User:Zmbro/Notorious (Duran Duran album)

Notorious is the fourth studio album by the English new wave band Duran Duran, released on 21 November 1986 through EMI. Produced by the band with Nile Rodgers, the album showcased a new 'funk-pop' musical direction for the band, emphasising bass and brass, as exemplified by the singles "Notorious" and "Skin Trade". The album peaked at number 16 on the UK Albums Chart and at number 12 on the US Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.


 * see Smash Hits 17 December 1986 for an interview on the album's making

Background and recording
After their extensive 1984 world tour, Duran Duran went on hiatus and split into two different side projects, Arcadia and the Power Station. When they reconvened in 1986 to record a new studio album with Nile Rodgers the band faced several problems and conflicts.


 * Drummer Roger Taylor, suffering from exhaustion and burnout, retired from music
 * In Roger's absence, the band hired drummer Steve Ferrone of the Average White Band and Scritti Politti.


 * band members fired their managers, Paul and Michael Berrow, following years of tensions in relation to royalty rates and management disputes; decided to manage themselves


 * band mostly remained separate at the start of 1986; Rhodes and Andy briefly worked on three new tracks at a studio in Los Angeles at the end of January; Rhodes joined John without Andy three months later at Davout Studios in Paris to work on further ideas
 * the band lacked direction for the new album at first, only wanting to explore funk
 * John wanted a Prince-inspired funk sound


 * the pieces were initially named after Alfred Hitchcock films: Notorious, Vertigo and Rope


 * first studio album since 1983's Seven and the Ragged Tiger
 * brought in Rodgers to help with the funk ideas
 * produced by Nile Rodgers, who had remixed "The Reflex" two years prior; he also filled in on guitar
 * Rodgers, Spinner: "I always describe Duran Duran as my second band after Chic. I think that we were the right pairing at the right time. [...] I think I was the glue that held that together. I used to say to the guys, 'People don't realise how great you are. You're still like this boy band and the girls are still talking about your looks, and the music becomes sort of an added bonus. Now it's time to go in the direction where you can become more like a U2 that's really classic and solid artistically. You gotta build that foundation, and let's take the fans along with us.' And that's what the Notorious album was supposed to do."


 * Abbey Road and AIR Studios in London


 * Rodgers: "They didn't have a drummer or guitarist, no management and the record company had just fired the president. That's the album in a nutshell."
 * Recording continued in Paris with Le Bon, Rhodes and John, working with Rodgers on guitar parts; Rodgers and John partied all the time
 * Attempts by Le Bon and John to bring Andy back into the band failed; he was eventually persuaded by the label to return, contributing to four tracks before leaving for good, releasing a solo album in 1987 called Thunder through MCA Records


 * The remaining three members continued as a trio, recruiting Missing Persons guitarist Warren Cuccurullo


 * guitarist Andy Taylor soon also left the band after taking part in some early recording sessions for the album: he appears on "American Science" and "A Matter of Feeling"
 * weeks went by without knowing if Andy was rejoining or not; he departed without informing the others, and left a legal team to depart for him; he even attempted to stop the band from using the Duran Duran name.
 * the members were occupied with business meetings most of the time and had to be persuaded to record
 * Nevertheless, John said it brought him, Rhodes and Le Bon closer together

Music and lyrics

 * new funk direction
 * Funk-rock (original Rolling Stone review)


 * stylistic similarities to the Power Station on "Vertigo (Do the Demolition)" and "So Misled"
 * Notorious "sounds like a dreamlike retreat from the world rather than a hot-blooded, clattering rock-funk hybrid"


 * "Mr. Le Bon's other major subject -in Meet 'El Presidente'  and So Misled - is the power of lies, particularly lies by sexy women. And in Skin Trade, he wraps his themes together, singing about people working in exploitation's name. It's a question of compromise, he sings."

"Tracks such as "Skin Trade", "Vertigo" and "American Science" displayed a loose funkiness which harked back to the disco/funk sound Rodgers had pioneered with Chic. However, unlike his work with David Bowie and Diana Ross, on which the main artists had a tendency to sound like guest performers on a Nile Rodgers record, Notorious retained Duran Duran's identity, with the results revealing a more balanced collaboration."

"Notorious"
 * displays John and Rodgers' influence on the band, "built around whiplash drums, horns and a jagged hard bassline"
 * lyrically disses Andy and the media with lines such as "I need this blood to survive"
 * "might also defy the critics who dismiss Duran Duran; it condemns the press for seedy judgments/ Who says they're part of our lives?"

