At this time they were still somewhat of an underground new-wave group that go a lot of play in the clubs. These songs clearly reflect that.



When the "Rio" album was released, this put Duran Duran mainstream. This was the hey-dey of the early 80s music and clearly the songs from "Rio" represent this well. "Rio" and "Hungry Like th Wolf" were boosted by some creative videos by the band, yet these songs stand very well on their own. Also included from this album is a very powerful ballad called "Save a Prayer". This particular song showed that Duran Duran had depth with their music. All of these songs catered very well to 80s radio and MTV. The third album, "Seven and Ragged Tiger" was basically a solid follow-up to "Rio" and Duran Duran rode the wave very well. "The Union of the Snake" and "The Reflex" represent this album on "Decade". The songs from these two albums were from the synth-pop period of Duran Duran.



Things started to change as the mid 1980s occurred. The band members began to find themselves and this is where the group started to splinter in projects such as the Supergroup Power Station (John and Andy Taylor) and the Duran Duran spinoff Arcadia (with the remaining 3 members Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes, and Roger Taylor). Right before these projects occured, the band released a live album called "Arena". One of the songs on that album was "Wildboys". Perhaps each of the members were starting to find themselves as they started to depart slightly from the formula that had worked. This particular song had some moments of some terrific drumming by Roger Taylor. The band would also do the terrific song for the James Bond movie - "A View To A Kill" (not on a Duran Duran album) which continued along this theme and also had terrific percussions.



As the 80s progressed, Duran Duran and the music scene around them changed. Roger Taylor and guitarist Andy Taylor would leave the band. Meanwhile, the music scene moved away from synth pop. Tears For Fears was a top synth pop band in the 80s and when they released their 1989 "The Seeds of Love" album, they basically reinvented themselves with a more natural sound. Duran Duran did make some adjustments to their formula - but not a reinvention of themselves. On Duran Duran's fifth album, "Notorious" - they do start to move away from synth pop - however it just didn't work. The title song "Notorious" was clearly not on par with the previous work they did during the decade. The other song from "Notorious" is "Skin Trade" deviates further from their traditional early 80s sound and isn't bad. Duran Duran's sixth album "Big Thing" would continue along the same trend started in "Notorious" and "Decade" includes two weak songs - "I Don't Want Your Love" and "All She Wants Is". "All She Wants Is" does incorporate some slight rap elements (although the song isn't a rap). These two songs are pretty weak and as the 80s ended, Duran Duran were no longer the pop darlings. Following "Decade" in the 90s Duran Duran would find some success in reinventing themselves with the "Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)".



The liner notes are terrible - in fact as bad as can be. The song titles are printed in big betters and the credits are very hard to read. There is no credits listed for the band members as well. There are also no lyrics. It would have also been nice to have some sort of writeup for this collection. Yes the content is here with the songs, but you can also get this on the more complete "Greatest Hits" album. This wouldn't be something I recommend unless you can get a good deal on it.

i give it a "3" but it's better than that

ahaha. well, what can you say about duran duran's greatest hits? "rio" is probably the only certified masterpiece, but others, like "girls on film," "hungry like the wolf," "planet earth," and "save a prayer" (also maybe a masterpiece) are fun, too. but really, who are you kidding? just go hunt down _rio_ in a bargain bin somewhere and call it a day.

I lvoe Duran Duran

this is the band that made View To a Kill a good movie. The songs on here are great like girls on film, Rio, and Planet Earth This is one of the best bands of all time

The quintessential 1980s band

In a decade known for novelty acts and one-hit wonders, Duran Duran was the real deal. Other bands from the 1980's may have gone on to bigger and better things (c.f. U2, REM) but no group better captured the zeitgeist of the decade. As such, Duran Duran's first "best of" compilation is aptly named.



As with many "Best Hits" records of the pre-CD era, "Decade" has become marginalized by longer, later releases, and thus consigned to the cutout bin. But there's something pure in "Decade's" approach that the other compilations lack. "Decade" includes most - but not all - of Duran's top hits from 1981-1988. As with all vinyl era comps, there are some regrettable omissions, most notably "New Moon on Monday" (as well as some fortunate omissions, like "Meet 'El Presidente.')



Duran resists the temptation to include the obligatory "previously unreleased" track that every other band uses to push record sales. Unfortunately, that means there's nothing extra here for the hardcore Duranie, who had to wait until "Singles 1981-1985" for such rarities as "Secret Oktober" and "Faster than Light."



It seems every compilation review focuses on what you don't get. What you do get is a solid best-hits compilation, pure and simple. For the diehard Duran fan, it's probably superfluous, unless you're an absolute completist. For the casual Eighties fan, it's essential. And at this bargain basement price, it's a no-brainer.

This is HISTORY

Reading past comment I was laughing very loud.

Although everyone has its own opionion I believe that this compilation is worths the buying.

DD made history. This is not an opionion. This is a FACT. Then you may say if you agree or not and that is correct. We all have opionions. But FACTS are FACTS.

Now, further to that, if you wanna take a junmp into DD history I wuld probably reccomend the laytesta Compilation, that is DURAN DURA GREATEST HITS. It contains all major hits until 2000 (medazzaland cd included).

But htis compilation is nice too: songs from DURAN DURAN, RIO, SEVEN and the RAGGED TIGER. Believe me: they made pop music change. Forward.



Cheers,

Enrico