The problem with releasing your “best of” when you’re still an active band is, you might still be an active band in another 20 years. Such is the case with eighties popper, Duran Duran. Thing is, they’re still chucking out the odd song still.
I wrote about the other Duran Duran Greatest Hits/Best of compilation, Decade in July last year. Greatest is the addendum to that. Effectively, this is all the songs from the 1998 compilation with the 5 hit songs that followed.
The problem with being a successful band is that no sooner have you released a “Best of” compilation, you run the risk of releasing other hit records that fans feel cheated out of until your next “Best of” compilation.
Decade is Duran Duran’s “Best of” compilation from the CD rush of the early nineties and features all their fabulous songs: Girls on Film, Rio, View to a Kill etc. I managed to get this album from a bargain “5 for £30” offer at the Virgin Megastore in Liverpool, which, when you think of the price of music today, was a bit of a bargain. You don’t tend to see iTunes selling selections of albums in “x for £x” offers. Nor do you see Amazon doing the same with their physical and digital sections.
Still, who pays for music these days?
Club for Heroes – Various ArtistsBack in the early nineties, CD’s started to rise to prominence and with them came an increase in compilations. This is possibly the first compilation I bought rather than made myself using recordings from vinyl or cassette.
The Best of James Bond 30th Anniversary Collection Various Artists
Bit of a cop out this one. Not a single song is by James Bond. It’s all Shirley Bassey, Rita Coolidge and some bloke called John Barry.
Seriously though, this is a nice little pre-Brosnan snapshot of the best theme songs and tunes from the James Bond franchise. A popular quiz I used to run at school and in Birch House was a “Name the Artist” quiz based on the performers of these James Bond themes. Of course, since those days we’ve had a couple of new Bonds. Fortunately the horrid Madonna theme arrived too late for this celebratory compilation. But never the less, the songs on this album do still stir up memories of Bank Holiday Mondays, Christmases and Easters from my childhood. Mostly because there was nothing else on during those times.
Astronaut – Duran Duran
Like a bad penny, Duran Duran resurface from the depths of music history every so often with a couple of good tunes slapped on an album.
Perhaps if I was Simon Le Bon, I would also realise that occasionally you need that little bit of extra cash for things like extensions, new cars or helicopter landing pad and getting together with your mates to chuck out an album now and then will get you that little bit of extra cash.
And good for him. I’m pleased for him. He’s good at what he does, old Mr Le Bon, and every time they’ve resurfaced they’ve brought with them tunes that say “DURAN DURAN” and introduced themselves to whole new audiences.
See. That is how you market and promote your music. Either give all your stuff away (Radiohead/Amanda Palmer) then start charging as you become more and more popular. Or strut about on the stage for a few years, go off radar living on royalties for a bit before resurfacing and capturing a whole new audience a la Duran Duran, Yes or even U2.
Astronaut contains typical Duran Duran fayre to introduce a new generation to their style. Whether it worked I have no idea. It’s certainly catchy but (Reach Up For The) Sunrise is the only hit from it.
Stegzy's Music Project 