"American Science"
 * only Duran Duran track to feature Andy and Cuccurullo on guitar
 * sound is cross between Roxy Music and the Cars

"Skin Trade"
 * "a pop-funk track shot through with cynical insights into exploitation and prostitution

"A Matter of Feeling"
 * a minimalist ballad that mixes images of isolation and loneliness

"Vertigo"
 * "may be about a band breaking up: ''Conversation is empty/Abandoned in the freeze/ Freedom is your condemnation/Free to say well maybe maybe maybe maybe. . .'"

"Hold Me", "Vertigo (Do the Demolition)" and "So Misled" are rockier numbers "haunted by introspection and melancholy"

"Meet El Presidente" features Latin instruments; "Winter Marches On" "expresses the icy, frozen soul of the Notorious album"

Release
The album's lead single "Notorious" was released on 20 October 1986 to commercial success, reaching number two in the US and number seven in the UK. It was the first Duran Duran single to be released with a second remix 12-inch single, led off by a remix by the Latin Rascals.


 * Black-and-white cover artwork, with model Christy Turlington on the back cover

Released on 21 November 1986, Notorious peaked at number 16 on the UK Albums Chart and at number 12 on the US Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.
 * Malins: band had lost a majority of their worldwide audience

"Skin Trade" appeared as the second single and fared poorly, reaching number 22 in the UK and number 39 in the US. The single's original artwork of a female buttock was rejected by EMI. Its B-side, a short, piano-centred composition titled "We Need You", was the only song from the Notorious sessions to solely feature John, Rhodes and Le Bon.

Band promoted the album with appearances on The Joan Rivers Talk Show and The Late Show in February 1987 and the Strange Behaviour Tour The tour's lineup featured Ferrone, Cuccurullo, a horn section and two backing singers. The setlists featured songs from Duran Duran's entire career and their respective side projects, such as Arcadia's "Election Day" and the Power Station's "Some Like It Hot". Compared to the Sing Blue Silver Tour three years prior, the new tour featured

"Meet El Presidente", released to coincide with the tour in April 1987, reached number 24 in the UK and number 70 in the US. It was their first single to be released on CD.

John has since been quoted as saying that his disillusion with the charts began when "Skin Trade" failed to reach the UK top 20. "Skin Trade" was a Bowie-flavoured track notable for Le Bon singing in a Prince-like falsetto, as well as featuring the Borneo Horns quite heavily.

The sleeve to the "Skin Trade" single was banned in several countries, as it featured an airbrushed naked female buttock. In the UK and US, the single was released in a plain pink/red sleeve, though the original sleeve was released in Canada and France.

To commemorate the band's 1987 Strange Behaviour Tour, several promotional-only remixes were commissioned for "Skin Trade", including the "Parisian Mix" and the "S.O.S. Dub". These were initially released on a US-only promotional 12-inch single with mixes of "Meet El Presidente" on the flip-side.

"A Matter of Feeling" was released in January 1988 as a promotional single in Brazil. Prior to this it was included on the original soundtrack to the Brazilian telenovela Mandala (1987–1988), produced by Rede Globo.

To drum up further interest in the album, a collection of otherwise unavailable remixes was released on a promotional double 12-inch pack titled Master Mixes (1987) in the US and Hong Kong.

Reception
Malins: some fans found the album's "alienated, soul-weary groove" lacking the impact of the "mad-eyed, hysterical pop" of Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Rolling Stone
 * noted change in direction from art-rock to funk-rock; called it "by far the group's most consistently listenable work" but fails to reach the highs of singles such as "The Reflex"; "In their search for musical maturity, the surviving Durans have lost a good deal of their identity"

People Weekly: B
 * transitional album rather than a fully realised one
 * band has become "the very definition of pop-music froth"
 * album is "more interesting intellectually than musically"

Eleanor Levy, Record Mirror
 * "an album of indiscriminate sounds rather than tunes; band take themselves too seriously; band have "blown it"

William Shaw, Smash Hits
 * band's best album yet; have finally "found themselves"

Billboard
 * "slickest production ever"
 * "high-gloss, danceable package"
 * "strong writing and playing all around"

