flood

@ drengurinn, I agree with you on that... he is really overexposing himself, and I also find it annoying that to do this he limits himself to producing only one, two, at most three tracks per artist (instead of a whole album), resulting in them sounding too similar to each other. He is doing exactly what Nile Rodgers did twenty years ago (and if he's not careful, he might end up just like the latter)... he should think about working with one singer or one group at a time, more in-depth, so perhaps his productions would become more "distinctive." We'll see what he has done with Madonna's album; maybe it’s his fault that he forced her to keep the best, most original sounds for herself and to give the poor Duran the ones she didn’t like ;D

Well, I didn't buy the CD, so I don't have the credits on hand, but it seems to me that the collaborations are divided like this (correct me if I'm wrong): one track (the single Falling Down) produced by Duran and Justin Timberlake; 3 tracks produced by Timbaland (Skin Divers, Tempted, and Nite Runner; Timberlake also sings in the latter); the rest all produced by Duran and Nate Danja Hills (Timbaland's right-hand man).
So, I honestly don’t hear this heavy vocal intervention by Justin Timberlake except in the chorus of Nite Runner, where his voice and Le Bon’s blend perfectly, and it's almost impossible to distinguish them (an effect that might not be to everyone's taste, of course, tastes are tastes...). However, I do sense a bit of (benevolent) prejudice in the choice of collaborators... these days, Timbaland (disagreeable, I know) is only associated with the glossy pop of MTV, but he's been around for 15 years and is an excellent producer in his genre (and in my opinion, he's the true heir to a certain '80s sound)... I mean, for the previous album, how come no one complained (even before hearing the album like in this case) about the choice of Dallas Austin, another famous American r'n'b producer (Gwen Stefani, Pink, Madonna, Janet Jackson)!?

Come on, you can't make a comparison between Duran and Pink Floyd! Duran were and remain a pop group, and for those who make pop music, there's nothing worse than being stuck to a certain sound, unable to update and modernize their sound, creating music just to "please" the crazy fans. I haven't listened to all of Austronat, but from what I've heard, it seems to me that the songs are nice but too "safe" and a bit flabby in sound... the decent success of that album is only due to the much-publicized reunion with the original five, absent for twenty years. These songs are paradoxically more "courageous" and playful; who cares if they don't find success... as for the choice of Timbaland (present in only 3 tracks, by the way!), I don’t see why there should be any surprise. Aren't they the ones who collaborated multiple times (if I’m not mistaken) with Nile Rodgers in the '80s? He, at that time, was exactly what Timbaland is now, the most sought-after black producer collaborating with everyone, without distinction.

The review is well done, but I don't agree with it. You're basically writing the same things that all the Duran fans, disappointed with the choice of the new producers, have told me about this album... and I'm not even a fan, yet I enjoyed the record. Nothing exceptional, mind you, but it’s smooth, fun, and catchy, and the album's sound seems like an evolution, an update of what was in All She Wants Is. The production by Nate Hills and Timbaland is clever but not entirely forced. You criticize Timberlake but then you praise the very track he produced, the first single, which I think is a bit bland, especially with its rather forced chorus trying to replicate Ordinary World. If Nite Runner, an excellent electro-funky track, had been released as the first single, the album would have fared better on the charts.

I recorded this album (and I might still have it somewhere) on a cassette; I find it better than the previous one, Bad (which has aged rather poorly) in terms of sound, with those viscous, syncopated basslines, but it has the flaw of being too long! The first half of the album flows by pleasantly, but then it starts to become uneven with the insertion of extremely kitschy moments that don't blend well with the rest of the record. Who Is It and In The Closet remain among my favorite tracks of his.

I've always found it a really great album (although I don't particularly like Internationalist) just a tad below Cafè Bleu. But wasn't Homebreakers sung by Talbot!?

Spectacular album!

I have been a fan of Lennox and the Eurythmics for years, but I have to say that I was disappointed with this latest work (I can't give it less than 3 for sentimental reasons). Are the talented musicians she surrounds herself with, people like Glenn Ballard (producer of Morissette, Anastacia, Elisa, P.O.D.)? I wonder what kind of music Lennox has been listening to lately... in the last 15 years, her music (which is scarce, by the way) has remained unchanged, always the same style, the same sounds, interchangeable tracks from one album to another (this latest one is just a beefed-up version of the previous one), and yet at least until Medusa, she had accustomed us to sudden changes in sound from one album to another.
Okay, she remains a good singer-songwriter, elegant with a magnificent voice (the only untouchable thing about this album), but her music is starting to feel "old" and predictably disconcerting... I hope she can "wake up" because she could do soooooo much more.

Well, for me Volta is definitely more beautiful and interesting than Vespertine; the latter, at the time of its release, was a huge disappointment for me (after Selmasongs, I expected a jolt, not so many lullabies... over time I learned to appreciate it more for the atmosphere than for the songs themselves (aside from a couple of stunning tracks)... deep down, though, I still feel it's too sugary and homogeneous. 4 because it's still a good album, but I prefer her in more aggressive and unpredictable outfits.

Oops, I made a mistake, the 5 was for the review, not the album!