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Rating:
By 1986, it was clear that the New Romantics music scene was fading. The groups that were part of it had reached, willingly or not, more mature and suitable sounds, but no less refined for that. For Spandau Ballet, it was time for Through The Barricades, for Talk Talk The Colour of Spring. For Duran Duran, Notorious. Along with the next one, the album of maturity indeed.
Nevertheless, Notorious (UK#16, US#12) was ignored or at worst maliciously judged, an easy target for criticism. But that the band's latest work could not enjoy the exemplariness of the debut or of Rio was predictable and perfectly acceptable in hindsight. I rather consider it an attempt to renew and rejuvenate, especially during a difficult time like the one following the '84 tour. Out went Roger and Andy, with previous managers and producers also dropped, Nick, John, and Simon presented themselves as a trio, wisely accompanied by Warren Cuccurullo on guitars in the recording studio and Nile Rodgers in production. The result was an album out of space and time, precious and homogeneous, which made elegance its hallmark. In the overall vision, new lyrics, partially inspired by Hitchcock's filmography, and a resoundingly funky sound made the band's image still desirable and inviting five years after their debut.
When the album was released in November '86, the opening, self-titled track was already a hit single. Despite being one of the last songs recorded, Notorious (UK#7, US#2) aims to be the manifesto of the new musical direction, finding strength in guitar interplays and the pulsing bass of the chorus. Crowning it all, an ambiguous and sly lyric that brings a smile between Simon's verses and the No-No-Notorious; it couldn't have been otherwise, with such a title. American Science moves in the same territory but entrusts the lead to Nick's keyboards and percussion for a gently flowing song. A rarefied atmosphere surrounds an innocent satire of American consumerism. To enliven it, and greatly so, come horn incursions and a nice outburst from Warren (or Andy?). A pity it wasn’t chosen as a single at the time, but its appeal did not go unnoticed by the record company, which commissioned an interesting remix. The third track, Skin Trade (UK#22, US#39) would deserve a review of its own, a lesson in style that manages to combine Le Bon's falsetto, the horn section dominating the scene, keyboard, and bass in great form and lyrics about the commodification of the human body. It is all enriched by a couple of impressive instrumental breaks, where the track progressively welcomes other instruments until the final crescendo with Simon's voice and choruses alternating the chorus lines. According to the band, Skin Trade is still the pride of the album, if not their career. Yet, launched as the second single, it was then misunderstood. Let's say its overly libertine cover didn’t help. A Matter of Feeling keeps the album's quality high with a soft and delicate ballad, with very light keyboards and guitars caressing the love verses. The song clearly harks back to Save a Prayer, but making such a comparison would be inappropriate; they share the same blood but the ancestor is nevertheless of a completely different caliber. Closing the first side of the vinyl, we find Hold Me, a track that bridges to the old pop-rock Duran Duran. Aside from a curious musical interlude, it has little extraordinary, even Simon's singing struggles to take off here. While still pleasantly listenable, it thus represents the first drop in tone. Vertigo (Do The Demolition) already foretells with the title a squared and hypnotic progression, hammering if you like, with a nice guitar and keyboard work marking the song’s course. Where the previous track lacked power, here the voice remains at remarkable levels, alternating pressing verses with "angelic" choruses. The seventh track So Misled brings back the trumpets to color the scene in a number inspired by the '60s Soul. The track flows pleasantly and has a good refrain, but listening to the guitars one gets the impression it’s an (avoidable) attempt to reproduce the formula of the title track, without as much luck. Meet El Presidente (UK#24, US#70) looks to the same years, but instead recalls funk, in a track with a danceable soul. Overall, the alchemy works and draws a compelling and openly "black" rhythm, lovely precisely because unusual for Duran Duran. The disengaged lyrics and catchy melody made it the third and last single released, nothing exceptional but still a tasty little song. The subsequent Winter Marches On is the only disappointment on the record. A mystery, truly, why they included it, when it wouldn’t have looked out of place in an album like So Red The Rose from the parallel Arcadia project. Not that it’s ugly, but it inevitably clashes with its funk sisters, in a winter march with little Notoriousness. We Need You (relegated to the b-side of Skin Trade), a sincere declaration to Andy Taylor, would have deserved its place, being more in line with the album’s sound.Proposition closes side B, with a decidedly rock feel, not displeasing because well-balanced by the usual horns and John’s bass, galvanized by the Power Station experience. This time the bridge isn’t quite as appreciated as the previous ones, indeed it proves somewhat predictable and confusing, but doesn’t compromise what is, overall, an excellent closure.
