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Posted 20 hours ago

Arena

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I don’t think I even realized back then it was a live album, but I really loved it – great song after great song. Both the Sing Blue Silver documentary and the Arena film were reissued on DVD in 2004; the Arena DVD features The Making of Arena as an extra. They brought a color and vibrancy to the Top 40 with their keyboard textures that had been presaged by David Bowie on Low and Heroes, one that pop radio wasn’t quite ready for in 1977 and 1978 but was well primed for by the 80s.

Duran Duran’s arrangements were always interesting, always thoughtful – it took real planning and even architecture, if you will, to construct the sounds they did. Sure, their keyboard driven backdrops seem less futuristic now than they did in the early 80s, but I say they still have a unique sound all these years later, a kind of Brian Eno-ish approach more compatible with mass consumption than anything Eno himself ever did. Arena deserves a special place among your collection of live albums, be they the 50 greatest ever or not. Once I knew she’d slipped in, I used my legitimate ticket to get in and we joined some really nice people on the lawn who kind enough to let a couple of latecomers crowd in.

So when I see a link for an article on “ The 50 Greatest Live Albums Ever”, do I really have time to read about 50 live albums that may or may not be deserving of the appellation of “greatest ever”? It was released in 1984 and in this version there is the addition of 2 bonuses that maintains the optimum level of the album.

The album was eventually re-issued on 1 June 2004 and included two bonus tracks " Girls on Film" and " Rio". Simon Le Not Bono’s vocals were a lot less stilted and staid on this release compared to his vocals on the studio versions – his vocals have more life, they feel more natural and organic, I can actually hardly stand to hear the studio versions in comparison as far as the vocals go. But now I had a problem – I had a ticket and my daughter didn’t, and I could hardly leave a nine-year-old girl outside the venue to wait for me.And as far as the American charts went, that was mostly that (although I will always maintain that “Electric Barbarella” from Medazzaland may just be their finest song ever, and for a fleeting moment recaptured that early 80s magic in a way no band has since). There’s more kick to the instrumental parts too, and you still have all the assorted sounds that pop in and out (I have no doubt were prerecorded).

Popular though they may have been in their prime, but they were pretty formulaic in the early 80s, and hearing any random Duran Duran song was hardly different than hearing any other. Do I really care that wild boys never lose it, never chose this way, never close your eyes but always shine? By the way I think you’re spot on about Le Bon’s extraordinary ability to pour such intense feeling into a line or phrase.

At 14, i bought this album on cassette in a bin in a French gas station and played it to death, as my Australian family travelled through a frozen European winter in 1984. Sure, some of it was sequencers rather than live musicianship, but all the same they were masters of musical atmosphere in their idiom. Union of the Snake" • " New Moon on Monday" • " The Reflex" • " The Wild Boys" • " A View to a Kill" • " Notorious" • " Skin Trade" • " Meet El Presidente" • " I Don't Want Your Love" • " All She Wants Is" • " Do You Believe in Shame?

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