Duran Duran
Future Past

LA RECENSIONE

On October 22, 2021 – yesterday – Future Past, the 15th studio album by Duran Duran, was released. Is it rock music? Is it pop music? The only possible answer is that it's Duran Duran music! After exactly 40 years of career and over a hundred million albums sold, the name of the Birmingham group has become a musical genre that allows, on the eve of 2022, to listen to beautiful songs through which you can distinctly hear the sound of bass, drums, and guitar, an increasingly rare occurrence in recent times.

I have never appreciated their hyper-productions, and this work does not shy away from this approach, but this time there is less confusion, and the balance that controls all the compositions is tangible. How is it possible that four "grandpas" manage to write and produce an album composed of 12 potential hits? Simple, they entered the studio twice, in 2018 and between 2020 and 2021, and it's as if they composed two albums summarized in one. There's nothing to be done, they are damn clever and have skill and talent to spare because this is an album of the highest level. I read a reputable review stating it as the best of the last 30 years of their discography; listening to it carefully, I find myself agreeing more and more, indeed, to be precise, I think it's their best work since Rio in 1982, which makes it 39 years!

Since the definitive departure of Andy Taylor, the absence of a real guitarist has always been noticeable, not so much live as during the writing phase. So, Graham Coxon, one of the best around and a member of Blur, was hired to participate in the melodic composition of all the tracks; his contribution has been essential both as new blood and as a musician during recording and arrangement. There are other big names present, Giorgio Moroder, Erol Alkan (main producer), Ivorian Doll, Tove Lo, Chai, and Mike Garson (Bowie's pianist).

Soulmate Mark Ronson participated in the writing and production of track 8, Wing, which is one of the most convincing songs of recent years on the global music scene, as well as one of the most beautiful tracks in their entire discography which might become a classic like Save A Prayer and Ordinary World. More Joy is the weakest moment of the entire album, which features strong tracks like Invisible, Anniversary, and All Of You, the latter of which will echo in the ears of early fans like a balm. Give It All Up, Nothing Less, and Hammerhead are other valid and well-constructed tracks. One after another, we find Beautiful Lies and Tonight United, brilliantly projected from the '80s to today, also produced by Giorgio Moroder. Future Past and Falling are moments that bring back to London clubs in the mid-'70s, soaked in smoke and alcohol, with the White Duke seemingly appearing at any moment. Even the three tracks on the Deluxe edition are not mere fillers but beautiful and complete songs.

A spontaneous question arises: the four artists are so in shape that I can't imagine what would have come out if Ronson had participated more actively; if Wing was born from such synergy, what would the final result have been? Ultimately, a recorded work steeped in great beautiful music composed, played, and arranged by four artists perhaps too overlooked by a certain musical intelligentsia, and this time the saying "it's never too late" cannot be applied, because it might be the last album of Duran Duran.