In conclusion, an album that, unlike many contemporaries, has aged well, and has the merit of still sounding fresh, such that listening to it gives the impression of sipping a good cocktail, catapulted into its elegant atmosphere right from the cover. I have purposely chosen an album I grew up with for my first review, and I hope you’ll appreciate it. But if instead we have managed to bore you, believe me, it wasn’t done on purpose.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Notorious (04:18)
No-no-Notorious. Notorious. Ah. No-no-Notorious
I can't read about it
Burns the skin from your eyes
I'll do fine without it
Here's one you don't compromise
Lies come hard in disguise
They need to fight it out
Not wild about it
Lay your seedy judgements
Who says they're part of our lives?
You own the money
You control the witness
I'll leave you lonely
Don't monkey with my business
You pay the prophets to justify your reasons
I heard your promise, but I don't believe it
That's why I've done it again. No-no-Notorious
Girls will keep the secrets (uh)
So long as boys make a noise
Fools run rings to break up
Something they'll never destroy
Grand Notorious slam (bam)
And who really gives a damn for a flaky bandit?
Don't ask me to bleed about it
I need this blood to survive
You own the money
You control the witness
I'll leave you lonely
Don't monkey with my business
You pay the prophets to justify your reasons
I heard your promise, but I don't believe it
That's why I've done it again.
No-no-Notorious
You own the money
You control the witness
I'll leave you lonely
Don't monkey with my business
You pay the prophets to justify your reasons
I heard your promise, but I don't believe it
You own the money
You control the witness
I'll leave you lonely
Don't monkey with my business
You pay the prophets to justify your reasons
I heard your promise, but I don't believe it
That's why I've done it again. No-no-Notorious
That's why I've done it again. No. No
That's why I've done it again. No-no-Notorious
That's why I've done it again. No-no-Notorious
No-no-Notorious. Yeah
That's why I've done it again. No-no-Notorious
No-no-Notorious. Yeah
That's why I've done it again. No-no-Notorious
No-no-Notorious
02 American Science (04:43)
It's a little bit late now
But there is times you will
Get a little bit out of hand
Making all of a spill
And if we can lay this down
You're going all the way
Take a look and I'll check it out
Cuz I can always find it
Such a lonely Place...Ooooh
This room without your face...Ooooh
Ooooooh...American Science
All night long
She can two-step and sway
Ooooooh...it's such poor manners
Don't keep me waiting
Come lay down beside me
A little megalomania
Becomes you evidently
There ain't a thing you can't acquire
With your cling-wrap plaything
Just look at this state
I crawl around in a daze
Like symptomatic case
Of your soul persuasion
Such a lonely Place...Ooooh
It moves me into place...Ooooh
Ooooooh...American Science
All night long
She can two-step and sway
Ooooooh...it's such poor manners
Don't keep me waiting
Come lay down beside me
Such a lonely Place...Ooooh
It moves me into place...Ooooh
Ooooooh...American Science
All night long
She can two-step and sway
Ooooooh...it's such poor manners
Don't keep me waiting
Come lay down beside me
03 Skin Trade (05:57)
Working on the weekend, baby
She's working all through the night
A jump into the deep end gave her
the evidence she required
Takes five; she's got pearls
Don't fake it when it comes to making money
So she smiles. But that's cruel
If you know what she thinks
If you knew what she was after
Sometimes she wonders,
And she laughs in her frustration
Doctors of the revolution gave us
the medicine we desired
Besides being absolutely painless
It's a question of compromise
They got steel.
So cool to get angry at the weekend
and go back to school
So big deal; it's what rules
When it comes to making money,
Say yes, please; thank you
Sometimes you wonder, and ask yourself the question
Would someone please explain
The reason for this strange behaviour
In exploitation's name
We must be working for the Skin Trade
I know the answer, but I'm asking you the question.
Would someone please explain
The reason for this strange behaviour
In exploitation's name
We must be working for the Skin Trade
06 Vertigo (Do the Demolition) (04:44)
Hey guys, turn it up to get sleazy
Twist it in a vice
Nobody said it was easy
Just use your naked eyes, oh
How to see and how to hide it
How to save it. Well, maybe. Maybe. Maybe
You can take it and eat it, and chew your life supply
Where's the real life in your illusion?
On the dark side your power's in confusion
Do the dance. Do the demolition
And lose the chance to hear when you don't listen
Don't you feel edgy?
