Danse Macabre by Duran Duran review: The group’s mad Halloween party is more trick than treat, writes ADRIAN THRILLS

Duran Duran: Danse Macabre (Tape Modern)

Verdict: A monster mash

Rating:

James Blunt: Who We Used To Be (Atlantic)

Verdict: Heartfelt return

Rating:

The last time Duran Duran made an album of cover versions, 1995’s Thank You, it was described by music mag Q as the worst LP of all time.

Even the group admitted that the lamentable record — which ruined songs by Lou Reed, The Temptations and Elvis Costello — was commercial suicide and, unusually for one of their releases, it didn’t even make the Top Ten.

Their latest effort, Danse Macabre, is certainly an upgrade. A Halloween-themed affair, it has a freshness and sense of fun that was missing on Thank You. Furthermore, it’s not solely a covers collection. There are three new numbers dotted among the hits made famous by others and souped-up versions of Duran Duran fan favourites.

The album has its roots in a Halloween concert the band played last year in Las Vegas, where they donned gothic costumes and performed on a stage decorated with skeletons and tombstones. Alongside familiar hits, including Planet Earth and Hungry Like The Wolf, frontman Simon Le Bon sang The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black and Siouxsie And The Banshees’ Spellbound.

Tapping into the theatrical spirit of that show, they made Danse Macabre quickly, with long-term collaborator Joshua Blair producing. Given the Birmingham band’s reputation for silliness and excess, one might have expected them to go for a Yuletide album, so the decision to celebrate the nightmare before Christmas is intriguing.

The last time Duran Duran made an album of cover versions, 1995’s Thank You, it was described by music mag Q as the worst LP of all time

Their latest effort, Danse Macabre, is certainly an upgrade

There are notable cameos. New song Black Moonlight features Nile Rodgers on guitar and the emotional return of former member Andy Taylor. The latter, who first joined the band as a guitarist in 1980, has been receiving treatment for prostate cancer. He also contributes impressively to eerie updates of 1980s deep cuts Night Boat and Secret Oktober 31st.

Of the other new songs, the quirky title track is blighted by some woeful rapping from Le Bon (‘zombie in the bathroom, nuns in the bed… get dirty up on the danse macabre’), but closing track Confession In The Afterlife, with Nick Rhodes’ arty keyboards to the fore and Le Bon singing superbly, is a spooky ballad that fits the Halloween brief perfectly. The covers, while never as wretched as those on Thank You, are still pretty hit and miss. There’s a heavy-handed take on Billie Eilish’s Bury A Friend and a version of The Specials’ Ghost Town. Duran Duran and the latter band both formed in the West Midlands in the late 1970s, with ska pioneers The Specials hailing from Coventry, but any connection between them should have ended there and then.

Duran Duran can pick a great song, though. Maneskin bassist Victoria De Angelis guests on an affectionate makeover of the Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer, and the band pay homage to their clubland roots in covering French producer Cerrone’s 1977 disco hit Supernature. Paint It Black and Spellbound — two of the songs played in Vegas — are energetically reshaped. ‘It’s about a mad Halloween party,’ says Le Bon of an album that’s chilling only in places. Trick or treat? It’s neither fiendishly good nor a horror show.

Considering he’s widely regarded as a one-hit-wonder, James Blunt has done well to keep a high profile nearly two decades after his debut album, Back To Bedlam, sold 11 million on the back of the chart-topping (highly irritating) mega-hit You’re Beautiful.

Without dramatically changing his sound, he’s now on his seventh album and showing no sign of slowing down. Who We Used To Be ticks all the usual boxes. It’s dominated by anguished ballads and mid-tempo tunes adorned by guitar and piano.

Blunt, 49, has just published a bawdy memoir, Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story. He also maintains a waggish social media presence, but says he finds it easiest to express himself in song.

Parts of the memoir, he admits, are fictional. It’s on his records that he bares his soul and he digs deep here, addressing love and grief with disarming directness.

Blunt, 49, has just published a bawdy memoir, Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story

On Saving A Life, he sings of a friend who is battling addiction. On The Girl That Never Was, he details his sorrow at the devastating loss of an unborn child. When he was making Back To Bedlam in California in 2003, Blunt lodged with Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher. They remained close, and Fisher was godmother to his eldest son.

On Dark Thought, Blunt examines his feelings on returning to the gates of her LA home after her death in 2016. ‘I drove up the hill just to say goodbye, but all I found was a For Sale sign,’ he recalls, movingly.

There are moments of levity. On I Won’t Die With You, he chastises an ex-lover for embracing the more boring aspects of adult life (‘kids and bills’) while he’s still out partying, and there’s even a stab at electronic dance on Some Kind Of Beautiful. ‘Here I am, and I feel that rhythm,’ he sings, not all that convincingly it must be said. For those craving the heart-on-sleeve Blunt of old, however, there’s plenty to admire. 

Both albums are out today. James Blunt starts a tour on March 30, 2024, at First Direct Arena, Leeds (ticketmaster.co.uk).

Source: Read Full Article