Jon Pareles, The New York Times
 * noted change in sound from earlier albums, both musically and lyrically; similar to Power Station; arrangements are "crisper and punchier" augmented by horn section; compares to late-1970s Chic
 * likens to contemporary records by Phil Collins, Steve Winwood and Madonna
 * "The music is well-made, with some unexpected harmonic turns, but hardly earthshaking."
 * "Duran Duran's newfound disillusionment may, indeed, mark a step toward maturity - although singing about a tough pinup in Meet 'El Presidente'  isn't that different from singing about an inviting one in Rio, it may seem a lot less enticing to the band's core following of young girls. Yet Duran Duran remains a band fascinated by fashionable surfaces, and for the first half of the 1980's, they managed to catch trends on the upswing. Perhaps Notorious suggests that for the late 1980's, grit and pessimism are coming into style."

Sounds 3/5
 * "the remaining trio have managed to concoct an album that is, despite the presence of Le Bon, tasteful"
 * "best Duran album ever"

Alan Niester, The Globe and Mail
 * "The album's real failing is a lack of strong material. There are simply too many stagnant, mid-tempo tracks here. Only the title cut and the like- minded Vertigo (both splendidly produced dance floor romps) and the infectious pop number Meet El Presidente exhibit real flair."
 * "Notorious isn't a promising rebirth. Perhaps the two Taylors left simply because they realized that this band's collective muse was, if not dead, at best in poor health."

AllMusic: " 1986's Notorious has Andy Taylor contributing on only four songs before leaving to start his solo career, but on the strength of the title track's number two placing and "Skin Trade"'s number 39 mark, the album itself peaked at number 12 in the U.S. and number 16 in the U.K. On the whole, only "Notorious" showed any real livelihood, thanks to its modern gleam and the catchy stutter of its chorus. "Skin Trade" is almost as worthy, thanks to its sultry, seductive air and enchanting but complex rhythmic allure. While the writing is somewhat stable on Notorious, Duran Duran's efforts at sounding enigmatic and covert end up being hot and cold. Tracks like "American Science" and "Vertigo" try too hard, while only "Meet el Presidente," a number 24 hit in Britain, sports a rather appealing flow. Beneath Duran Duran's attempts at trying to sound musically devious, mysterious, and slightly seductive, the tracks fail to bear enough weight in order to be effective all the way through. It's easy to see why the band would choose such a route at this point in their career, but moderate doses of pop enthusiasm would have made Notorious a fuller and more enjoyable package. The provocative, nightclub brand of martini-sipping pop that does surface is meritorious to a certain extent, felt mostly in the album's two biggest tracks."

Malins:
 * Ferrone adds a "powerful kick" to the album; the Borneo Horns and backing vocalists provide "some organic warmth throughout"
 * "half the album sounds muted and hollow – not so much starkly beautiful as just missing something"; John commented that his style failed to meld with Ferrone as well as it did with Roger; Rhodes added that Ferrone was not as "original" compared to Roger
 * Le Bon fails at some of the funk-rock moments

"John Taylor felt disillusioned by the Notorious album’s failure, having felt almost certain it would be a hit. “We felt we redefined the sound of the band in a good way,” he says. “We thought the title track and Skin Trade were great songs. When you look back through your albums, even if they all have one great song that goes into your canon, not all of them have something unforgettable. Notorious in particular has done great things for us over the years.""

Reissue
In 2010, EMI released a raft of material surrounding the Notorious reissue consisting of a two-disc set, a deluxe three-disc set, a digital only EP and a digital only live album. The box set also includes remixes, live tracks and the Working for the Skin Trade live video (for the first time on DVD).

Personnel
Adapted from the liner notes and AllMusic:

Duran Duran
 * Simon Le Bon – vocals
 * Nick Rhodes – keyboards
 * John Taylor – bass

Additional musicians
 * Steve Ferrone – drums
 * Andy Taylor – guitar (tracks 2–4, 10)
 * Nile Rodgers – guitar
 * Warren Cuccurullo – guitar
 * Mac Gollehon – horns
 * Jimmy Maelen – percussion
 * The Borneo Horns – horns
 * Curtis King Jr. – backing vocals
 * Brenda White-King – backing vocals
 * Tessa Niles – backing vocals
 * Cindy Mizelle – backing vocals

Technical
 * Daniel Abraham – engineering, mixing
 * Nile Rodgers – production
 * Duran Duran – production
 * Bob Ludwig – mastering

Artwork
 * John Swannell – photography
 * Christy Turlington – cover model
 * Frank Olinsky – design