Bite your lips and bleed
Conversation is empty
Abandoned in the freeze
Freedom is your condemnation
Free to say well, maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe
You can take it or leave it
Just need a little hit tonight
Where's the real life in your illusion?
On the dark of power in confusion
Do the dance. Do the demolition
Don't lose the chance to hear 'cause you don't listen
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe you can try to believe it
Just need a little help tonight
Where's the real life in your illusion?
On the dark side of power in confusion
Do the dance. Do the demolition
And lose the chance to hear when you don't listen
Where's the real life in your illusion?
On the dark side of power in confusion
Do the dance. Do the demolition
And lose the chance to hear when you don't listen
Repeat for FADE:
Hear it when you listen
You don't hear when you don't listen
07 So Misled (04:03)
I,.......So Misled
In the summer of a London life
"Gold," she said, was a month before I
Realised sold instead
Babe, it's such an awful choice
Don't break my back
Take it easy, now you whipping boy
Don't wanna feel the crack
Trust my head to say lose it
Now my body's got to use it
I should not be So Misled
I should not be So Misled
Saw an advert in a magazine
Safe it said, with the satisfaction
Guaranteed to cool your head
I can't see the solution
To this state of confusion
I should not be So Misled
I should not be So Misled
I should not be So Misled
I should not be So Misled
08 "Meet El Presidente" (04:19)
Yeehh
Yeehh (yehh)... Mmm
Yeehh (yehh)... Mmm
Miss November Tuesday, bend your rubber rules
Take your time but don't take off your high heel shoes
She's in demand at dinner time, (she's in demand)
She's on the factory wall (pin-up on a factory wall)
And when the gentlemen retire (when they retire)
Guess who's in control? (control)
She blew your money on taking a cruise
If that isn't funny well, watch out teacher...
ohh ohh, when the chamber's empty.. she said,
"ohh, ohh, meet el Presidente"
Dress in flimsy clothing,
Use your lipstick line
To cover fear and loathing
With a pink disguise
You never refuse when she lies back -
Put a stripe on the union, and a star on the jack
She's on the case at dinner time (at dinner time)
She's on the evening news (seen her on the evening news)
And if you dare, step out of line (step out of line)
You're going to be abused.
You may not like it, you may not be scared,
But hell has no fury like a young girl's ego
(chorus)
-
(oooh, ooohh , dooo dooo)
(oooh, ooohh , dooo dooo)
(oooh, ooohh , dooo dooo)
You might adopt an attitude, (attitude)
Look on the moral side (lookin' on the moral side)
But if police are after you, (after you)
Where's the best place to hide? (hide)
For this production, they gave her a gun...
Ain't no director, so watch out actors!
(chorus) (chorus)
ohh, ohh, meet el Presidente
ohh, ohh, meet el Presidente
ohh, ohh!
09 Winter Marches On (03:25)
The trade's on
She drains emotion
To drink from her breast of fortune
Dreams have frozen crystal in the morning
Birth time rose
A thorn for coronation
All arise from your rest
We will find enough there to feed you
Soon you'll belong to the blest
Spare us your lives while we need you
Loud is the music the crowd is bringing
Out of my head as the winter marches on
Loud is the music. The sky is ringing
Out of my head as the winter marches on
Loud is the music the crowd is bringing
Out of my head as the winter marches on
Loud is the music. The sky is ringing
Out of my head as the winter marches on
And on
Winter marches on
10 Proposition (04:57)
"Bring back that child," she said.
Spare me the price of freedom.
Cold is my baby's head,
Blown by the wind of reason.
Even the rage behind
Cries out to see
We're still standing
Under the closing edge.
Pay for the crime of feeling.
When all your pride is dead
You must be scared instead.
[CHORUS]
A quiet word is my Proposition.
A promise made of a fierce day.
A body bleeds for this coalition.
Without surrender if you stay.
"Show me my youth," she cried.
Wasted for desolation.
Hold up the sacrifice.
Pull down your institution.
Resting while anger flies.
Question's the same.
Who's deciding after the clouds have lain.
Shame on your generation.
When all your guilt lies dead
You must be scared instead.
[CHORUS]
When all your pain lies dead
You must be scared instead.
[CHORUS (Repeating for FADE. Vocal ad lib.)]
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Other reviews
By Abraham
Notorious is a solid, balanced album well beyond its cheesy interlude.
To the eyes of the writer, Notorious and its successor Big Thing eclipse the entire discography.
